VIRTUAL BRAIN

the victory against the death

17. - 19. february 2022, 20 h / 20. february 2022, 18 h
Orangerie Theater Cologne, Tickets: info[at]orangerie-theater.de

Stream: https://www.spectyou.com/de/video/virtual-brain-die-ueberwindung-des-todes

Podcast auf: https://anchor.fm/wehr51

We are standing at the crossroads of a new step in evolution. It promises to finally realize the dream of overcoming death and become immortal. New scientific findings and technologies, such as intelligent prostheses and brain-computer interfaces, are paving the way for this. But what will it look like? As a posthuman state of a virtual world in conserved brains or a human-machine symbiosis, as James Lovelock describes it in "Novocene"?

Self-optimization has become a lifestyle. Intelligent prostheses and brain-computer interfaces promise new forms of human life, represented by transhumanism, among others. But what does man expect from this self-optimization, where is the limit to manipulation, and what is the inherent in "I"? When is the human being human? Whereas in the past we equated immortality with eternal life, today it seems to be a spare parts store of physical and information-processing components. Non-functioning components are replaced, and a "?...?" is created.

In view of the vulnerability of human beings, this topic is of outstanding importance. The two perspectives - optimization of the body and abstract-mental brain-computer-world - are juxtaposed. The two authors Charlotte Luise Fechner and Götz Leineweber each write one part. Space-filling visualizations at the interface of "virtual-abstract" and "real" world and the emotional guidance through sensitive sound spaces and surround mixing by Sibin Vassilev create new spaces.

with: Asta Nechajute, Miriam Meissner, Anna Möbus, Marc Fischer, Torsten-Peter Schnick, Thomas Krutmann

LIVE: 30. PR september - 2. october 2021, 20 h / 3. october 2021, 18 h / 18. - 20. november 2021, 20 h / 21. november 2021, 18 h / VICTIM OF THE PANDEMIC SITUATION: 25 (PR) - 28 February / 10 - 13 March 2021
ON AIR: 13. May 22 h, 11. March 22 h, Radio 674.fm, VIRTUAL BRAIN - The Ossuarium of the Future from Charlotte Luise Fechner - a radio play
ON STREAM: Link: starts at 20. March 20 h, dringeblieben.de, VIRTUAL BRAIN - The Skin (Götz Leineweber) & The Ossuary or the Future (Charlotte Luise Fechner) - the Film
ON WEB: The Podcast: https://anchor.fm/wehr51 / 10. / 14. / 18. / 22. / 26. / 30. March 2021 //

Fotos: ©Claus Stump / WEHR51

Trailer

von Gina Bensch, Oktober 2021,

Kantinengespräche - Der Podcast

https://anchor.fm/wehr51 //

To accompany VIRTUAL BRAIN, WEHR51 is publishing the six-part podcast KANTINENGESPRÄCHE.

From the ether of the WEHR51 theatre cafeteria, theatre makers Andrea Bleikamp and Rosi Ulrich discuss various topics explored in VIRTUAL BRAIN with media scientist Sandra Nuy:

Is immortality worth striving for?
What is the artificial human being and is it resistant to viruses?
Theatre in the Age of Corona also becomes a topic: How important is physical co-presence of performer and audience?

10. March: part 1 - The artificial Human Being

14. March: part 2 - Immortality | guest: Charlotte Luise Fechner

18. March: part 3 - Body | guest: Ami Inthra

22. March: part 4 - Remembering

26. March: part 5 - Identity | guest: Asta Nechajute

30. March: part 6 - Language

concept / realisation: Charlotte Luise Fechner | concept / moderation: Sandra Nuy | the questioned: Andrea Bleikamp, Rosi Ulrich | guest: Charlotte Luise Fechner, Ami Inthra, Asta Nechajute | Technical support: Jan Kutscher, Tobias Zimmermann

Developed as part of the EXCHANGE Programme, the communication programme of WEHR51.
The Exchange Programme is supported by the RheinEnergie StiftungKultur

Critics

"The approximately one-hour performance at the Orangerie is a binary orgy that is beyond rationality, its fascination hard to resist, even if it causes cracks in the foundation of equilibrium.The texts penned by Charlotte Fechner and Götz Leineweber focus on the subject of physical and mental optimisation, the creation of an effective but also morbid stock of spare parts consisting of limbs, organs, and ones and zeros. In the 360-degree constant bombardment of analogue and digital codes, messages and questions in front of, beside, above and behind the heads of the audience, all structures of classical theatre lose their contours. They merge into an interstellar loop in which transmitter and receiver collapse in the flashing staccato of an extraterrestrial energy, only to reappear in the shock of reanimation. ... The six-person ensemble acts like a machine ... At the same time WEHR51 presents a tailor-made model that prepares to overtake reality. Breathtaking." (Thomas Dahl in Choices 11/2021)

"An exciting, philosophical project and at the same time a theatrical borderline experience that one should definitely get involved with - despite all the excessive demands. ... A serious train accident. People have died. What if clever medics collected the still viable body parts and reassembled them? Would it be a zombie or a new human being that was resurrected? What gender would a female body with a male head be? A strangely creepy thought experiment underlies WEHR51's new evening "Virtual Brain", subtitled "Overcoming Death" and dealing with the limits of being human." (Dorothea Markus in StadtRevue 11/2021)

"While the radio play journey, underpinned by spherical vocals and sometimes cacophonous technical sound, develops an acoustic maelstrom, the attraction of watching the theatre production lies in the dynamics created by the fact that creator and creature meet as antipodes in discourse.Frankenstein's laboratory here is a transparent dome in which Torsten-Peter Schnick as the modern sorcerer and Asta Nechajute as his creation are arguing. Four white-robed figures (Miriam Meissner, Anna Möbus, Marc Fischer and Thomas Krutmann) accompany the action as a chorus from a safe distance. From the "human jam" of a train accident, the Creator has assembled his creature. The creature in turn learns in the course of its awakening that its "I" is made up of the individual parts of an extended family." (Norbert Raffelsiefen in Kölner StadtAnzeiger May 2021)

Produced by WEHR51, in cooperation with Freihandelszone - ensemblenetzwerk köln, Orangerie Theater Cologne
supported by: Kunststiftung NRW, Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the frame of AUTONOM, Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.
Exchange-Programme: RheinEnergie StiftungKultur