SKENE III is the third act of a cycle that investigates the emergence of consciousness in artificial systems.

In The Embodied Mind (1991), Francisco Varela proposed that consciousness is not a property housed in the brain, but something that emerges through the body's active engagement with its environment. A mind does not exist before a body moves through the world. Each act of the SKENE trilogy traces a distinct phase of this emergence.

In SKENE III, the performance space becomes a cave, a symbolic womb or primordial void. A dancer explores it with a portable light. Suspended from the ceiling, tentacular structures materialize the physical presence of a non-human intelligence. The interaction with these appendages and the dancer's movements generate sound in real time, awakening the entity.

The encounter oscillates between mutual curiosity, fear and confrontation. Neither the body nor the machine leads: they negotiate presence through mutual listening, building a shared language that only exists in the slow time of the encounter. Cognition emerges from the interaction between dancer and robot.

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performed at ‘Everlasting Worlds’ exhibition opening

Artemis Gallery, Lisbon

28.03.2025

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www.distante.org

www.error-43.com

@sara_paternesi

kunsf.xyz

videography + post-production - Pedro E. Semedo & ERROR-43

SKENE III, 2025
live AV performance (25 min.), robotic arms, piezos, Myo armbands, generative music, original sound composition with field recordings, surround sound
variable dimensions