i/O

Input/output is the exchange of information between a processor and the peripherals connected to it, for example, what enters a computer via the keyboard versus what goes out of it via the screen. On stage, apart from the performance itself and how it is received by the spectators, the technical input can be done with a microphone or a camera, and the output through speakers and screens. The relationship with the audience is also built on this kind of back and forth. The expression also refers here to the narratives and rituals that have shaped us and those that we shape in turn…

In this continuation of Post-Humains, where she recounted her foray into the world of transhumanism, Dominique Leclerc builds on her fascinating work in a more personal, intimate and nostalgic way. Faced with the ever-growing range of technologies aimed at improving the machine that is the human body, staving off aging, illness and death, the creator builds an archive for the humans of tomorrow live on stage. Composed of outdated objects and stories that celebrate our fragility, our inevitable obsolescence and our inescapable finiteness, this sensitive and playful piece gives us a big picture look at the transformation of our species. Are we the last generation to be born from rolling the genetic dice?

The show is composed of three narrative frameworks that combine storytelling, autofiction and documentary, the past, the present and the future. Its author describes the work as “science friction”: a collision course between the toys and techniques from the end of the last century, the recent death of the playwright’s father during lockdown and the filmed testimonies of futuristic transhumanists. The end result, at once amusing, astonishing and touching, creates a space of intimate reflection at the edge of the real and the imaginary and acts as a simultaneously warm and stark invitation to imagine other futures.