ISLANDS IN THE STREAM
With the live music industry tottering on the brink of oblivion, musicians all over the world have been turning to live streaming as an alternative to touring. But performing in front of a camera - and watching a performance on a screen - raises novel questions about anonymity, fan engagement, concert behaviour, and artist and audience expectations. Islands in the Stream is a playful one-hour performance in which a musician will perform live on stage in front of a group of socially-distanced audience members, who will both watch the performance and engage in different activities that are permissible behind a screen but not generally in a traditional live concert setting (baking bread, gaming, preparing dinner, chatting with friends, watching TV, texting, and so on). Art Marathon participants will be able to wander through the space in limited numbers, and the entire performance will itself be live streamed, with comments from online viewers projected onto the wall behind the musician. Islands in the Stream is intended as both a tongue-in-cheek critique and an earnest exploration of how we're coping with isolation and new definitions of togetherness in the music world.
