Programme

15.00 Welcome

Welcome speech at the location of the Dutch contribution, by commissioner Guus Beumer and curators Angela Rui, Marina Otero Verzier and Francien van Westrenen.

15:15 – 15:30 Compression Cradle 
Performance by Lucy McRae

Through a choreography of touch sensations, an affectionate squeezing machine assists in altering the gene expression of oxytocin, a hormone released in the brain, responsible for building trust and pair bonding.

15:30 – 15:42 You Will Not Be
Performance by first year students of the Design Academy Eindhoven, Master in Social Design

You Will Not Be explores the destructive, as well as the restorative and therapeutic capacities of certain technologies promoted as helpful regulators of physical and mental health. This performative research reflects on how narratives of self-optimisation and hyper-productivity shape design practice today.

15:50 – 16:50 Darkness, as a First Act of Creation
Performance by Ramon Amaro, AmazonPrimeQueen (Victoria McKenzie), DeForrest Brown Jr., Jon Davies (Kepla), Jorge Lucero Diaz and Conrad Moriarty-Cole.

The performances, live DJ set, and audio-visual soundscape that compose this collaborative research project propose darkness not as a void or absence but as a type of dark matter with generative and self-actualisation potential.