Pandemic Encounters: BEING[TOGETHER] IN THE DEEP THIRD SPACE

A Networked Performance Installation by Paul Sermon in collaboration with Randall Packer, Gregory Kuhn & the Third Space Network Pandemic Encounters reflects a collective global response to a pandemic that has turned our reality and social behaviour on its head, where we have retreated to the isolated confines of our homes to communicate via video-chat. But even as we start to live out our new found existence on screens, we are still restrained by web-cam boxes, stacked up like contestants on a TV show. This performance provides a radical alternative to this online video-chat phenomenon, one where we are free to coexist and experience a new sense of togetherness, in what we refer to as the deep third space. In this new work, Paul Sermon performs as a live chroma-key figure from a green-screen installation in his own home in a deep third space audio-visual environment, interacting with 'action-performer' participants from around the world – artists, musicians, dancers, media practitioners and scientists – a collective response to a global pandemic that has triggered an unfolding metamorphosis of the human condition. Action-performers: Annie Abrahams (France), Clarissa Ribeiro (Brazil), Roberta Buiani (Canada), Andrew Denton (New Zealand), Bhavani Esapathi (UK), Tania Fraga (Brazil), Satinder Gill (US), Birgitta Hosea (UK), Charles Lane (US), Ng Wen Lei (Singapore), Marilene Oliver (Canada), Serena Pang (Singapore), Daniel Pinheiro (Portugal), Olga Remneva (Russia), Toni Sant (UK), Rejane Spitz (Brazil), Atau Tanaka (UK).