Matrix meets the human body

Sakiko Oshima of H. Art Chaos has always been inspired by the predicament of the contemporary body in its social context. Her latest piece, “Night Under The Midnight Sun,” premiered at Setagaya  Public Theatre, takes up the thread of her previous piece, “Artificial Paradise,” in another thrilling physical study of the urban body today. The title suggests the sleeplessness of modern life and is a metaphor for our faltering instinctive powers as the influence of modern technology on the body and human perception grows.

Intrigued by the image of the body in the computerised society, which is duplicated and consumed at astronomical speed, Oshima analyses the circumstances of the human body in the context of modern civilisation. To the joy of the audience, her unique choreographic talent dramatically visualises the saga of the human body trapped in the cyber network and its struggle for restoration in the energetic flow of the dance. The live stage action reflects the plight of the living body threatened by the virtual images of TV and computer graphics. The life-or-death struggle of the human body versus technology is choreographed with live bodies acting the role of virtual bodies, ...