Marina Abramović presents first ever Mixed Reality performance at Serpentine
18 February 2019
Marina Abramović's latest performance entitled ‘The Life’ will be presented at the Serpentine Galleries in London from 19 – 24 February. The first performance project in the world to use mixed reality technology, Abramovic departs from the premise of previous durational performance works by not being physically present in the space – visitors will instead experience her likeness, engaging with them and making choreographed movements, through a specially developed Mixed Reality headset.Mixed Reality allows users to simultaneously experience elements of augmented reality as well as real-time events in their surrounding environment, in this instance via Magic Leap One lightweight wearable spatial computing goggles. ‘The Life’ continues Abramović's longstanding fascination with the limits of the human body, as well as audience response and interaction, and which the artists sees as the next step in her relationship with technology. She states, “The audience’s participation has increased over time and it will continue to take on a more and more important role until I can take myself out completely… The point is authenticity—getting closer to the audience than any other recording methods have allowed me to before.”
The experience has been produced by Tin Drum, a UK/ US-based technology collective focused on harnessing mixed reality to create location-specific group experiences. Development began on The Life in 2017 and is Tin Drum’s debut exhibition.
Image courtesy Marina Abramović and Tin Drum.
