A juggler facing a drummer, two grey pawns in an abstract landscape resembling an overturned box of building blocks. What begins as light-hearted, easy-going fun for young and old unfolds into an entertaining and moving multimedia time-lapse depicting the struggle between humans and technology. Whilst it may not quite succeed in raising more questions than answers, as the front line seems to have been a little too heavily trodden, Post from Hessdalen’s performance – “by humans and robots, for humans and robots aged 6 and over” – is absolutely refreshing.
A deafening bang on the drum kit and a spotlight on the face of juggler Stijn Grupping, who drops a small ball onto the sloping side of one of the triangular blocks on stage. The ball bounces towards another triangle, and what follows is a chain reaction of balls flashing ever faster, driven by the beats of drummer Frederik Meulyzer. Then it shifts up a gear, with more balls, luminous balls, drums dissolving into flowing synths. The basic ingredients of an evening with Post uit Hessdalen are impossible to pigeonhole into a single genre, nor do they aspire to do so in the slightest. And that formula works. Although the age of the STUK audience on Thursday evening is considerably higher than the usual target demographic for circus performances, every variation on the theme transforms many a spectator into a sort of bouncing ball, obediently nodding along with their eyes following the balls. Surprise and predictability are – in a good way – closely intertwined here.
Amidst the red-and-white and purple-and-yellow of the spotlights on all the spheres and triangles – and the interplay of shadows cast by those shapes upon one another – you almost feel as though you’ve stepped into a Kandinsky or a Rodchenko. It was also from that spirit of the times, and the accompanying blind faith in technological progress, that Post drew his inspiration. Exactly a hundred years ago, the Czech author Karel Čapek wrote the play R.U.R., a dystopian Frankenstein-esque fantasy in which the enemy was first given the name ‘robot’. That duality between man and machine – and its constant blurring – is a clear thread running through the performance, which comes to the fore all the more when the blocks turn out to be fully-fledged robots. Not only can they spin around on stage without the juggler’s helping hand, they also literally push the performers to the margins. Even as the latter fight back with the mechanical precision with which they are attuned to one another. And what are the rare silences between the scenes? Imperfections to be cherished, or rather the calm before the storm?
The theme of technology is certainly very much alive, in an age where algorithms govern our lives, from surveillance states to dating apps. It follows in the footsteps of countless contemporary installation and performance artists, and for the TikTok generation, it is by no means beyond their grasp. But to remain original, it does require a concrete point of reference, and Post from Hessdalen seems to shy away from this challenge rather than embrace it. Exactly which people and which robots are we talking about? And what do they say about our lives today?
After the robot dance, Man Strikes Back seems to drift quietly towards an open ending. Until, just seconds before the final blackout, one of the robots lets out a wailing, whining scream—unmistakably human. As a sort of antithesis to autotune in pop songs, perhaps the most irritating example of how a machine is taking over from humans.
Or is that final emotional convulsion just the weakness of Man strikes back? As if the promise of the title suddenly too forcefully comes to the fore and defines humanity as a23> fighting back underdog, instead of all labels being loose enough to not immediately necessary in every situation. Not immediately necessary in a performance that runs on the ambiguity with which human and robot invite one another to dance , from time to time each other’s territory enter and each other towards a higher level lift. And that as far as the form is concerned all a57> a truly fascinating sensory rollercoaster.
