Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges

The presented work revolves around a site-specific performance with audiovisual installations that held at the public space of Lazaretta in Syros, Greece, as part of the Eye's Walk Digital Festival themed “Eros.” The Lazaretto is an abandoned stone complex initially used as a quarantine hospital to protect the island's inhabitants from cholera outbreaks and later served as both a prison and a mental asylum.

The aim of this empirical research was to argue through embodied arguments and audiovisual elements about the psychological, social, physical, and emotional facets of incarceration and isolation that took place in the historical site, keeping the historical traces of the trauma open. The word “trauma” in this context is used as a collective memory and experience linked with the local history. The study delves into the intersection of technology and digital culture, viewing it as a key facet of a contemporary historical and cultural context.

The research questions guiding this study were focused on understanding the emotional and physical effects on participants' collective memory tied to the historical identity of the location as a 'prison,' and exploring how these effects can be expressed through interdisciplinary collaboration and creativity in a site-specific performance. We explore the personal and social dialogues in a performing act that are communicated through gestures, kinesthetic expressions, cognitive movements and how the physical morphology of the environment enhanced with audiovisual elements can participate in this cultural narrative. 

The methodology included inquiries about how we can offer designed experiences and artistic re-enactments based on a cultural heritage site. Five dancers explored the contemplating themes of eros and death and create personal and interpersonal kinesthetic interactions, inspired by descriptions of the sanatorium's history, the procedure of health exams, and the path from the port to the patients’ permanent confinement in the Lazaretto. They collaboratively devised a walking performance that took place from the Harbor to the Lazaretto building, including sequences of choreographic and improvised amalgamations based on the architecture of the public space. The performance was accompanied by original electronic music, and three video art installations projected onto Lazaretta's emblematic building. The original musical composition incorporated elements such as clock ticking, bells, footsteps, breathing, and more, intensifying the sense of desperation and confinement. Whispers from the performers and within the musical composition softly echoed the lyrics: "When the body undergoes therapy, unexpected pleasure resides in each breath," excerpted from Petros Stefaneas' poem titled "Therapeutic Breathing." The architectural projection of the digital art videos “Peripheral,” “Reach,” and “Unravel Rois” onto various facades of the Lazaretta building enabled expansive, temporary transformations, offering a platform for large-scale artistic expressions.

This multimedia design seamlessly blending physical and digital components crafted a rich multisensory experience. Through this study, we sought to underscore the significance of embodied arguments in co-creating meaning, by linking participants’ emotions and interactions with the audiovisual installations and the historical context, enriching the narrative within the dynamic performance space. As `embodied arguments’ we define physical forms of embodiment that serve as a kinetic expression of an individual’s ideas or emotions in a specific spatial-temporal moment, influencing how they interact with the world. The interaction between human bodies, modern technologies, and the abandoned stone building, adds layers of depth to the performance, creating a dynamic dialogue between the physicality of the performers, the historical context, and the immersive audiovisual environment.

Additionally, the interactions with residents of Syros and global participants transformed the sensory experience into a record of collective historical consciousness, extending this embodied dialogue and encapsulating the remnants of Lazaretta's deteriorated history. Therefore, as embodied dialogue and co-creation can be considered the exchange of arguments between an individual and other entities (that can be performers and/or audience, human or digital/virtual entities) and with the environment (within the physical space or using audio-visual or virtual or wearable technologies). More research questions were emerged, such us how embodied dialogue complemented by audio-visual stimuli could contribute to collective memory expression (or even trauma therapy) in a group of people with common experiences.

The research suggests that the collective memory connected to specific historical places and approached through body and digital culture strengthens the social consciousness and the self-sense. The described site-specific synthesis demonstrates how these collective memories can be expressed and materialized through movements, embodied arguments, and augmented content like audiovisual installations or other multimodal interfaces, thereby enriching the domains of multimodal argumentation and interdisciplinary creative arts.