Anima

ANIMA is a theatrical installation utilizing video, sound and puppet animation. Simon Bauer, Simon Krahl and Rike Schuberty explore the dialectics of man and machine, creator and creature, analogue and digital and ultimately humanity's urge to create images of itself.

Man and machine facing each other, recognizing oneself in the other. Man believes. But the machine is not only animated and charged empathically by its creator but also by its beholder. The limits between both are blurred. Maybe the future prospect is frightening but what’s so bad about a robot seal purring in our lab? What motivates us to give inanimate objects a personality? Projecting hopes, dreams and fears on the thing or simply the comforting fact that there is an other? Machines already dominate us, gaining knowledge about us, using acquired data in order to be of better assistance to us. But is this still in balance?

The projection screen is a partition wall that shows or hides action on stage. The audience shall sit separated in the room, being allowed to walk around. The sound is scattered in the space and makes a three-dimensional reception of sounds and voices possible. The performance space itself functions as an animated performer, like a dysfunctional holodeck which alternates between an empty box and an immersive space full of possibilities. Assuming an autonomous will and inherent intelligence, the space turns into a neurotic protagonist which interacts with itself in an internal dialogue, capable of the whole spectrum of human emotions.

Running time: 3h

Performed in German and English with Hungarian and Romanian translation

The spectators can leave the hall or enter after the performance has begun, interraction with the artists is recommended.

Created and performed by Rike Schuberty, Simon Krahl, Simon Bauer

Text: Henning Bochert

Stage and costume design: Susanne Münzner

Puppets: Ulrike Langenbein, Suse Wächter

Production management: Cornelia Winkler

A co-production with Schaubude Berlin