Staging a Contemporary Hierophany: Strategies of Rhythm and Algorithmic Violence in Δnfang by the Fronte Vacuo Collective

The present paper studies the most recent performances of the Fronte Vacuo collective, which merge ubiquitous digital elements with the performers’ body dimension. Specifically, I will consider the case of △nfang, the first and prototypical piece of the Humane Methods cycle, delving into the algorithm processing and staging. The software determines repetitive sound and light patterns based on the AI underlying learning process. Its real-time evolution continuously redefines the piece’s multimedia content, also influencing human beings’ behaviour. Naked and speechless performers enact obsessive actions aimed to express the software constraints and hegemony. The dramaturgy and overall structure are hence fixed, whereas internal parameters continuously change. Within this framework, I hypothesise that both the algorithm and performers might be conceived as instruments: the former, as built by the authors to autonomously play; the latter, as controlled and irrevocably influenced by the machine. Repetition stands as the fundamental parameter that permeates gestures, bodies, digital artefacts, and symbolic meaning towards a ritual attitude, enacted as an unavoidable as much as sterile practice.