In this digital age, rapidly developing technology offers new tools and landscapes for art. This year’s Ferrall Artist-in-Residence, Gabriel Bruno Eng Gonzalez’20, took advantage of this in his creative work during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, using the socially isolated computer screen as a stage. He uses webcams, split screens, and technological difficulties or glitches to give the appearance of the viewer participating and to allow the audience’s attention to wander, involving them in the process of “active editing” during the performance. The sense of isolation present in this work is also essential. In his recent keynote address, Gonzalez discussed how “this work started very queerly,” drawing inspiration from feelings of otherness and working in the margins, as well as artistic expressions of states of identity and being that are not fully defined.
Post-pandemic, Gonzalez has translated this style of choreography into live performances. Some of the elements remain the same, such as repeated phrases of choreography and video loops playing particular sections during the performance. Gonzalez incorporates physical screens in a similar way to the use of multiple “tabs” in his digital work — performers move with green screens and TV monitors to play looping clips or create blind spots. This style demands an active viewing from the audience, as it involves “viewers’ choice and decision making about where to look and how to take in the piece” based on its complex and layered structure. While Gonzalez’s original work with these aesthetics was “meant to be experienced through the screen,” its emergence into live, in-person performance opens opportunities for collaboration, in addition to “existing in some sort of realm between the online and IRL,” as digital aesthetics begin to move off the screen.
The process of collaborative creation is a large part of what Gonzalez is exploring with his work at Beloit this semester. Throughout the week, he is holding open rehearsals for anyone interested in dancing, viewing, or having input on the performance. He creates some of his choreography in collaboration with performers, and all experience levels are welcome. As an alumnus of the college, Gonzalez’s project here will incorporate the aesthetics of old and new Beloit, athletics, and their relationship to performing and the arts. Open rehearsals will be held every weeknight this week at 7:30 p.m. in Hendricks Center Studio 1. The final performance will be at the same time and location on Feb. 6, with additional performances at Chelonia.
Featured image: Beloit College
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