Back in the December/January edition of Dance Australia, we profiled choreographer Antony Hamilton, ahead of the presentation of his work Meeting, created with Alisdair Macindoe, at the Perth International Arts Festival.
Now Hamilton has opened his first work created for a gallery space, Number of the Machine, at Melbourne’s RMIT Gallery. In an age where Artificial Intelligence platforms are making inroads into both white collar and blue collar jobs, and climate issues are impacting on the most vulnerable in our communities as well as the environment, Number of the Machine, explores the complex relationships between humans and technology.
The work invites audiences to watch as, over four continuous hours each day, performers Melanie Lane and Amber McCartney laboriously assemble and disassemble a timber dwelling from one synthetic island to the other.
Combined with an ominous sound design by (((20hz))) that amplifies the rhythmic patterns in the two 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) motion simulators which activate the bodies, the machines exhibit a sentient quality that rivals the human body's rank in the space.
Number of the Machine is performed Monday-Saturday, 12.30-4.30pm and Thursdays 2.30-6.30pm until 10 June.
Head to the RMIT website for more info.