e-Merge

Emergence is a phenomenon in which individual components form a complex system which can only be described as a function of the components acting together, not as a strict addition of the individual components. In other words, something that is more then the sum of its parts.


e-Merge was a trio of interdisciplinary performances at the Institute of Contemporay Arts made up entirely of these functions. Rules were put in place and certain actions caused other actions and so on and so on with increasing complexity until the show took on a life of its own. The three performances were both quite different in the order things took place. Following these rules was a cast made up of a mix of singers, dancers, computer technicians and actors (although for some reason the latter are omitted from the write up below). The show was the brainchild of Jane Turner.


I have no idea what the audience thought of this, either as piece of theatre or dance. Or maybe even as a pattern that arose out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions in a complex system.