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transcendence - trance ‘n dance
○ pam
Performance where I explore dance as a tool of bodily reappropriation—I fight against patriarchy and colonialism with the movements of my hips, captured by a vaginal sensor, which triggers the sound of the piece. It is accompanied by my thesis body politics, body poetics.
2021
Format transmedia dance performance and installation
Media dance performance, wearable electronics (EMG muscle sensor, vaginal and skin electrodes, ESP32), sonic composition, poetry, automated drums (traditional drums + solenoid engines), metal frames, organic matter (shells, stones, copal, feathers), costume, mask
Software Arduino IDE + ESP-NOW, Ableton Live, Max/MSP
Concept, creation, and performance pamela varela
Installation with ella hebendanz, Ines DeRu, Dennis Slootweg
Electrosonic composition with Montserrat Balmori
Voice by Victoria Martínez
Poem with Anna Arov
Technology with Marlot Meyer, Maarten Keus, Adriaan Wormgoor
Costume and styling with Jill Wilkinson and Ines DeRu
Percussion with Bob Verhoeven and Lucien Nicou
Dance with Fazle Shairmahomed
Metalwork with Dennis Slootweg
Mask with Davide Amato
Special thanks to I/M/D 1st year, Cami Chebez, Janine Huizenga, Pawel Pokutycki, Lindsey Houdsen, Anna Arov, and everyone who helped :)
This work is my bachelor’s graduation project. Together with ặnim@ by sWitches it was nominated for the department’s prize.
Exhibited at
“Graduation Festival”, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, NL, 2021 (installation and performance)
“Young Blood Award”, GOGBOT Festival , Enschede, NL, 2021 (installation and performance)
“JAM-POD”, SIGN, Groningen, NL, 2021 (installation)
“Politics of the Machines Conference”, Berlin, DE / online, 2021 (article and presentation)
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transcendence - trance ’n dance explores the power of dance as a tool of bodily reappropriation and radical self-expression, and of trance as a state of heightened awareness. The performance narrates the liberation journey of the Self from the physical and psychological confinement imposed by the (body) politics of a colonialist, patriarchal, and capitalist society.
I draw inspiration from my background as a dancer, as well as from protests and trance-inductive practices and use the format of street dance, where dancers encounter and challenge each other, to create an energicospatiotemporal setting where the boundaries pushed are not against another human but against the machine.
The concept was inspired by Chicago Footwork, a street dance style where the dancing is extremely fast and the music can go up to 170 bpm, so the dancer often challenges the speaker. Who can go faster?
Dance, poetry, electronic music, and rhythmic drumming are trance-inducing.
Pics by Astrée Duval
Pics by Astrée Duval
Pics by Emma Grima
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An electronic-poetic piece narrates. I listen; I respond—through dance. Connected to a circle of automated drums via a vaginal muscle reader, which reacts to the movements of my hips as a protest from the oppressed genitals, the outcome is a sonic clash between the drums (primal, ancestral, rooted) and the electropoetry in the speakers (digital, intellectual, evolved).
The drums are the oldest and simplest instrument, used since ancestral times. I place them on the ground within metal frames and decorate them with crystals, stones, and flowers (earth) and shells (water). Attached to the top, they have a mechanism built with a solenoid engine, which plays the drums every time I dance, move my hips, or contract my vaginal muscles.
The electropoetry is the most advanced kind of sound (electronic sounds and the intellect). It is being played in the loudspeakers, which are joined by metal chains and decorated with feathers (air) and pieces of copal incense (fire). They are playing a poem I wrote about bodily oppression and liberation, embedded within an electronic music composition. When I listen to it, I react through dance, hence activating the drums.
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During the whole piece, I battle to balance dual and binary forces— reclaiming my body as subject, to stop it from being object. In my costume, I embody the eagle and the snake from Mexican mythology as a representation of dualism.
The narrative is inspired by the Greek creation myth. After everything was Chaos (nothingness), Gaia (earth) is born, and from her, Uranus (sky). The sound starts being chaotic and ends up being harmonious; there is no winner. All dualities coexist.
The Mexican emblem, which can be found on the Mexican flag, is an eagle (yang) eating a snake (yin). The legend says that Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of the sun and war, told the Aztecs when they were migrating from Aztlán that wherever they saw that event happening, they should establish their civilization. They found this place in lake Texcoco and founded Tenochtitlán, today’s Mexico City. The fact that the eagle is eating the snake is a symbol of patriarchy.
The snake represents the yin energy because it is earth and water, and I carry it on the left side of my body. The eagle represents the yang energy because it is air and fire, and I carry it on the right side of my head (mind).
Pic by pamela varela
Pic by Melle de Groot
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The sensor I use combines a muscle reader used for electronic DIY projects with the Periform® Intra-Vaginal Probe by Neen, which is a medical-grade device that is used for pelvic floor health (as an output to obtain muscle biofeedback or as an input to induce muscle stimulation). I transform its purpose and turn it into an expressive device for my art. By contracting my vaginal muscles or by moving my hips, the sensor is activated. I, then, can control anything running on electricity with my vagina.
I capture the data of my vaginal muscles with the vaginal probe and an ESP32 micro-controller that I am wearing. This ESP32 sends the information wirelessly to another ESP32 (using the protocol ESP-NOW) which is attached to the computer that is running the installation. The data arrives to the program Max/MSP which, subsequently, triggers a composition in Ableton Live. The composition is played in the physical drums (as voltage fluctuations sent to the solenoid engines) via Max/MSP. The result is that when I dance, the circle of drums plays live. When I do not move, there is silence.
The electropoetry is not connected to the technological set-up and is running regardless of the biofeedback. A dream for the future of this project is to, indeed, make everything be mutually-affected/affective and generative, so that my body has an actual conversation with the machine.
I also use this sensor in the projects exquisitely extreme and Ĭichti@.
transcendence - trance ‘n dance FULL PERFORMANCE
Shot in 360º format by TodaysArt (min. 8:45)
Shot in 360º format by TodaysArt (min. 8:45)
Spray-painted on the wall, inspired by protests
Pic by Melle de Groot
my great-grandmother was a land
and just like the Mexican grounds
taken she was
by a European man
trinchera de guerra
and just like the Mexican grounds
taken she was
by a European man
trinchera de guerra
a body is a land
continuously regenerating
a body embodying time
transgenerational experiences
rooted in ancestral stories
collective trauma
transmitted into our spirits
presente in our bodies
carrying painful stories in our vessel
the grandchildren of generations of rape
capitalism-colonialism-patriarchy
hammering our Selves
is hope on the horizon?
hope should be no diamond
patriarchy at the forefront of pain,
of restraint, of constraint
cisgender men exerting domain
–don’t let them tell you that is the natural way–
and capitalism committed
to racism and sexism
continuously regenerating
a body embodying time
transgenerational experiences
rooted in ancestral stories
collective trauma
transmitted into our spirits
presente in our bodies
carrying painful stories in our vessel
the grandchildren of generations of rape
capitalism-colonialism-patriarchy
hammering our Selves
is hope on the horizon?
hope should be no diamond
patriarchy at the forefront of pain,
of restraint, of constraint
cisgender men exerting domain
–don’t let them tell you that is the natural way–
and capitalism committed
to racism and sexism
a system that does not value
the looks of a body
that is just not the Vitruvian man
binary constructions rejecting “the other”
a history that does not
tell herstory, theirstory
so if imprisoned by language
then poets to break the code
myths myths myths
myths can be retold
se la robaron, she was stolen
a woman taken by a man
oh, dear great-grandmother
I light a candle on your name
Cande
the looks of a body
that is just not the Vitruvian man
binary constructions rejecting “the other”
a history that does not
tell herstory, theirstory
so if imprisoned by language
then poets to break the code
myths myths myths
myths can be retold
se la robaron, she was stolen
a woman taken by a man
oh, dear great-grandmother
I light a candle on your name
Cande
your story is the fuel of my fire
and thanks to all the rebels
who changed my path
so that I won’t be
taken by a man
so here we are, protesting
and thanks to all the rebels
who changed my path
so that I won’t be
taken by a man
so here we are, protesting
the new mestizas, a breed of antagonist cultures
daughters of an encounter of ravaging essence
gaining control of the dangerous streets
so that the eleven Mexican women
who die everyday
at the hands of men
will march then
daughters of an encounter of ravaging essence
gaining control of the dangerous streets
so that the eleven Mexican women
who die everyday
at the hands of men
will march then
phrases, pledges
pamela varela
pamela varela
heartbeat rising when walking the night
do you think it’s fine
to walk with your keys between your hands?
the night, the obscure, the shadows
taken away from us
unaccompanied?
to depend or to endanger
and is home any better?
to perform the unremunerated job
of raising kids and feeding husbands
choose one: whore, mom, nun
I choose none
gender binarism professed
biological differences stressed
those with uteruses oppressed
so let us protest
united in the struggle
to destroy cis-temic violence
intersectionality striving diversity, plurality
to construct new realities and virtualities
do you think it’s fine
to walk with your keys between your hands?
the night, the obscure, the shadows
taken away from us
unaccompanied?
to depend or to endanger
and is home any better?
to perform the unremunerated job
of raising kids and feeding husbands
choose one: whore, mom, nun
I choose none
gender binarism professed
biological differences stressed
those with uteruses oppressed
so let us protest
united in the struggle
to destroy cis-temic violence
intersectionality striving diversity, plurality
to construct new realities and virtualities
inclusive bodies, including bodies
from politics to poetics
from politics to poetics
from activism to art
of movements that heal
and its creator creatures
the change generators:
the rebels
the dancers
the poets
the witches
the serpents
dance as a form of protest
“for the joy of a body that enjoys
and dances on the ruins of order and progress” 1
movement connecting us
physically, spiritually, sexually
to our joy and our struggles
the rave as subversive
and the power of collective dance
breaking away from the framework of norms:
“political disobedience, sexual rebellion” 2
loosening the soils, planting the seeds
for a future constellation to exist
a bright destiny where we
commune, collaborate, cooperate
for change, to change
reclaiming the witch and her rebellious ways
with a body that dances to the beats of the obscure
I let the quietened voices
living in and around me
guide my way
mi cuerpa, my body
enjoys, joys, joins
to rebel, to dance
I rebel, I dance
mi cuerpa, my body
enjoys, joys, joins
to rebel, to dance
I rebel, I dance
1 Maldita Geni Thalia
2 Materia Hache
2 Materia Hache
ặnim@
○ sWitches
This project exists within the wider project ặnim@ by sWitches, an interdisciplinary, cyberfeminist, artivist constellation formed by pamela varela (MX, 1995), Ines DeRu (ID/ES, 1998), and ella hebendanz (DE, 1997). Taking the witch as a symbol for the rebellious feminist, we make our way into the patriarchal technological field to express a more diverse(ifying) view on technology and create sensorial experiences that extend and enhance human connection. We use technology in close contact with our bodies, envisioning it as a tool for contemporary magick, while simultaneously exploring the notions of power and control that arise between human and machine.
ặnim@ TRAILER
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ặnim@ is a sensorial, communal universe where our spells generate a ritualistic act of resistance. It is formed by 3 chapters.
son tra mi ona, Ines DeRu: Sonic gathering that embarks us into a deep listening journey where the artist invites the audience to listen and feel elemental sounds of nature, carried by her voice through the vibrations transmitted from the instruments of healing.
transcendence - trance ‘n dance, pamela varela: Performance exploring dance as a tool of bodily reappropriation, where the artist fights against the politics of a colonialist, patriarchal, and capitalist society. Connected to a circle of automated drums via a vaginal muscle reader reacting to the movements of her hips, the outcome is a sonic clash between the drums and an electronic-poetic piece.
compositions of unbroken flows, ella hebendanz: Inspired by the craft of pottery and clay’s symbolism of matter, the artist uses mechanised turning wheels to compose a swirling dreamscape that contextualises their research of bodily entanglement. Playing with the synchronicity of sound, image, and movement, as well as that of human and machine, their own narrative is woven.
Mural by Marlot Meyer