​Things might have to get worse before they get better 

​(2021 - 2022)
​

Hobo's creatives Jamie Harper and Elien Hanselaer are collaborating on a brand new project on performance, games and ecological resilience (2021).

Jamie and Elien want to explore ecological resilience in the process of making performance. In pursuing this aim, we start from the premise that things might have to get worse before they get better, embracing decay or decomposition of known structures in order for new possibilities to emerge.  Our ecological approach is based on the notion that we work in complex, interconnected systems that are both material and ideological. 

In this collaboration, Jamie and Elien want to interrogate the differences in our research interests. Elien’s work is inspired by  co-performer empathy in performance, while Jamie focuses on linking affect with critical reflexivity in play. We have found great value in the clash of our differing perspectives and want to further cultivate this clash as a form of mutual care. This notion of care need not be understood as something soft and gentle, but rather something that is both destructive and generative, colliding our perspectives to produce a more diverse creative ecology.

In this project, we  experiment with the creation of a performative game that combines new rituals and myths for a contemporary moment.  Fusing our experience in game design and theatre making, we  devise a series of performance pieces that are the result of  a process of playing games between two artists (Jamie and Elien). Our games are characterised by interconnection, acceleration and potential collapse. Our creative processes result in participatory performances.

Things might have to get worse before they get better, but we want to embrace that struggle in the hope that we will become stronger, more resilient, with a broader capacity to adapt our practices to the challenges of an uncertain future.