Live from the Whitney: Operator's Act III

Presented as part of artport: A History of Internet Art, Act III is a multimedia performance by artist duo Operator (Ania Catherine and Dejha Ti), the third and final act of their work Human Unreadable, which began in 2022 by asking how much of a body survives translation into code and its absorption into technological systems. Structured as theater aware of its own construction, the 80-minute performance moves between computational choreography and spoken narrative.

Drawing on histories of experimental choreography and art and technology, from Merce Cunningham and Analivia Cordeiro to E.A.T., Human Unreadable is a three act structure exploring “the slow recovery of the human.” Operator built a library of dance movements and an algorithmic method for generating choreographic sequences stored on the Ethereum blockchain. In Act I (May 2023), the artists created 400 visual compositions through this generative code and auctioned them as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). Act I obfuscated each underlying choreographic sequence within a generative artwork. Act II (November 2023) allowed collectors to uncover the dance sequences behind their Act I artworks in the form of choreographic scores and record them on the blockchain, making them visible to the public.

In Act III, the first hundred choreographic scores (#2–101) become the raw material for an evening-length multimedia performance. Dancers embody the choreography, bringing the generative art out of the screen into performers. The initial obfuscation resolves through presence: bodies witnessing bodies in the absence of technological mediation. In Act III the work becomes an X-ray of the artists' and audience’s own negotiations between body, ambition, and technology.

Act III will also extend into the exhibition artport: A History of Internet Art through Operator’s Entr’acte, a database artwork newly commissioned for artport and built from the evolving archive of the artists’ process of creating Act III.

Operator’s Act III was commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art.

This program is part of Third Weekends at LACMA, a monthly line-up of free and ticketed programs inspired by our collection and special exhibitions.

Go Metro. The D Line now brings you directly to LACMA (Wilshire/Fairfax Station). Plan your trip at Metro.net.