Being the doll of one another

"For the contact to be established, for the dialogue to begin, for the exchange to occur, they have to invent a new contact surface, a new skin. This epidermis that makes touch possible is sequentially and then simultaneously materialised by the tent tissue, by technological tools, by the fluxes of images and words. Finally, this skin that both of them seek to touch, this contact, will be neither a covering nor a support, but a construction, or to lend the terminology of D. Anzieu, an "apparatus". The dialogue as well as the images leads the spectator to the ontology of the gesture that exists before contact. Annie Abrahams and Nicolas Frespech focus on the birth itself of this gesture and on the resulting iconography. They propose a new trajectory of understanding contact, inciting the public to reflect upon all the possible interferences on the realisation of gesture. The puppet in this work is incarnated by their own bodies and in their constraint movements offering a contemporary version of the puppet of Heinrich von Kleist , crushing definitely the mythology of the Cyborg in order to return to being". "One the puppet of the other", unpublished article, Cyril Thomas, Art historian, Paris.

"Annie Abrahams et Nicolas Frespech, duo technosensible", Article in French by Annick Rivoire in poptronics, 20 10 2007.

Necessary for the performance :
*2 tents igloo
*4 computers with Flash Player 8, Firefox, minimum System PC/Windows, Processor 1GHz, 512Mo RAM, connections RJ45. (one computer in each tent, two computers for the streaming and video projection)
*internet DSL connexion for the four computers RJ45 (minimum 1M)
*a video projector of good quality connected to a good sound system VGA connected to one of the "regie" computers resolution : 1024x768
*2 webcam
*2 headphones
Not taken care of by the artists 2 computers, internet connexion, video projector, cabling.

A video with English subtitles of the first performance on May 26 th 2007 is available for projection in an exhibition space.

Annie Abrahams was born in 1954 in Hilvarenbeek, the Netherlands. She lives Montpellier, France. She has a doctorat in biology (University of Utrecht) and is a graduate in fine arts (Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten Arnhem). Most of Abrahams's work is featured on her site "Being Human / Etant Humain" www.bram.org : a big interlinked universe that concentrates on the possibilities and limitations of communication. The site, voluntary low tech and not immersive, has been shown in numerous festivals and expositions all over the world. ( Skopje, Mexico City, Tallinn, Seoul, Atlanta, Montreal, Athens, Bourges, Tokyo, Bristol, Seattle, Split, Sophia, Rotterdam, Dakar, Gran Canaria, Paris, Chang Mai, Mantova, Sao Paolo, Amsterdam, New York etc.)
In 2005 she has initiated the provi&testi sessions in Monoquini, Montpellier and she started +++plus+++ editions. In 2007 together with panoplie.org she curated the "Breaking Solitude" web performances. curriculum vitae .pdf

Nicolas Frespech is a French artist born in 1971. He works with the WWWeb since 1996. In his various projects he touches as much on identity and its virtual and mercantile standardization, as on intimacy, the phenomenon of webcams and remote monitoring, the media, gaming and even on fiction. He explores the internet network for its relational and artistic qualities, playing with the paradoxes of the network and carrying out critical micro-creations on the commodification of Internet. curriculum vitae

Clément Charmet born 1981, lives and works in Montpellier, France. He is currently the webdesigner of the french new media webzine panoplie.org since 2004. He is also part of Thirtytwobit, founded in 2003 with Vincent Dorp, a group that exploits computer errors, obsolete hardware and sofware, basic programming, circuit-bending, and, that through a spontaneous and fun approach of technologies, creates live audiovisual performances, audio and video content, software and web objects . His work has been presented, among others, at Fondation Cartier (2005, Paris), Centre Georges Pompidou (Web Flash Festival, 2007, Paris), Castel San'Elmo (BJCEM, 2005, Napoli), I-space ("Under Fire", 2006, Chicago), Tilt Festival (Perpignan, France, 2005), and on websites such as RunMe.org and Rizhome.org. curriculum vitae

L'un la poupée de L'autre. One the puppet of the other. Performance series by Annie Abrahams and Nicolas Frespech. Technics and interface development Clément Charmet. First performance May 26th 14h15, flashfestival, petite salle -1, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Some stills of the webcam video (26 min) of the first performance. If you are interested in showing this video (subtitles in English) please contact Annie Abrahams at a (at) bram (dot) org. I will send it to you. The vidéo has been presented on FreeboxTV 21 07 2007 and in the Cultural Center Saint-Exupéry in Reims during nuitnumérique#5, 20 10 2007. On the scene two igloo tents. Two spaces in the shape of a sphere will shelter the two artists who will devote themselves to a play in which they will be the others living doll. Inside their tents they will be face to face via a system of two webcams. The public will be able to follow the hidden face to face via an interface that permits to project the webcam images of the two artists side by side on the wall behind the tents. As in a virtual world (a video game, Second Life) the artists will give orders to their avatar played by the other. But contrary to what happens in the virtual world, here the alter ego is well alive. It has its own capacities and it can agree or not to give flesh to the projections of the other. In this series of performances Annie Abrahams and Nicolas Frespech comment on the present situation where we tend more and more to live in our own bubble, our own sphere, without need for the other, by forming a couple with our virtual doubles. Each performance can be seen as a gesture that will reveal the play, and the perversities that result from it, between proximity and distance in Internet relations in a rather literal way.
photo 300dpi Sébastien Bourdoiseau www.parazits.com	10 min. video in the middle of the performance. Image by Elisabeth Klimoff. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2294029240432878753
"For the contact to be established, for the dialogue to begin, for the exchange to occur, they have to invent a new contact surface, a new skin. This epidermis that makes touch possible is sequentially and then simultaneously materialised by the tent tissue, by technological tools, by the fluxes of images and words. Finally, this skin that both of them seek to touch, this contact, will be neither a covering nor a support, but a construction, or to lend the terminology of D. Anzieu, an "apparatus". The dialogue as well as the images leads the spectator to the ontology of the gesture that exists before contact. Annie Abrahams and Nicolas Frespech focus on the birth itself of this gesture and on the resulting iconography. They propose a new trajectory of understanding contact, inciting the public to reflect upon all the possible interferences on the realisation of gesture. The puppet in this work is incarnated by their own bodies and in their constraint movements offering a contemporary version of the puppet of Heinrich von Kleist , crushing definitely the mythology of the Cyborg in order to return to being". "One the puppet of the other", unpublished article, Cyril Thomas, Art historian, Paris. "Annie Abrahams et Nicolas Frespech, duo technosensible", Article in French by Annick Rivoire in poptronics, 20 10 2007. Necessary for the performance : 2 tents igloo 4 computers with Flash Player 8, Firefox, minimum System PC/Windows, Processor 1GHz, 512Mo RAM, connections RJ45. (one computer in each tent, two computers for the streaming and video projection) internet DSL connexion for the four computers RJ45 (minimum 1M) a video projector of good quality connected to a good sound system VGA connected to one of the "regie" computers resolution : 1024x768 2 webcam 2 headphones Not taken care of by the artists 2 computers, internet connexion, video projector, cabling. A video with English subtitles of the first performance on May 26 th 2007 is available for projection in an exhibition space. Annie Abrahams was born in 1954 in Hilvarenbeek, the Netherlands. She lives Montpellier, France. She has a doctorat in biology (University of Utrecht) and is a graduate in fine arts (Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten Arnhem). Most of Abrahams's work is featured on her site "Being Human / Etant Humain" www.bram.org : a big interlinked universe that concentrates on the possibilities and limitations of communication. The site, voluntary low tech and not immersive, has been shown in numerous festivals and expositions all over the world. ( Skopje, Mexico City, Tallinn, Seoul, Atlanta, Montreal, Athens, Bourges, Tokyo, Bristol, Seattle, Split, Sophia, Rotterdam, Dakar, Gran Canaria, Paris, Chang Mai, Mantova, Sao Paolo, Amsterdam, New York etc.) In 2005 she has initiated the provi&testi sessions in Monoquini, Montpellier and she started +++plus+++ editions. In 2007 together with panoplie.org she curated the "Breaking Solitude" web performances. curriculum vitae .pdf Nicolas Frespech is a French artist born in 1971. He works with the WWWeb since 1996. In his various projects he touches as much on identity and its virtual and mercantile standardization, as on intimacy, the phenomenon of webcams and remote monitoring, the media, gaming and even on fiction. He explores the internet network for its relational and artistic qualities, playing with the paradoxes of the network and carrying out critical micro-creations on the commodification of Internet. curriculum vitae Clément Charmet born 1981, lives and works in Montpellier, France. He is currently the webdesigner of the french new media webzine panoplie.org since 2004. He is also part of Thirtytwobit, founded in 2003 with Vincent Dorp, a group that exploits computer errors, obsolete hardware and sofware, basic programming, circuit-bending, and, that through a spontaneous and fun approach of technologies, creates live audiovisual performances, audio and video content, software and web objects . His work has been presented, among others, at Fondation Cartier (2005, Paris), Centre Georges Pompidou (Web Flash Festival, 2007, Paris), Castel San'Elmo (BJCEM, 2005, Napoli), I-space ("Under Fire", 2006, Chicago), Tilt Festival (Perpignan, France, 2005), and on websites such as RunMe.org and Rizhome.org. curriculum vitae