PROCESS
At the heart of Ephemera Genesis is the concept of Escenografía Viva (Living Scenography)—a vision where scenic elements are as alive as the performers themselves. The following sections trace the creative path my collaborators and I followed to bring this idea to life.
RESEARCH
I began by observing how artists and performers around the world blur the line between body and space. I reflected on ancient practices of carving bodies into architecture and asked: have we evolved that idea into dancers becoming living architecture? Can the body itself be scenography?
SKETCHES
My initial sketches explored interactions between the body and mechanical structures. But the question kept emerging: is the body the scenography, or is it the structure the body activates? This tension became central to our exploration.
EXPERIMENT 1
In a movement composition class, I created five spandex cylinders and a long-sleeve shirt piece sewn together at the wrists for dancers to explore. The shifting forms their bodies created were ephemeral and abstract—impossible to replicate with rigid materials.
EXPERIMENT 2 - Neural Networks
In collaboration with ÉPICA La Fura dels Baus, I joined 23 artists from 6 countries for a 4-week creation lab exploring the future of AI. Together, we designed an interactive performance that invited audiences to experience neural networks, hallucinations, and the physicality of artificial intelligence firsthand.
EXPERIMENT 3
Choreographer Venese Alcantar and I began experimenting with structures. We combined rigid frames with soft materials like shower curtains and painter’s cloth. The result: ghostlike, industrial forms that contrasted beautifully with the performers’ bodies.
EXPERIMENT 4
We learned that for the performers to fully engage, the structures needed strength. So we built new frames using ½” schedule 40 steel pipe—allowing the body to hang, support, and merge with the structure in a more physical, grounded way.
Our final iteration merged all previous explorations. Using soft materials, strong frames, and hanging silks, the structure transformed only when activated by the performer. In that interaction, the scenography truly came alive.
