Danae Theodoridou

Performance and Artistic Research

AN IMAGINARY SYMPOSIUM (2018)

stage version

2018

An Imaginary Symposium is a live experiment on common thinking. Bringing together ancient Greek modes of sociability and artificial intelligence, it attempts to reactivate how we reflect and imagine in common. An algorithm projects absurd sentences on stage, randomly combining words out of books about social imaginaries. Inspired by these sentences, the participants of the symposium decide, each time anew, on the topic of their discussion. Starting point of An Imaginary Symposium is the ancient Greek symposium as the archetypal form of sharing knowledge and creating discourses in the Western world. The symposium used to be a party of some kind, a social gathering where people met to drink, eat and discuss issues of shared concern. Today, the term relates more to an authorization or even commercialization of knowledge. An Imaginary Symposium comments on current uses of the symposium by focusing on the performativity of thought. Shifting the attention from ’innovative’ content to commons and the live practice of thinking, it seeks to create the conditions for conceiving visions of our present and future collectively. An Imaginary Symposium meets its audience in two distinct but nevertheless related forms: a theatre piece (stage version) and an interactive piece performed by all audience members (participatory version). In the stage version, seven female performers (instead of only men, as used to be the case in ancient Greece) experiment with narratives and aesthetics present in order to voice issues of shared concern.

Credits

Concept & creation

Danae Theodoridou

Stage version created with and performed by

Lara Barsacq, Sabine Cmelniski, Ilektra Fragiadaki, Eleni Mylona, Mariela Nestora, Danae Theodoridou, Katerina Zisoudi

Costumes & set design

Maria Panourgia

Light design

Pablo Fontdevila

Dramaturgical advice

Dreyer, Konstantina Georgelou, Betina Panagiotara

Movement advice

Katerina Andreou, Mariela Nestora

Artistic assistance

Rodia Vomvolou

Creation algorithm

Dimitrios Stasinopoulos

Production

Co-production

Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk), Indisciplinarte

With the support of

Flemish community

Supported by

Vooruit, workspacebrussels, BIOS, PACT Zollverein

Vooruit, workspacebrussels, BIOS, PACT Zollverein

Kate Adams, Christina Antonopoulou, Luanda Casella, Leda Dallas, Maria Floratou, Despina Georgosopoulou, Zhana Ivanova, Ifigeneia Makri, Isabella Margara, Alexandra Tatsi, Marilou Vomvolou