Author

Description

Sérgio Soares Ferreira Sérgio grew up in Antwerp, Belgium. His background is in lighting and video projection. He was Jean Michel Jarre ́s video director for the Oxygene Tour and for the 850th anniversary of the city of Moscow. Daft punk ́s video director and video set designer for the European and US Daftendirekt Tour. Co-founded Ula.Li, responsible for the interactive sound and light installation “ You bring color “ at Casa da Musica during the “Obra Aberta” Festival. Currently he is an MA candidate in Digital Arts at the UMINHO university, where he focusses on the interaction between the biological world and the digital world. More specifically myrmecology, the study of ants. http://sergioferreira.pt/ Mariana L. Ferreira Actress or theatre operator or performer or creator or singer or in person. Born and raised in Porto, Portugal, she has been engaged in the performing arts since 1999. She has worked professionally for theatre makers as well as developed her own work in the realms of classic theatre, physical theatre, dance, new circus and performance art. Francesco Cerutti Born in 1983 in Turin, Italy. His education comes from the New Circus and Street Theatre world. Since early age has performed as a juggler on stage and in the streets. Met on his way masters as Benjamin Verdonck and The Big Art Group that took him to rework his knowledge and move the accent over to the contemporary aspect of gesture and context of the performance itself. Since 2000 he travels and following the masters steps, questions himself about the distance between performer and spectator, between life and fiction. Mécia Sá Born in Porto during the year that launched the first “ Back to the Future “ movie. Graduated in Design at the Aveiro University (Portugal), she has amplified her knowledge in the production of products, services and interaction systems. Dedicated to the study of Data Visualization, she developed her master thesis at the Fine Arts Faculty of Porto, a study that fits in the realm of Information design; it aims to transform information that is potentially valuable in a new type of configuration, developing conscious awareness for the massive amount of information in which people are permanently immersed.

Efeito Formiga is a contemporary performance project that blurs the lines between gaming and performance. It mixes myrmecology and human culture through the use of computer vision and physical computing systems. Inspired by a fictional relation between ant societies and contemporary culture, this performance is conditioned by a system that observes living ants in real time. Through the study of specific morphologic differences between various ant castes and relating them to the cultural variations in human societies, a modular structure is generated. This modular approach results in a non-linear narrative composed of various modules. The module as-well as the development of the structure is conditioned by the system. This "game" results in various possible performances with varying lengths, where the performers /players are chalenged to improvise on new combinations. The same "story" can be told in a many different ways. During the two previous AZ Labs residences at Espaço do Tempo we’ve developed the core and some possible structures, but the real work has only started for us, we are planning for a longer rehearsal period to explore and practice all the possiblilities we’ve generated with this “recipe”. This is working and in progress... like any ant colony, we’ll work hard for a common goal.