EPFL – Auditorium CO1
A theatrical and digital performance in partnership with the Théâtre de Vidy. Simon Senn, a plastic and video artist from Geneva, purchased the digital copy of a female body online, then embarked on a quest to meet the woman whose body he would go on to inhabit thanks to virtual reality. He takes to the stage to share his uncanny experience.
The show is broadcasted in livestream from the Théâtre de Vidy. An interactive question session takes place at the end of the show for both audiences (in person and remotely) simultaneously.
About Be Arielle F
Once the replica is downloaded, he animates it with sensors, the kind commonly found today: he is “in” a woman’s body, through his 3D glasses.
The experience is moving. Who is this woman? Can he make this digital body do whatever he wants? And doesn’t this virtual form open it up to a new and pleasant sensuality? He manages to find the young woman and begins a dialogue with her that continues today, questioning together this third digital body that exists between the two of them. But he also seeks to meet a psychologist, to question this 'trouble in the genre' that never tires of surprising him – or would he be affected by the now attested Snapchat dysmorphic disorder, this psychic illness that makes him want to transform himself to resemble his online image? He finally contacts a lawyer, to understand what he can legally make this body do – and there again the specialist hesitates, the law not going as fast as reality.
In a theatrical conference that is also a demonstration and a confession, Simon Senn exposes how virtual and real do not oppose each other, and reveals the unexpected entanglement between psychology, gender, image, sensuality, technology and law.
© Elisa Larvego
© Elisa Larvego
© Mathilda Olmi
