THE MACHINES
The Machines is an interdisciplinary performance work by the Publik Universal Frxnd based on physical research into the folk tradition of East-Lancashire clog-dancing, a dance form that emerged from the 19th century weaving mills where workers would tap to the rhythms of the machines they were operating. This source material has been combined with contemporary interviews and field-recordings of machine operators in a manufacturing industry in Mansfield, research into moralistic representations of working life and culture from art history, and the artist’s own migratory journey. It reflects upon the influence of economic conditions on identity, migration, and belonging over time, taking an ambivalent stance to the forces that make people move and asking instead, how do we work with or through constraints? How do these limitations shape us?
The Machines is comprised of installation, live performance and an online presentation of 33 short videos moving between physical sites and online audiences in Denmark, the UK, and the Netherlands during November 2021.
A single-screen film adaptation of this work is being released in 2023.
The Machines was presented as part of Close Encounters: Attitudes of the Unruly, 11-14th November, 2021.
The seven chapters of The Machines premiered in instalments on Instagram in collaboration with Primary and The Turnpike and can be followed at #themachinespublikuniversalfrxnd
The Machines (film)
2023
Duration: 19 mins
This experimental dance documentary follows two performers mixing traditional clog dancing from the North West of the UK with choreography developed for two modified pieces of fitness equipment based on agricultural yokes. It moves between dance sequences and behind-the-scenes footage as the voice over explores identity and belonging in a context shaped by industrialisation and economic migration.
East Lancashire clog dancing is said to have emerged from the weaving mills of the 19th century, where the working women would tap to the rhythm of the machines. This industrial technology was often created to reproduce the movements and labour of human bodies, a migration of control that effectively recasts skilled craftspeople as machine operators. In the process of moving, dancing, going somewhere, going nowhere, how do we describe movement and how are we transformed by it?
Credits
The Machines is performed by the Publik Universal Frxnd and Eva Susova
Dramaturgy and Production: Barnaby Savage
Costume design: Max Allen
Scenography painting: Mikołaj Sobczak
Sound Design: patten
Lighting Design: Mirko Lazović
Camera and Editing: Silvie Konings
Filmed at Jacuzzi, Amsterdam
With thanks to The Greenwood Cloggers and Dacol Engineering
The Machines is supported using public funding by Arts Council England, Mondriaan Fonds and Amsterdam Fonds Voor De Kunst.