Are We The One?

A collaborative, performative and relational experience for two people, woven together by a custom digital phone App.  Two walkers, who have never met, simultaneously use a phone App to record a personalised walk around their locality, crafting a series of special moments and surprises for each other. The App then allows participants to continue their two walks, but now directed by what the other person has just created for them. Finally, at the end of the experience they can then choose whether they would like to actually meet in person.

Based loosely on the idea of a date, each participant is initially asked to give a little bit of personal information, and then actually speak volumes about themselves through how they choose to care for their 'date's future experience. After walking in parallel universes, but never far away from each other, both daters can ultimately choose to then meet in person -- if what they have experienced tells them that maybe "We Are The One".

The components of this work are eminently tourable - and fit in a decent sized brief case 15cm x 46cm x 34cm and weighs about 7 kgs. See promotional video here. Please contact keith(at)embodiedmedia.com.

TEAM: Keith Armstrong: Co-director, David Finnigan: Co-director, Steve Berrick: App Programmer, Robert Henderson: Futuring Designer, Arthouse, Melbourne: Producers.

SHOWINGS:
1: version 1: Festival of Live Art (FOLA), 2016, Artshouse, Melbourne, 2-5 Mar & 9-11 Mar 2016
2: version 1: In your Hands, Artshouse, Melbourne, 20-21 May 2017
3: version 1: Vrystaat Kunstefees/Arts Festival/Tsa-Botjhaba, UFS, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 18-22 July 2017
4: version 2: Vrystaat Kunstefees/Arts Festival/Tsa-Botjhaba, UFS, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 18-22 July 2017

PARTNERS: Artshouse, Australia Council For The Arts, Queensland University of Technology, Creative Industries, PVI Collective, Vrystaat Kunstefees/Arts Festival/Tsa-Botjhaba, UFS. This project has been supported by the Digital Theatre Initiative of the Australia Council For the Arts.

WHY?
Are We The One? shines a gentle light upon social relations and shared imaginaries, suggesting that aesthetic, performative engagements can be a powerful means of making sense of our worlds and ourselves.

Our goal is to create an experience that is simple, surprising and provocative, and with the potential of being lovely. We want participants to think first about what their their phone is asking them to do, then about themselves and their preferences, and ultimately about the other unknown person and what they might want or need, and finally to consider the how this relates to the larger world around them.

The work builds upon David and Keith’s practices of building non-didactic participatory arts experiences. Our work encourages creative reflection and action around cultural conditions that frame contested domains - such as climate, ecology, systems and futuring.