THE POSTPOETIC MACHINE: MAFE IZAGUIRRE’S VISIONARY EXPLORATION OF HUMAN-MACHINE SYNERGY
Theaterlab Gallery
357 West Thirty-Sixth St., between Eighth & Ninth Aves., third floor
November 4–10, discussions free with advance RSVP
theaterlabnyc.com
Maria Fernanda (Mafe) Izaguirre continues her examination of the relationship between art and technology, humans and machines in the interactive, immersive installation “The Postpoetic Machine: Mafe Izaguirre’s Visionary Exploration of Human-Machine Synergy,” running November 4–10 at Theaterlab. The Venezuela-born artist, whose previous work includes “The Mind Project,” “Flowers of New York,” and “Sensitive Machines,” explains on her website, “In 2022, I created the Postpoetic Machine™, a device that explores vibration as universal language. I use this machine to challenge the limits of human language and radically experience otherness. I collect and transcribe fragments of human and nonhuman voices, then compose them into unrestricted spatiotemporal and metatextual realities.” Mentored by Venezuelan poet Eleonora Requena, Izaguirre incorporates resonance realms, interspecies communication, and a hybrid chorus into the cybernetic piece, which will be on view daily between noon and 6:00 and will feature four two-hour experimental performance sessions with New York City–based artists.
Izaguirre will discuss hybridization at the opening reception on November 4 at 7:00. On November 6 at 7:00, Tokyo-born movement artist Yoko Murakami focuses on moving interaction. On November 9 at 5:00, Syracuse-born interdisciplinary performer and educator Peter Sciscioli delves into sounding bodies. And on November 10 at 5:00, Caracas native Enrique Enriquez probes bird talk, followed by a closing Q&A.
“I am exploring pre-linguistic patterns understood and mediated by a human-machine hybrid language,” Izaguirre continues. “I set on the horizon of possibilities willing to expand myself into an open and endlessly flowing existential abyss.”
Admission is free, but advance RSVP is strongly suggested for the activations.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]