Telepathic Improvisation

Boudry / Lorenz present their film Telepathic Improvisation produced at EMPAC in Spring 2017.

Boudry / Lorenz’s film, Telepathic Improvisation, takes as its starting point the late Rensselaer Professor Pauline Oliveros’ 1974 score of the same name. However, the audience for this filmed performance is not only called upon to telepathically communicate with the performers (as is the case with Oliveros’ original score), but also to communicate with the other elements on stage, from the theatrical lights to a group of autonomous white boxes that glide across the stage.

The film is bookended by two monologues: the Oliveros score, and a 1969 text by German revolutionary Ulrike Meinhof that prescribes resistance in the face of global capitalist oppression. Telepathic Improvisation attempts to disrupt historical narratives surrounding agency and action by elevating the technical, non-human actors to the equal status of their human counterparts.