ME DEA EX_
Brief artist statement/history –
Neora (www.neora.com)
What
if I invite you to join Medea the hacker, in her confrontation with Medea the
Myth, using Euripides and Muller lines in a simulated universe, where Medea is
Palestinian, Jason is Israeli, and Middle East news dictate what they do and
how they act?
What
if I invite you to interact with objects and avatars in the immersive
environment surrounding you, to react and say your word in a plot that its
order of scenes is modular, and each performance may be different in ambience
and in the “debugging” process of trying to recreate reality, to redesign the
myth?
There are two ways to visit the ME DEA EX universe - physically attend the performance and see the live actress interacting with 3D world projected on the walls, or enter via the internet and affect the show, while watching the actress via her webcam. Both ways, you may become part of the chorus (the global village), that sing classic lines using text-to-speech mechanisms, saying: We could have saved the children... We could have done something...
I'm just the DJ of the text
Neora
* * *
This project is my first experience in theatre, and combines my professional and creative doings over the years. The design of Medeum, conceptually and practically, is based on the following accounts:
- As a programmer for several years, I’ve been interested and practicing the poetics of software and developing all kinds of interfaces, from data processing to ai, from textual robots to motion capture applications…
- As a hacker, I’ve done a lot for lobbying “open source” software, coordinated the first Israeli hackers conference, and believe in “low-tech: bottom_up subculture” approach (as presented in my lecture at Aesthetic Computing Academic Workshop in Dagstuhl, and in my lecture about “copyleft” movement in arts, at Kalisher’s art exhibition 2002).
- As a web specialist, since the web was born, I’ve build several web sites, commercial and artistic, among them the Israeli Children's museum, Nahum Gutman Museum, Nano Institute of Tel-Aviv Univ (algorithmic interface), Hafatzim shop, and many more…
- As 3D community oriented worlds specialist, I’ve build applications for the New York Stock exchange, Open University remote learning and more…
- As a writer, my novel “Digital Affair” was published by Hakibutz Hameuchad Publisher 1994, my articles, mostly on cyberculture have been in print on weekly/monthly columns in popular newspapers and professional magazines (Haaretz, Globes, Ha’ir, Masa Acher), as editor I’ve functioned for 3 years editing Zombit magazine (1996) and lately, editor of Galileo Science magazine.
- As a teacher, I’ve been lecturing for the last 6 years in Tel-Aviv University and Beit-Berl school of Arts, several courses in cyberculture, virtual communities, hyperfiction arts, automatic translation, and interactive cinema/TV. All courses follow the low-tech/open-source: bottom_up subculture approach.
- As an artist, my interactive installation was presented in the first Israeli Digital Arts exhibition at Kalisher school of Arts (1994), my “Ayuni” telepresence project at Nablus is documented but have never been screened, my performance “From Stockhauzen to Trance music” was presented at Ort VIP conference (1998).
- As an Israeli citizen, I’m concerned with the situation of living in a state where citizens loose their dignity, and bound to do all I can to change it. I’m not a political person, therefore I rather not demonstrate but cooperate and work together as much as possible with our neighbors.
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Khaula Hadg-Dibsi – Medea
Also recorded sounds of Jason, Creon, Nurse
dramaturg consultant
click here for Hebrew
CV
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Hadassa Shani – dramaturg consultant
Dr. Hadassa Shani is teaching in Tel Aviv University, Faculty of Arts, both in Theatre and Cinema departments.
She’s specializing in comparative theatre research.
Professional
experience in the 70s includes computer acquaintance, and in the 80s film
editing.
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Amir Orian – Director
Click here for Hebrew
CV
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Nimrod Kerrett – bot programmer
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Israel Levin
3D modeling, sensors, interaction mechanisms
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Eldad Lidor – Music/Sound
Click here for Hebrew CV