Manual

MANUAL is a performance that takes place in a public library and is experienced by one person at a time. Staged covertly in the library during open hours, viewers arrive on site with instructions to meet a performer at a particular time and location. From there they are led silently through a series of tiny actions together, following written notes and immersive audio in headphones.

Using found materials in the library, the performer stages a surprisingly immersive and intimate sensory experience. They walk through the space and listen together. They look at books and read to each other. Fragments of photographs, texts, and sound recordings blur into one another. And as the piece progresses the materials they encounter come to form a manual for slowing down.

Intermingling with the daily life of the library, MANUAL reflects on the act of listening and the intimacy of reading with another person in a public space. Through a carefully guided participatory experience, the piece invites viewers to engage with the library as a site of deep sensory awareness, and to reflect on the social and technological conditions of shared attention.

Credits

Creation: Adam Kinner and Christopher Willes

Dramaturgy: Hanna Sybille Müller

Performers: Adam Kinner, Christopher Willes

Performance contributions: Jacinte Armstrong (Canada), Airi Fujiwara (JP), Meghan Gillespie (Canada), Masahiro Hosoda (JP), Tatsunori Imamura (JP), Soma Ishii (JP), Akari Kato (JP), Ai Kawase (JP), Yumi Kambayashi (JP), Denise Kenney (Canada), Sarut Komalittipong (Thailand), Alexa Mardon (Canada), Mika Masuda (JP), Sym Mendez (UK), Ana Miyaki (JP), Megumi Miyazaki (JP), Yuri Mizunuma (JP), Stang Puapongsakorn (Thailand), Rosa Postlethwaite (UK), Chao-Ying Rao aka. Betty (UK), Lauren Runions (Canada), Napim Singtoroj (Thailand), Jaturachai Srichanwanpen (Thailand), Eva Svaneblom (Norway), Sho Takiguchi (JP), and Keiko Yamaguchi (JP).

Sound contributions from: Michael Davidson, Colin Fisher, Thomas Gill, Terri Hron, Philippe Lauzier, Germaine Liu, Philippe Melanson. Karen Ng, and Felicity Williams.

Created with the support of: Festival TransAmériques (Les Respirations), Conseil des arts du Canada, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Ontario Arts Council, and LA SERRE – arts vivants.  Creation residencies: Take Me Somewhere (UK), LA SERRE – arts vivants (Montréal). Touring support: Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Ontario Arts Council.