Alien Intimacy

"Alien Intimacy" by James Batchelor and Zander Porter speculates on an interpersonally constructed “alien sensibility” where the visible and the invisible, or the physically embodied and the virtually disembodied, intertwine.

The duo’s speculative choreography proposes new landscapes comprised of console gaming scenography and low-res NASA images. “Touch” is recalled as a microscopic gravitational force and a magnetic repulsion over the illusory notion of a direct contact. In "Alien Intimacy", “contact” is macroscopically proportioned, inviting new senses of (non)touch-touch, the “almost-touchable,” or a “space-in-between.”

Both the concept and content of "Alien Intimacy" emerged in 2019-2020 through bodily/extra-bodily choreographic relationships to digital interfaces. The work has been danced for staged audiences in Birmingham, Berlin, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, and Prague. In its newest iteration, "Alien Intimacy" merges “audience” with “smartphone” and “stage” with “socially-distanced public” to reconceptualise contact-points between viewers across neighbourhoods, oceans, and browsers.

The screening will be followed by an artist Q&A on Vimeo Livestream.

This project is amplified by Melbourne Fringe through the Cash for Creatives program, supported by the Broadtree Foundation.