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The Eye
A short 'opera' for an eye choreography to be performed holding a small mirror
The Eye is a short 'opera' for an eye choreography to be performed holding a small mirror. Silvia Mercuriali, in collaboration with Dominic Ffytche, Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, recorded the brain oscillations generated by the movement of the eyes during an eye test. The pattern of these waves was used to compose the score accompanying the eye choreography, translating brain activity into music. For the show you need: A phone. A pair of headphones. A small mirror, if you don't have one stand or sit in front of a mirror. Being in a room with a light bulb on. Do not stare directly into the sun. Written and directed by Silvia Mercuriali with Silvia Mercuriali and Paul Watts original music by Tommaso Perego The Eye was commissioned as part of a series of Podcasts on different parts of the human body by Wellcome Trust, co-produced by Fuel Theater and Roundhouse London in association with The Guardian RUNNING TIME: 12 minutes
Audience Role
Participants engage in a guided eye choreography, following audio prompts to perform movements while observing themselves in a mirror.
Ages: 13 +
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Years on EI
About Silvia Mercuriali
Silvia Mercuriali has been working in theatre since 1998, creating events, site-specific installation, experimental theatre shows and immersive performances. Since 2007 she has been focusing on developing the strategy of Autoteatro which she pioneered with Ant Hampton for the show Etiquette. This strategy explores a new kind of performance whereby audience members perform the piece themselves, usually for each other. Participants are given instruction via audio, visual cues or text for what to do or say. By simply following these instructions an event begins to unfold. Audience members relinquish the responsibility for their action abandoning themselves to pre-recorded instructions. The roles which identify the experience of going to the theatre are subverted. The actor doesn't know more then the audience anymore; the distinction between audience and performer is totally obliterated and the fourth wall disappears as the world of the fictional experience and the real experience coexist in the same space. Silvia has experimented with this new strategy applying it, stretching it and moulding it to different technologies and in different contexts constantly inviting audiences to question what is real and what is not. In September 2020 with Giusi Di Gesaro and Michele Panegrossi Silvia Mercuriali launched the app Mercurious NET - National Ear Theatre: a sound-based interactive theatre App turning the everyday world into a stage. Directly from your own phone wherever you are, you have access to Silvia Mercuriali unique Autoteatro shows. Whether set in a public space or from the comfort of your own home, your surroundings become the backdrop of a fantastical parallel reality transforming the everyday into a new poetic world.