Glimmer – Live Collision – Review

If you wanted to dip your toe into the Live Collision Festival, this would be a good place to start. In the window of what was Topshop (6-7 St. Stephen’s Green), a free live dance installation is taking place until Saturday the 30th of April. A word of warning, to get the full impact of piece, you’ll need a smartphone (or other device) along with a set of headphones! They have some headphones on site, but depending on your mobile device, they may not be compatible. The headphones are required to hear the soundtrack to the piece, which streams on their website (which can be found with the QR code on the store window). The soundtrack is the creation of Robbie Kitt and is a series of organic and electronic sounds which immerse you in the world.

The piece is 15 minutes long and involves a single female dancer moving in front of a screen, which shows a series of images. These images vary in nature from organic and plant life to smoke and swirling worlds all the way to the digital age with 3D grids. Is this the evolution of man? The website gives a few clues with talk of an “alternate future-reality” and leaves you with a question: “how do we embrace virtual landscapes and digital lives while holding sacred our beautiful, human idiosyncrasies?”

One of the nicest aspect of the piece was the variety of passers by who stumbled upon the piece and wondered quite what was going on! The location was reminiscent of one of Ireland’s earliest performance artists, the Diceman (Thom McGinty) who often appeared on Grafton street in shop windows and on the street itself. It’s a nice integration of art with the real world around it, as shoppers and people on their way to pubs and restaurants find themselves briefly in another world.

Space:  Off site at 6-7 St. Stephen’s Green
Form:  Live Dance Installation
Duration: 15 mins
Festival Dates: Thurs 28 — Sat 30 April

Credits:
Dancer: Róisín Harten
Composer & Sound Design: Robbie Kitt
Creative Producer: Tilly Taylor
Production Manager: Owen Clarke

In collaboration with Algorithm:
Art Director: Conor Keogh
Production Coordinator: Molly McAvoy
Screen Install: Lewis Byrne
Screen Technician: Fergus O’Hagan
Digital Companion Software Developer: James Blair