Interview #4: Voices of Artists-Non-Zero-One2 min read

Last weekend, I joined the National Theatre’s workshop hosted by Non-zero-one, which is specialising in an ‘interactive performance’.

Their concept is simple; to guide people into exploring our everyday-life with technology, such as smartphones.

This is a report of observation on the innovative artists, Non-zero-one’s approach and their voice.

Their programs run as a big experiment bringing together various groups of people, artistic creation, specific location and our physical activities.

They have collaborated for a range of educational/cultural occasions, such as the Olympic year’s special workshop on the rooftop of the National Theatre.

This time, National Theatre gave the participants a great chance to learn a way of structuring interactive performance projects from Sarah and John of Non-zero-one.

The difference between their art and the other art forms is of course, involving viewer/audience.

The interactive performance projects have to think how to set up an experiment and involve people.

When they ran the first session aiming to let the participants explore an area of Waterloo, they asked groups of three to get there with smartphones, and sent messages such as: ‘look around and find something that makes you comfortable/feel at peace’ and ‘Then send me a photo of it’. 

By doing this, the participants could look out over the area in a different perspective and encounter something interesting, which we might not pay attention to, in everyday life.

I interviewed members of Non-zero-one to discover the goal of the interactive project that is intended to be artistic.

Actually, is ‘an interactive-performance project’ art?

“Every single workshop, we use various frameworks, but what we always do is ask questions which let the participants delve an interest in the subject. It must be a gift to provide a meaningful time for thinking.”

“We don’t want ‘interactive projects’ to be just ‘surprising event”.

“The whole process of our project might be outside of definition of art.”

“But what we think of being‘artistic’ is to provide people with things that provoke them in someway.”

You always use technology… What is a role of technologies in your works?

“Another of our concepts is looking for the creative possibility of technology.”

“We realised that nowadays, technological companies no longer talk about their functions a lot. In our opinion, this might be because they want their products to be used in various and exciting ways by people.”

“We are passionate to find many of ‘we can do this’ in technologies with people, especially in ‘creative ways’.”

How cool, interactive and performative our lives are… It proves unlimited possibility of art with technology.