work

CURRENT MARINA DESSAU

Building on last year’s research during a residency @BEK (Bergen, NOR _ 2023) Forced Feelback, I currently continue working on translating emotion recognition data into tactile sensation, by detour via sound (working with composer Nikola Jeremic) and the furry jacket. While I’m also building a tactile-only jacket at the moment. What for? To connect distant bodies via a different sensory path. To uncover the language underneath the language when speechlessness returns. You tell me : )

Impressions from the setup in Berlin, as well as the try outs with me being in Bergen sending my emotion recognition data via sound/tactile signals to Luciana Arcuri and Sara Spennemann in Berlin.

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My 2023 endeavor trying to work with the beta version of AIGuided haptic belts remains to be pursued. First attempts sparked a curiosity for more. The amazing tech which AIGuided is working on, was developed for visually impaired people: the AI inside the belt translates visual information from one’s surroundings into tactile patterns which point a person into an obstacle-free direction. For the performance context, I wanted to switch the units of two people wearing the belts in two distant places and have them receive each others visual data via haptic sensation. This is still in the works and I hope to send you exciting updates within a near future.

Luciana Arcuri, Marina Dessau, Sara Spennemann viewpointing the kitchen debate during research session No.8 of OBEs of a Separated Ensemble. Music: Nikola Jeremic

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All current & recent Theater Performance Collective’s works see:

artist collective internil (on Marina’s website) or internil (on the collective’s site)

Copying radical online documentary material in SCHÖPFERWISSEN (2023) @internil / TD Berlin ©Gianmarco Bresadola
Watching the drone uncover code in BLACKOUT (2022) @internil / TD Berlin ©Gianmarco Bresadola
Still from LOCKDOWN (2020) @M.Dessau/A.Vogelgesang / Staatstheater Darmstadt ©M.Dessau
Copying online documentary material in motion capture suit in GOG/MAGOG 1 (2017) ©Nils Bröer
Still from LOCKDOWN (2020) @M.Dessau/A.Vogelgesang / Staatstheater Darmstadt ©M.Dessau

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TEACHING & WORKSHOPS

LEHRAUFTRAG FU Berlin am Institut für Theaterwissenschaft / Praxisseminar:

Codierte Chat-Körper. (Inhalt: s. VVZ SoSe 23 & WiSe 23/24)

Hybride Beziehungen. Eine szenische Untersuchung des Verhältnisses von performenden Körpern zu digitalen Technologien (Inhalt: s. VVZ SoSe 22 & WiSe 2022/23)

Eine szenische Untersuchung des Verhältnisses von performenden Körpern zu digitalen Technologien auf Basis der Viewpoints-Spielweise – (Inhalt: s. VVZ SoSe 21 & WiSe 2021/22)

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VIEWPOINTS TRAINING BERLIN _ since 2015

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RESEARCH & RESIDENCIES

( also see internil )

June 2023. Forced Feelback Residency at BEK (Bergen, NOR)

März/April 2023. Virtual Bodies* (Dessau / Vogelgesang / Wagner) Recherchestipendium am FWT Köln, Fonds Darstellende Künste (*renamed to OBEs of a Separated Ensemble)

Jan/Feb 2021. 3RD skin am TD Berlin (Gefördert vom Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR und Flausen+) – eine künstlerische Recherche zu haptischen Technologien für Performance und Mixed Reality. 

Marina Dessau (internil) baut vibrotaktile Maschinen, kombiniert Ton-Bild-Tast-Sequenzen & untersucht die Wahrnehmung anderer Intelligenzen. Wie setzen Cephalopoden, wie KI’s ihre Welt zusammen? Können wir uns der nicht zu beantwortenden Frage nähern, indem wir unsere Sicht um einen Sinn erweitern?

For 3RD skin Marina Dessau (internil) builds vibrotactile contraptions and combines sound-image-touch sequences in immersive, as well as nonsensical ways. With the help of the built devices, VR/AR and her body, she investigates the perception and subjective experience of other intelligences. How do cephalopods, how do AI-based sensory systems assemble their world? Can we approximate the unanswerable question by adding the sense of touch to our common sensory assumptions about other species?

Dokumentation 3RD skin

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Jan – March 2020 | Palo Alto, CA | Research on Haptic Feedback Device for Arts and Performance Context | Translation von visuellen und auditiven in haptische Informationen

Text excerpt from puntwg.nl:

2018 EMOTIONS FROM AN ALGORITHMIC POINT OF VIEW [Live Performance] is a collaboration between visual artist Coralie Vogelaar choreographer Marjolein Vogels and performer Marina Miller Dessau.

@transmediale Berlin 2018 | @V2 Rotterdam 2018 | @puntWG Amsterdam 2018

Together they explored and trained deconstructed facial expressions according to the Facial Action Coding System, developed by prof. Paul Ekman in 1978. This system forms the basis of contemporary emotion recognition software and shows us a computer way of looking at our emotions.

By combining these collaborative performative experiments with algorithmic compositions and image blending as a method, these studies have resulted in – amongst other – two video installations and a live performance exploring the complexities and unknown expressions of the face. Sound design: De Auditieve Dienst, Arnoud Traa […] “ ( Text from puntwg.nl )

Publication Happy (49%) by Coralie Vogelaar, 368 pages with randomized generated facial expressions analyzed by emotion recognition software, performer Marina Dessau

Video Random String of Emotions by Coralie Vogelaar, performer Marina Dessau

Publication Arts Magazine Metropolis M

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Other Collaborations in the Past:

Furthermore Marina has been working with and/or for Nora Adwan (since 2009), Lars Gressmann (since 2015), annette hollywood (2017), Martin Nachbar, Gabi dan Droste (invitation to Tanzkongress 2016), Nathalie Tafelmacher-Magnat, Alba Sotorra, Dagmar Weiß et al.

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Documentary Film:

Between 2013 and 2017 Marina has been working as a script writer/dramatic adviser on the team of Berlin-based documentary producer Nadja Smith. Together with Nadja (production), in 2016 she was awarded the HBO Europe Development Award for her documentary script ‚The Earth Masters‘ (idea: Alba Sotorra).

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Viewpoints-Training Berlin

ab Sommersemester 2021 _ Lehrauftrag FU-Berlin am Institut für Theaterwissenschaft (Praxis-Seminar Eine szenische Untersuchung des Verhältnisses von performenden Körpern zu digitalen Technologien auf Basis der Viewpoints-Spielweise)

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