Digitalife 2016: Virtual and Real Collide at MACRO Rome
Digitalife 2016 at MACRO Rome (until November 27, 2016) presented four performances exploring the intersection of digital and live art. Pierre Rigal's 'Mobile' featured a performer suspended by wires, meditating and climbing in empty space while fragments of a city hovered. Forced Entertainment offered a marathon of all 36 Shakespeare plays, narrated by a single performer using household objects (salt shakers, Worcester sauce bottles) as characters, eliminating actors and traditional theater. Adrien M. & Claire B.'s 'Cinématique' combined circus, juggling, and interactive video projections, with a couple moving through a liquid digital landscape. Stereoptik by Dark Circus used shadow theater, graphite, and cotton to tell a circus story where everything goes wrong, emphasizing the immateriality of image-making. The festival reflected on how digital tools are transforming theatrical language, moving beyond modernist object-substitution to more radical spatial and communicative subversion.
Key facts
- Digitalife 2016 took place at MACRO – La Pelanda in Rome until November 27, 2016.
- Pierre Rigal's 'Mobile' involved a performer suspended by wires like a puppet or astronaut.
- Forced Entertainment performed a marathon of all 36 Shakespeare plays with a single narrator using household objects.
- Adrien M. & Claire B.'s 'Cinématique' mixed juggling, dance, and interactive video projections.
- Stereoptik by Dark Circus used shadow theater, graphite, and cotton for a circus narrative.
- The festival explored the 'technological marvelous' becoming contemporary form.
- Lorenzo Taiuti, a new media aesthetics expert, authored the article.
- The event was part of the Romaeuropa Festival.
Entities
Artists
- Pierre Rigal
- Forced Entertainment
- Adrien M.
- Claire B.
- Dark Circus
- Lorenzo Taiuti
Institutions
- MACRO – La Pelanda
- Romaeuropa Festival
- Artribune
Locations
- Rome
- Italy
- Piazza Orazio Giustiniani 4