The lecture-performance ‘Presence’ by visual artist and theatre maker Royce Ng looks into the emergence of technology in our human conversations, particularly questions of dis/embodiment of relationships in the use of avatars or in video-conferencing. The concept of presence in technology is both the subject matter of the piece and also enacted through the staging of the work.
The piece is performed remotely by Royce, who remains in Hong Kong and and inhabit a performer avatar on stage. First embodied as a face projected on a mask, then as an animated column of vapour, before abstracting itself into psychedelic patterns projected onto a wall of high pressure water, the piece deploys various technologies to test the limits of the audience’s perception of the artist’s presence despite his physical absence.