The Linear Animal

Description:

The Linear Animal was an interactive performance work that brought together digital media and the nineteenth-century tradition of paper theatre to meditate on themes of home and exile, and the nature of storytelling. The work featured a sweeping arc of interlocking vignettes from Bavaria, to the New World, to the bottom of the sea.

Is it a love story?
Is it Heideggerian ontology?
Or is it just a bunch of cardboard cutouts?

Through live narration, video, and an improvised score, the performance unfolded alongside a miniature train set and track, which served as a circuit for the story’s paper cut-out characters to travel through the dispersed audience and performers—who would sometimes appear as digital avatars on screen in the Grand Luxe Hall. The narrative behind The Linear Animal was one of history, family, adolescence, love, and memories; but most of all it explored different views on the often conflicting and perplexing idea of “home.”

The text of The Linear Animal was written by Andreas Kahre. His collaborators on this project were media artist, composer-performer, and software developer Kenneth Newby; and media and visual artist Aleksandra Dulic. David Garfinkle narrated and Stefan Smulovitz was the musical guest on viola.

Video documentation is available upon request.