Swim: An Exercise in Remote Intimacy is a stage work that combines elements of performance and Internet technology in order to connect its geographically separated creators, who have joined together in real time via the Internet to form the group Avatar Body Collision. A performer on stage interacts with three other actors (and the audience) with the help of a web cam and a graphic chat programme. In this way, the project examines such issues as the relationship between the body and the machine, the meaning of humanity in the age of "intelligent" machines, and the quality of interpersonal relations in computer-mediated communication. These questions are extremely relevant in an age when we take for granted new informational technologies (and the relationships they offer us), when we can hardly imagine life without mobile phones, and when we don't know the real-world addresses of our e-acquaintances and e-friends.
"swim: An Exercise in Remote Intimacy is a collage of immersive images, splashy flirtations, wet moments and deep encounters between fleshy cyberbodies that delves into the possibilities and problems of intimacy without physical proximity. swim is breath-taking, side-splitting, erotic and chaotic." (A. B. C.)
The authors describe their activities as 'cyberformance'- a unique, Internet-based continuity of performance connecting physically separated actors in real time through the help of Internet technology. The term "avatar" may need explaining: it refers to the computer-based representation of a person in multi-user communication environments. The avatar, usually some graphic symbol that can change at the wish of its owner, becomes a communication vehicle and a bridge toward building relations with other members of the virtual community. But most of all, the avatar reflects its owner's identity, whether real or make-believe.
The cyber-performance swim provides a rare opportunity for confronting the on-stage expression of the avatar and boldly widening one's horizons.
Jaka Železnikar
