UnDroid
When thoughts are formed and can be expressed by speech, this is the time to put the kettle on.
A tale presented by an interdisciplinary collective under the direction of Daphne Giannoulatou
with:
Vasiliki Andreou
The Frontier Psychiatrists
Pridon
Hint: The music/sound/whatever describes what happens in UnDroid’s head.
Hint 2: IT now has a name. It is called UnDroid.
Hint 3: The following text is based on the separation of the scenes of the draft script.
Hint 4: The times given are only a suggestion. Petros can change them according to what he has in his mind and to what he might think that is best for his tracks.
1. 0min-5min Doors Open. People are coming into the semi lit space. The VJ’s and UnDroid are in their positions. UnDroid is motionless. On the projection wall we can see the first video that is still. Everything is still. There is this feeling of time passing by really painfully and uncomfortably slow. The audience walks on the ground/dirt of the set and their footsteps almost disappear once they have entered the space. They sit and still everything is motionless. The image on the video is an old tree with a hole separating it in two, in a forest. Silence. UnDroid observes and is silent. Problematized silent. Thoughtful maybe but it is calm and silent.
2. 5min-10min The audience is now sat and the door is closed. The video starts changing. From the hole of the tree small dull lights appear. UnDroid starts being curious. Not in a bad way. It is a really honest and normal curiosity because something changes on what it sees. The curiosity increases a bit, not much when from the tree hole appears something, a creature, sleazy and slimy, no proper shape yet. But then it evolves and the human shape of it can be recognized. This is a birth, a natural birth. THIS shocks it a bit, in a peculiar way. There is admiration, curiosity and some jealousy maybe. It cannot understand exactly what this is, how it happens and why because this has never happened to UnDroid. UnDroid was never born; it was only created and switched on. Just like this and from the moment that happened it hasn’t changed. Clothes where given to it and that was it. The creature on the video now is up, lifts its hand and peals off the first skin, the dirty and sleazy one and underneath there is fresh and clean flesh and skin. It already changes and evolves. UnDroid feels weird. It realizes that what it sees is normal for the people that surround it. They are all humans and they share the same experiences of birth and decay. These thoughts for the first time do not make UnDroid feel superior. It feels sad and it feels like it wants to experience this. It wants to be a part of all, to communicate, to be like everyone else. Not in a bad way. Very sincerely, innocently and with a snort of jealousy. Like a child living in a childish nightmare of its. Yet it is still motionless. Only the breathing has changed. Becomes more intense. Every new movement on the video strikes it a bit more, it makes it WANT a bit more. The agony of been different, of passing next to someone and being ignored, of being considered as an object and nothing more increases. What is the difference? It knows everything for them, for the humans. Why can’t it be equal and communicate? If only it could gather all the needed data maybe… Then it could communicate and come a bit closer to them. If only it could speak using his own selection of words and not the ones they have imported into its disks. Hope. There is this hope of “if only I could”.
2+3½ 10min-15min UnDroid’s feelings start to be more alive, active. It starts processing the data it has. The pre-recorded text can be heard but not clearly. It sounds complicated, confused, mixed and UnDroid tries to defrag them, put them in an order, put the words in the right order, put the symbols in the right order, reorganize so that it will be understandable from the people that sit around. But it is not. But this does not make UnDroid feel bad. It knows that it has to try harder, this is how it goes. It will find the order of the symbols and the sounds. It is just another code expresses in a different way. If UnDroid achieves that maybe it will stop feel alone. This gives hope and excitement so that it can try harder. The video has changed. The video has changed. The VJ’s maybe can help UnDroid because whatever they do they do it using machines. The VJ’s play and they don’t seem to bother. UnDroid tries to read, to speak, to pronounce reading from the video but it becomes too fast. It has to slow down, they have to make it slow down but they pay no attention. UnDroid can and will make it slow down because it can, after all this is what it was made to do. Manipulating data and signals. They battle.
[The stages of UnDroid’s WANT:
I WANT (I dream that I want to) –
I WANT to communicate (truly believe that I can) –
I am trying to… (not very passionate) – I CAN’T? why??
I WANT (DETERMINED)
I can’t (despair but not bad feelings)
Ok.. I WANT (but for a reason I think that you are not letting me to because they ignore me but..)
I WANT AND I CAN MAKE IT
They don’t let me
THEY DON’T LET ME???(anger)
FUCK YOU BOTH I CAN DO IT/// LET US BATTLE AND WE’LL SEE WHO YOU £$@$£$%&^(^*&)($@£%@%$£@$£$%£ THINK YOU ARE AND IN A MOMENT I WILL BE ABLE TO SHOUT TO YOU !@@!$£%$^&$*&^%*% AND LOTS MORE BECAUSE @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ {this last part is the battle, lasts from 20min to 25min}]
3½+4 25min-33min This is out of control. UnDroid has become really madly intense and fast. The VJ’s shut down the computer and the projection and everything. UnDroid stops. Shocked. Still angry? Maybe but not really. This is not what it wants. It wants to be alone. Feels like it made a mess of it all. Feels powerless. It is still alone? If it is alone everyone should be. Has one last weapon. It shuts every single light in the room. Dark. (These happen almost instantly). Now that darkness it starts to relax, to think, to organise it’s thoughts. It realizes that in the previous mad situation it has managed to pronounce words. UnDroid IS able to speak. And it does. Then silence. Loneliness. Why? Now that this happened things shouldn’t be that way. It should be a part of everyone else. Instead nothing. Maybe fighting was not the way after all. Not even a light. No hope. Silence. Complete silence for the first time. And this silence lasts for long.
5. 33min-40 Sound of kettle and boiling water. Tea smell. Familiar homey smells. This is the time of calmness and comfort, when the thoughts can be followed easily by speech. This is when communication can be achieved maybe. The recording of the last part of the poem can be heard. Clearly but not loud. UnDroid pronounces the words and lights go on. Slowly. General lights in the colour of morning light. Smells are everywhere in the space. Tea and cake? Maybe. UnDroid can be unplugged now. It can leave walk on the ground. It is calm and happy, a bit shy. The video with the tree and the creature appears again. The creature is standing there calm. UnDroid looks at it calmly. Harmony has come. No jealousy, no bad feelings. Free among the others. This could be it’s home and everyone’s home. And… everyone looks at UnDroid. It does exist.
-Shall we put the kettle on? {Smile}
The end//Doors Open
If any spelling mistakes sorry, the computer cannot correct everything for me… we work collaboratively hehe
