Still Walking
multimedia performance
Through the lens of performance, Still Walking brings algorithmic structures and digital enclosures into a live, physical space. Set within an artificial wellness center, the piece stages a system of perpetual motion where performers embody the repetition and control embedded in digital culture. A fusion of live electronic music, video, and choreographed movement, the work unfolds in a hypnotic rhythm, reflecting on the influence of automated systems on human agency. The performance has also been adapted into a participatory live-streaming format.
Still Walking is a live performance that brings to life the speculative worlds explored in Ambulacri, a modular video and multimedia project investigating algorithm-driven social dynamics and digital enclosures. Expanding these themes into physical space, the performance explores patterns of control, repetition, and agency through movement, sound, and visual composition. Within a choreographed system of perpetual motion, performers embody the mechanisms that shape contemporary digital culture. The project is developed by BOTH Industries, a transdisciplinary art association based in Bern, Switzerland, which I co-founded and direct. Bringing together artists and designers from diverse disciplines, the association explores the intersections of visual arts, moving image, performance, sound, new media, and spatial design. Our research focuses on the evolving tensions between the physical and digital worlds, reflecting on their impact on contemporary society through speculative and aesthetic experiences.
Set within a minimalist, installative environment, the performance integrates body movement, video, and live electronic music into a looping dramaturgy. It offers audiences a glimpse into the working methods developed in the green screen studio during Ambulacri's production, translating its digital worlds into physical space. The scenography evokes an uncanny, artificial wellness center, where treadmills and tanning beds form the core of the stage. Two performers alternate on the treadmills, shifting between different characters from the video works. The sonic landscape blends ominous beats, earworm melodies, and vocal fragments with sound cues, metronomes, and instructional voice messages—elements originally used as acoustic guidance systems during filming.
With the artistic residency program Residenze Digitali 2022, the project expanded into the online realm with Still Walking on Air, an experimental performative prototype designed for live streaming platforms. Adapting the aleatory compositional methods used in Ambulacri’s video production, this version involved audiences in shaping the performance by influencing key parameters in real time. Incorporating aesthetic languages and performative structures common to online audiovisual content, Still Walking on Air engaged viewers in an unsettling yet playful exploration of repetition, visual patterns, and sonic loops.
Set within a minimalist, installative environment, the performance integrates body movement, video, and live electronic music into a looping dramaturgy. It offers audiences a glimpse into the working methods developed in the green screen studio during Ambulacri's production, translating its digital worlds into physical space. The scenography evokes an uncanny, artificial wellness center, where treadmills and tanning beds form the core of the stage. Two performers alternate on the treadmills, shifting between different characters from the video works. The sonic landscape blends ominous beats, earworm melodies, and vocal fragments with sound cues, metronomes, and instructional voice messages—elements originally used as acoustic guidance systems during filming.
With the artistic residency program Residenze Digitali 2022, the project expanded into the online realm with Still Walking on Air, an experimental performative prototype designed for live streaming platforms. Adapting the aleatory compositional methods used in Ambulacri’s video production, this version involved audiences in shaping the performance by influencing key parameters in real time. Incorporating aesthetic languages and performative structures common to online audiovisual content, Still Walking on Air engaged viewers in an unsettling yet playful exploration of repetition, visual patterns, and sonic loops.
Installative and multimedia performance
22.06. Rhizom Festival, Rote Fabrik, Zurich (CH)
22.06. Soso Space, Bern (CH)
22.10. Open workshop at Villa Manin, Udine (CH)
22.11. Live streaming from Zona K Milano (IT)
23.03. Performance and curated event at Buffet Nord, Bern (CH)
Still Walking has been developed with the kind support of Kultur Stadt Bern, SWISSLOS Kanton Bern, Burgergemeinde Bern, GVB Kulturstiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Bürgi Willert Stiftung, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung, Ruth & Arthur Scherbarth Stiftung, and CSS - Teatro Stabile di Innovazione del Friuli Venezia Giulia.
We are grateful for the hospitality and technical support provided by the residency programs at Dampfzentrale Bern, Dialoghi / Residenze delle arti performative a Villa Manin, Troubleyn Laboratorium, and Residenze Digitali in partnership with Zona K Milano.
22.06. Rhizom Festival, Rote Fabrik, Zurich (CH)
22.06. Soso Space, Bern (CH)
22.10. Open workshop at Villa Manin, Udine (CH)
22.11. Live streaming from Zona K Milano (IT)
23.03. Performance and curated event at Buffet Nord, Bern (CH)
Still Walking has been developed with the kind support of Kultur Stadt Bern, SWISSLOS Kanton Bern, Burgergemeinde Bern, GVB Kulturstiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Bürgi Willert Stiftung, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung, Ruth & Arthur Scherbarth Stiftung, and CSS - Teatro Stabile di Innovazione del Friuli Venezia Giulia.
We are grateful for the hospitality and technical support provided by the residency programs at Dampfzentrale Bern, Dialoghi / Residenze delle arti performative a Villa Manin, Troubleyn Laboratorium, and Residenze Digitali in partnership with Zona K Milano.
Credits —
Director and visual artist: Matteo Taramelli ︎ Performance artist: Valentin Markus Oppermann, Stella Elena Höttler ︎ Sound artist: Jacopo Biffi ︎ IT developer: Martin Obrist ︎ Artist assistant: Beniamino Sciabica ︎ Scenography production assistant: Mirko Pegurri, Stéphane Devin ︎ Photo documentation at What the lab Basel: Laurian Ghinitoiu