"Anacreontic (Performanthropica)", developed during the online residency "Negentropy Nexus: Reimagining Electronic Opera – Art and Technology in the Post-Digital Age", is an experimental meta-project that explores the intersection of performance, art and technology, framed by the aesthetic and conceptual realms of hyperobjects, speculative futures and post-digital aesthetics. It works at the boundary between performative visual art and technology, exploring creative possibilities in the post-digital era. It was presented online on 4 December 2024, at 18:30.
The work is built on Performanthropica, an interactive generative system written entirely in Processing 4, which responds in real time to the performer's gestures, captured by the computer's webcam, and to the keyboard, used to manipulate several functions and parameters. Each performance becomes a singular artistic expression that cannot be reproduced in its exact form: the performer's gestures, movements and spoken words directly shape the visual output, in a continuous dialogue between performer and work.
The project is set within the speculative landscapes of hyperobjects – entities that transcend human understanding and temporal scales – inviting performers and audiences to contemplate the larger, interconnected systems in which we exist. Post-digital aesthetics are central to the work: it acknowledges the saturation of digital technologies, augmented imagery and glitches in contemporary culture, while moving beyond their surface applications towards deeper, more speculative engagements with poetry and self-expression.
By bringing spoken-word performance into an algorithmically generated environment, "Anacreontic (Performanthropica)" proposes new ways of redefining contemporary performance. It challenges conventional notions of fixed composition or scripted narrative, replacing them with a fluid performative space in which art, technology and human presence continually redefine one another, and suggests new modes of expression and interaction in a fast-changing digital and post-digital world.
As a proof of concept for Performanthropica, the author presents "Anacreontic", a performative rendition of the poem of the same name by Robert Herrick, the seventeenth-century English lyric poet and cleric.
I must
Not trust
Here to any;
Bereav'd,
Deceiv'd
By so many:
As one
Undone
By my losses;
Comply
Will I
With my crosses;
Yet still
I will
Not be grieving,
Since thence
And hence
Comes relieving.
But this
Sweet is
In our mourning;
Times bad
And sad
Are a-turning:
And he
Whom we
See dejected,
Next day
We may
See erectedRobert Herrick, Anacreontic (public domain)
Pedro Alves da Veiga was one of the resident artists of the Negentropy Nexus project, curated by Hugo Paquete and organised by Absonus Lab in 2024. The initiative brought together artists exploring entropy, information theory and complex systems in contemporary art practice.
Images
Stills from the work, October and November 2024.
