The Interference Ensemble is showing new work at the Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film next week, Saturday, July 16, 2022. We have a performance and an installation called Markov’s Blanket.

"Early in the pandemic lockdown the Ensemble created Lying Fallow, an online, virtual video performance that outlined the feelings of isolation, doubt and hope that many were facing.

Now we are all at a different stage in our experience of this strange social experiment. Unaccustomed to crowds and naked faces, too long alone, eager but nervous to move forward, after vowing we could never go back to what came before. We discovered differences about ourselves and each other that have strained our micro and macrocosms. Endlessly online, we drifted into polarized corners of our civic discourse.

Markov’s Blanket describes a web of dependencies and influences that relate to a particle in a network. Some are within the blanket and the rest are outside.

The Ensemble is one particle within a larger network; its members are particles with their own network. For years this group has interacted and influenced each other in practical and theoretical ways in the production of art, music, performance, and conversation. Recently the Ensemble has focused and created a large-scale video performance, an installation, and some participatory workshops which will all be presented at the Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film in Durham.

The performance unfolds across a 20-meter-long projection screen with four projectors. Both live and recorded scenes depict individuals struggling to connect within crowds resulting in collaboration and conflict.

The installation also has projections onto an irregular screen made up of an array of round shapes. People in transit weave into and out of the space that is created.

In the process of creating these works we experimented with materials and processes that fuelled our creativity. We want to share that part of the artistic activity by hosting a couple of workshops that encourage viewers to physically engage in similar activities. Collective movement and collaborative painting will be encouraged in these workshops and enhanced by real-time video projection."