KITSCH.god: Immersion & Spirituality

KITSCH.god arrives at the Studio de l’Espace Libre this weekend with an original multidisciplinary show. KITSCH.god is built around three major poles: kitsch, digital technology and spirituality, where video, sound and humanoid costumes intersect. A poetic work of the digital era, KITSCH.god demystifies our relationship with screens and draws on myth, the collective unconscious, mass culture and everything that wraps the digital age in a veil of beauty or ugliness. Creator and director Alex Côté imagined this framework after a creative residency in Spain. He says he is interested in the relationship between human beings and technology, its evolution, and the symbolism of a dramaturgy that exceeds ordinary scale. It is a new planetary paradigm. His friend, actor and engineer Martin Skorek, adapted an interactive technology: a consciousness-state sensor developed by researchers at Princeton University. As the only scientific measure of behaviour, this quantum system, which can be affected by consciousness, makes it possible to create unique moments of conscious scenography in synchronicity with the audience. Concentrated spectators can alter the performance, its duration, projections, stage actions or even the text. This creates very immersive moments in which people are directly connected to the show, he explains. The technology creates synchronicities that, we admit, bring a certain scepticism. A form of spirituality emerges from this digital creation process. The audience reflects on its concrete influence through technology. He also admits that using this programming was anxiety-provoking. Alex Côté surrounded himself with experts in engineering, visual art and sound to create this interactive universe. In his view, there is no doubt that it is still theatre, because the basis of this crossing of disciplinary boundaries is the story being told with the public. He hopes to make this artistic experience travel to different festivals. As a young creator, he says, he wants to put forward multidisciplinary proposals. Many people in the industry are conservative and hate video, for example. Theatre is bubbling with life, and digital technology brings infinite possibilities; we have to meet it. He believes we are in a new era and that development will continue. Performances Friday and Saturday at 4 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the Studio de l’Espacelibre.