Investigating a Dark New Realm: Kris Verdonck's ‘Untitled ,’‘In Void’ and ‘Something(Out of Nothing)’ as Case Studies

The present paper draws on Belgian theater maker and visual artist Kris Verdonck as one of the influential and globally significant pioneers in the realm of New Media Dramaturgy. Diving into three of his recent, contentious performances, namely, Untitled, In Void and Something (Out of Nothing) as case studies, this paper examines Verdonck's ways of responding to the media saturated and technologically - constricted culture, with the aim of decoding the man - machine tension and unearthing the dark undertones, the innovative tools of intermediality, critique and agency manifested in the complex context of his likely to cause argument and disagreement multi- sensory performances.
To better frame the way each performance establishes its performative strategy and translates its ideas into practice and compositional awareness, the present paper draws on two approaches - Anthropocentrism, as a human - centered philosophical perspective and Post humanism, as a mode of existential inquiry and deconstructive, counter project adapted by Verdonck for the sake of criticizing and undermining this anthropocentric value system.
This study reaches the conclusion that the selected performances are not nihilist works without a critical faculty. Arguably, instead, they critically reflect changes in performance, identity and politics related to culture, mediate humans' experience, machinic-driven current sick condition, and hold a critique on anthropocentrism by creating a post humanist performative encounter, a realm of visual experimentation in which the spectator is invited to feel time, space and objects differently