Telepathic Improvisation

Referencing current violent social conditions, Telepathic Improvisation uses humans and non-humans, movement, speech, gesture, music, light, and smoke to interpret composer Pauline Oliveros’s 1974 score of the same title. While the action of the film may appear abstract, it nonetheless references specific moments of leftist protest, queer S&M club life, acts of surveillance, and fantasies of new relations between human and non-human objects in an insterstellar dimension. The audience is called to communicate telepathically with all of the elements on-screen, including performers Marwa Arsanios, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Werner Hirsch, and MPA. Challenging the idea of images as mere depictions of (political) actions, this filmed performance speaks to the productive tension between the fantasy of an action and the action itself.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.