Performance → Witness/Harbored Connections
Performer, Choreographer, Artist
Mari Xiao
Amina Trotter-Lockett
Jay Jung
Witness / Harbored Connections
2019
Witness is a device that translates the connection between bodies to vibrations in real time.
Anybody that completes the open circuit will trigger vibrations, allowing bodies in the
surrounding to hear and feel it.
Harbored Connections is a performance piece documenting the connection of two bodies
through the open waters, with the use of Witness. Two bodies walk along the shoreline of a
beach, one holding onto Witness and one end of the circuit, the other, holding a metal
string attached to the other end of Witness. As the waves hit the shores and onto their feet,
the connection is made, and Witness will start vibrating. This is reminiscent of the
connections between people across bodies of water in different lands, where direct bodily
contact may not be possible, yet the connection is bridged through the ever-flowing waves,
as if passing messages to other bodies to let us know of each other’s presence.