The Cloud

When transcribed into the electronic domain of Artificial Intelligence, reality continually reconfigures itself beyond recognition. What was once naively perceived as a forensically established testimonial document—an evidence of the real—is now melting down before our eyes, becoming an incomprehensible morphogenetic entity: a paranoid machine, a hyperobject. This process of contemporary technological irradiation initiates a chain reaction of uncontrollable symbolic mutations that uncannily resembles another process that marks a critical point in the unfolding of modernity: the emergence of nuclear energy—viewed both as an apparent threat and an assumed opportunity.

THE CLOUD is composed of divergent vectors of human and non-human agency, biography and history, the factual and the fictional. It is both an investigation into the toxic cloud that the broken reactor at Chernobyl spewed into the air, and an investigation into data residing in ‘The Cloud’ that fuels Artificial Intelligence. What is the singularity of the human body at this improbable yet inevitable convergence point between two clouds? Where do we locate the body’s inherent fragility and its posthuman resilience? Where lies the malignant potential for its inevitable deterioration, and where is the promise of its post-apocalyptic redemption?

Resources

• Arkadi Zaides’ website
• e-tcetera
• Danser Canal Historique
• Chroniques de danse

CREDITS & COLLABORATORS

• Choreography and direction Arkadi Zaides
• Dramaturgy Igor Dobricic
• AI development and sound Axel Chemla–Romeu-Santos
• Cinematography Artur Castro Freire
• Performers Axel Chemla–Romeu-Santos, Misha Demoustier/Roger Sala Reyner, Arkadi Zaides
• Light Jan Mergaert
• Technical direction Etienne Exbrayat — Executive producer laGeste (BE)
• Administration and production Simge Gücük / Institut des Croisements

Co-produced by Montpellier Danse (FR), Charleroi Danse (BE), Maison de la Danse (FR), Mousonturm (DE), CAMPO (BE) Residency support PACT Zollverein (DE), Orbita / Spellbound National Production Center for Dance (IT), Dialoghi / Villa Manin, CSS Teatro stabile di innovazione del Friuli Venezia Giulia (IT) Initial research conducted within the framework of SoundImageCulture (SIC) supported by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and VAF - Vlaams Audiovisueel Fund With the support of TMU New York (USA), The Ministry of Culture of France / Directorate General for Artistic Creation (FR), City of Ghent, Flemish Authorities and the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter measure through Flanders Tax Shelter (BE), A residency program as part of A.R.T. research program at La Comédie de Valence, CDN (FR) International Distribution Something Great