Can we feel touch when we're made of light

Having moved to The Netherlands 6 months before the corona pandemic started was heartbreaking and a gigantic hurdle I had to jump over. In my mind, I had moved to a place and was enrolled in a school where I could develop my practice in ways that I hadn’t yet thought. After Corona hit and the country went into lockdown I delved into a deep process of questioning who I was as an artist, what I was doing and who I was doing it for.

My breakthrough moment came with a project with the Academie voor Theatre en Dans. We were able to create a fully online concert and I found that enchanting. For this concert I created a piece where audience members were able to write words on Twitch and that would translate into some kind of sound output. All done live. I started thinking about all these audience members scattered through (mainly) the European continent working together and creating their own sound work, within the constrictions I had set.

With this project I started thinking more and more about the implications and possibilities of human relationships, connections and kinship through digital media, be it the internet, networks or computers in a general sense. The body, its inherent identity, its physical limitations and technology became the center points of my artistic explorations.

This work invites the audience to reflect upon their own digital embodiment, especially relevant after more than 2 years of the Corona Pandemic. Technology is so engrained in our everyday lives that it has become inescapable. Our smartphones, computers and tablets have become a sort of external cybernetic extension of our meat bodies. In these times, we are obliged to engage with digital media, be they video calls or zoom meetings, at an unprecedented level and it is extremely relevant to ask ourselves on what levels do we engage with one another through these media. How do we connect with each other? Can we connect fully with one another? Can we even connect with ourselves or are we too distracted by the overwhelming input of, for example, social media?

In this performance two people are eager to engage with one another through a network. To talk with each other, to interact with each other, to feel the softness and warmth of their skin when giving a hug. They are eager to witness each other in a very real way, even though they are separated by a barrier. Is this enough though? Will we ever be able to build a replacement for real human contact which pleases our needs to socialise and witness other people in the realest way possible? Can beams of matter-less light accurately translate our very matter-full bodies?

Over Pedro Latas
Pedro (he/him) is a multimedia artist, composer and sound artist. Born in 1998, Évora, Portugal. He began his music studies in Classical Guitar. In 2016 he enrolled at the Superior School of Music of Lisbon in the Bachelor’s of Music Composition, having João Madureira and Carlos Caires as his main teachers. Upon completion of this Bachelor in 2019, Pedro enrolled in a second Bachelor’s in Music Composition at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, where he has regular classes with Yannis Kyriakides and Mayke Nas. At the moment he continues his studies in the Composition Masters programme at the same institution.

Podcast
Luister ook naar aflevering 6 van de Delft Fringe Festival podcast De Roze Hoed. Hierin is Pedro Latas te gast en vertelt hij over zijn voorstelling en makerschap.