A History of Characters
Jeffrey Young – violin, electronics, performance
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente – percussion, performance
Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka – contrabass, performance
Arne Glöckner – kinetic installation/machine music
Who am I when I am speaking a foreign language? Do robots actually think in complete sentences? A History of Characters is a micro music theater project about language mixing and mix-ups, human and machine languages, character(s), and intercultural communication. Four international artists have collaboratively created a multimedia musical review that encompasses installation, instrumental theater, and improvisation, irony and sincerity.
Wer bin ich, wenn ich eine fremde Sprache sprechen möchte? Denken Roboter eigentlich in ganzen Sätzen? A History of Characters ist ein Mikro-Musiktheaterprojekt über Sprachver(w)irrung, Menschen- und Maschinensprachen, Schreibblockaden und interkulturelle Kommunikation. Vier internationale Künstler*innen erarbeiten gemeinsam eine musikalisch-mediale Revue, die Medieninstallation, Instrumentaltheater und Improvisation mal ironisch, mal ernsthaft miteinander vereint.
Photos from the performance at Forum Stadtpark by Clara Wildberger
Background
A History of Characters began development in March 2018 in Graz under the title Switching Tongues. The aim was to develop and exchange ideas for creating performative, mixed-media settings, working on the question of how speech loss, (language) transfers, transfers of knowledge and moments of transgression and translation can become tangible in a collectively developed performance. A five-day worklab led to a work-in-progress showing at Atelier LIMA, Graz.
Development of A History of Characters continued throughout 2018 and 2019 via online sessions between the four creators, until September 2019, when Jeffrey Young came to Graz for a two-month Land Steiermark residency. Three more weeks of work at Atelier LIMA culminated in the piece’s premiere performances at Echoraum in Vienna and Forum Stadtpark in Graz.
The collaborators give thanks for generous project support from Land Steiermark – Abt.9 and Stadt Graz / Kultur.