Immersive ​Performance - Possible Worlds

Possible Worlds
Mercedes Searer

Possible Worlds(The Roof at Park South)
The Roof at Park South
October 29, 2021
Curated by Nick Bathurst

Possible Worlds(CRAIVE)
Craive
November 18, 2023
Curated by Samuel Chabot​
Conceived and Performed by Mercedes Searer in collaboration with:

Performers:
Michael Kammers (acoustic instruments/electronics)
Bibiana Medkova (video/projections)
Mercedes Searer (dance/choreography)

AI Program
david allen (AI enabled projection program)

Costume Design:
Lara de Brujin (Costume Designer)

---

Possible Worlds is a semi-autobiographical performance installation that views the body as a site of socially dictated retention and reiteration; an incredible storehouse for our histories. Culling from memories, Possible Worlds is a nonlinear excursion into autobiography and it invites us into a reinterpreted past marred by the presence of mental illness.

By considering the body’s materiality and its interconnectivity with external systems, Possible Worlds breaks down the fixity propagated by linear narrative and the photographic image and reintroduces them to unfolding space/time. Produced by Mercedes Searer and collaborating with digital culture worker david allen for the interactive ai elements, their collaboration continues an ongoing cultural conversation about how technology sees the body and how we see ourselves.

Layering the body on itself, the live and filmed performer cycles through extreme emotions and childhood memories. The performer's choreography distorts the images of the projected self, representative of the faultiness of memory and the effect of mental illness.

Possible Worlds is a fiscally sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts made possible with funding provided by New York City Artist Corps Grant and New York State Council for the Arts Individual Grant.