VPN is a technology used to misrepresent digital location. Dissociation is a coping mechanism of emotional detachment from reality. In the contemporary information society it is easy to feel that we are witnessing events happening elsewhere. It is hard not to become emotionally affected, not only for people with migrant backgrounds, but everyone around them. Doomscrolling blends real and virtual worlds. “Human.VPN” is a metaphor for the mismatch between one’s emotional and physical geolocation.
During the performance two dancers interact with a video projection of a digital map on the wall that is operated live. By relating their bodies to it, they create physical, digital and fictional trajectories that are montaged with the audience’s own experiences.
In today’s world, social media often fuels increasing ideological polarization. This performance aims to offer an alternative to othering and segregating. It is a “collective geography self-study”, centering shared geopolitical disorientation and ‘not knowing’ as a form of togetherness.
The performance concludes with a facilitated discussion with the audience.
Marina Orlova (1987) is an independent dance/theatre maker, tech-dramaturg and AI researcher based in Amsterdam. She received first education in sociology in Moscow and in experimental choreography (SNDO) at the Amsterdam Academy of Theatre and Dance.
Marina works with topics of human-AI relationships, mental health, migration and border politics. She creates interdisciplinary performances that combine her background in sociology, curiosity for technology, choreographic methodologies and lived knowledge of marginalized communities.
Marina mediates between engineering logic and performative devices, using technology as metaphor and mirror to societal issues. She works within aesthetics of absurdism, tragicomedy and autofiction.
This project was created in collaboration with:
Concept and directing: Marina Orlova
Performers: Maria Mavridou, Marina Orlova
Live sound design: Arieh Chrem
Collaborators: Valeryia Le, Asya Deinekina
This program is part of The Grey Space’s residency program House Guests in which we facilitate the interaction between a work, the space and the audience. Each House Guest has a week-long mini-residency, culminating in a public event.
This edition of House Guests is supported by the municipality of The Hague.
