This piece forms a double bill with 2 Men and a Michael by Gary Clarke.
Running time: 25 minutes
Ghosts in the Machine is a twenty-five minute looped, projected 3D dance installation. The audience – wearing red/blue anaglyph glasses – see what appears to be three solid three-dimensional dancers in the same space as themselves.
The three ladies (pictured from left: Jennifer Potter, Rachel Blackman and Victoria Melody) dance, sing and joke their way through the twenty-five minutes. The topics of their discussions range from existentialism to ballpark-sex to media studies (though none of them is quite sure which cowboy film Marshall McLuhan was actually in). Hanging over them is the dread knowledge that at the end of the performance they have to do “the whole friggin thing all over again” but somehow it turns out to be more fun than they thought.
Ghosts in the Machine develops and expands the techniques, both filmic and choreographic, of Cowie’s previous installations – In the Flesh and The Revery Alone.
Ghosts in the Machine was commissioned by Lighthouse (Brighton), and premiered by them as part of HOUSE, the Artists Open Houses new initiative for Brighton Festival. The work was funded by Arts Council England with additional support from the University of Brighton.