James Batchelor, Featuring: Amber McCartney, Emma Batchelor, Bicky Lee, Morgan Hickinbotham, Gilles Bruni + Simon Pascoe

Ersatz is part one of Blindside's three-part event series focusing on sound, performance and video. Other events in this series for 2013 include With Open Arms and a day, unsung.

IMAGES | Images courtesy of the artist.

ERSATZ

Presented as part of BLINDSIDE's Showstoppers performance series, Ersatz is a hybrid contemporary arts installation examining our relationship to the natural world within fictional realities. The work takes inspiration from popular science fiction novels, referencing Aldous Huxley and Philip K Dick. Dystopian and post-apocalyptic visions of the future in which nature is mastered by mankind are sharply contrasted against a backdrop of natural wilderness environments, where the natural order of the universe prevails. Combining contemporary dance, film, sculpture and digital media, the Ersatz installation offers a multidimensional and interactive arts experience.

Ersatz is a collaborative, interactive performance project conceived by choreographer/cinematographer James Batchelor, featuring dancers Amber McCartney, Emma Batchelor & Bicky Lee, live sound from Morgan Hickinbotham as well as environmental artists Gilles Bruni (France) and Simon Pascoe (UK).

Ersatz will feature an ongoing open studio rehearsal process, with contemporary dance material being rehearsed and developed within BLINDSIDE throughout the day, open to the public. The rehearsal process will culminate in a series of performances at BLINDSIDE, with Batchelor’s choreography performed in conjunction with film work produced in both Paris, France and Brighton, UK.