Rooms for transformation
Who are ‘WE’? And what would the world look like if we got rid of the supposed distinctions between humans, animals, plants and things?
BVDS suggests we let go of our focus on the individual and instead practice forming groups in a technological playground. Inspired by the forest, the swarm and the herd, Crowd Simulation Room explores the possibilities for humans to playfully connect with the greater whole, a vast, multitudinous organism. In so called practice space surrounded by other humans, animals, plants and inanimate objects, visitors play ‘The Game of Life’, a simulation where not the survival of the fittest but rather co-existence is key.
Crowd Simulation Room is part of a new series called ‘Rooms for Transformation’, which BVDS will be working on in the coming years. In these rooms for transformation, the makers dream a new world into being together with the audience. They make playful, confusing, light-hearted, confrontational suggestions for a paradigm shift with respect to humankind and its role on this planet. The reality that appears is the one we give attention to. It is from this optimistic principle that BVDS creates spaces to practice this. Because, as humans, we might not be fully human yet. The current form of humankind is not the end of evolution. BVDS reflects on and builds on the question how we, as modern Western people, can and must transform in a way that would benefit us.
Crowd Simulation Room is made possible by the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and Fonds21.
CREDITS
CONCEPT & DIRECTION Suzan Boogaerdt & Bianca van der Schoot
COSTUME Lotte Goos
COMPOSER Wessel Schrik
LIGHT DESIGN Theun Mosk
VIDEO & SCENOGRAPHY Rodrik Biersteker
SET Marjolijn Brouwer
TECHNICS Jaap Schledorn & Wout Panis
PERFORMANCE Tim van Dongen, Sjaid Fonce, Charlotte Gillain & Clara Ottignon
PRODUCTION MANAGER Milou Smit
TECHNICAL PRODUCTION Siemen van der Werf | Ruimtetijd
PRODUCERS Lene Grooten & Marc Meijer
MARKETING Shantih Lalta
COPRODUCTION Theater Rotterdam
MADE POSSIBLE BY Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst & Fonds21
PHOTOS Sanne Peper
CAMPAIGN IMAGE Rodrik Biersteker