Geert Roels ©

"Digit", Performance in the Booktower Ghent (BE) in the architecture of Henry van de Velde .



Geert Roels ©

Digit" 2006 / live performance

"Digit" is a live performance that is also conceived to be presented as a piece of living Art. A writer sits at a table writing a text. Simply by sliding his finger over a blank piece of paper, printed text appears under his finger. The spectators can come very close to the 'writer' and read the text following the movement of the finger. The writer remains absorbed in his task.
The performance is simple but quite disturbing. Nothing appears to come between the thought and the printed words. It seems that there is a shortcut somewhere: there is no visible hardware, no computer, no display, no noise, no projection. The spectator is free to follow a text written and drawn in a natural movement.
"Digit" is located between a cinematographic process and the process of writing. The “magic” of the apparition of a moving image is transcribed into a different cinematic setup. "Digit" enlarges the concept of projection and the concept of a project that operates in interstices between literature and moving image as well as referring to the surrealistic tradition of cutting and rearranging text : "Digit" is a kind of “Soft machine” *.
In opposition to other types of writing where machine interferes, the human movement is free and can print in any direction. The performance interfaces the human process between the thought and printed word.

*ref. William S. Burroughs

Digit has been developed in residency in Berlin with the support of the Conseil Générale de la Moselle in 2004 and in Villa Kujoyama (AFAA) in Kyoto in 2005

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