[Lecture performance] Act Natural is the spur of the moment reaction during a serious or unexpected event. To be told to act natural is to be told to adapt to a changing environment. How does one go about repositioning, reconfiguring oneself to an unstable form, perhaps a (social) code, an idea, a new technology, a presumed understanding?

 

What’s natural anyway?

 

Act Natural is a space where research, personal expression and creative production come together in an effort to make sense of the identity of the self, the visible and the invisible world.

Various forms of storytelling are brought together to both celebrate and critically reflect on the politics of perception, the politics of image production techniques and the implications of using old and new technologies in personal expression and self exploration.

 

Act Natural 01: Replicants presents three contemporary image production techniques that shake and reshape both future and past. 1) Software engineers paint my picture using a set of algorithms; as an adoptee, this the first time I’ve ever seen my face in a crowd of people that look like me. What are the implications of using this technology? 2) Synthetic biology is reinventing nature and ourselves: what are the ethical implications of (commercial) cloning and genetic engineering/ modification? What role can imaging play in reconstructing our past and choosing our future? 3) My birth certificate symbolises instability, life-changing disruption. I imagine a moment of peace around the omnipresence and persistence of my alternate reality, a reality in which I was never removed from my culture.