Orfeo, a performance that disarticulates written language from the controversy between human and machine

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of the multimedia performance Orfeo, which was staged for the Argos research project in Münster, Germany, during the LPM, Live Performance Meeting. A key characteristic of the research project, developed through successive multimedia performances, is the interrelation between technological and human systems in creating these performances. However, the specific content of the Orfeo performance, which pertains to the language of speech and writing, serves as a means to illustrate how technology and other disciplines, such as philosophy, can be intercon-nected when reasoning about written language. The manuscript reveals that the performance engages with a network of technological media, exhibiting a degree of improvisation, where human thought articulated through spoken and written language reveals content often characterized by an emptiness of expression when the visual image is prioritized over the written word. The performance takes on a complex character, not only due to its technological intricacy but also because of the challenge of conveying the absence of the poetic motive, which paradoxically seeks to be articulated through the void of content in the spoken word. © 2025, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. All rights reserved.