Multiverse

“Multiverse” is a circus material-semiotic experiment named after Francesca Ferrando’s thought experiment: “The Posthuman Multiverse,” from her book Philosophical Posthumanism (2019). Multiverse is performed by Marie-Andrée Robitaille as part of the doctoral artistic project “Circus as a Practice of Hope” at Stockholm University of the Arts.  

The last human on earth is a circus artist.

Mutiverse, Marie-Andrée Robitaille © 2022

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Multiverse

Foil

Multiverse Foil, Marie-Andrée Robitaille

Foil is a participant in the human ambition to explore and conquer. First developed by NASA in 1964, metalized polyethene terephthalate (MPET) reflects up to 97% of radiated heat. Sheets of MPET are commonly called space blankets, as they are used to protect Earth-made crafts from the harsher environment of space. Foil is found in survival kits for use after natural disasters such as earthquakes and after terrorist attacks. In the European migrant crisis, foil has been life-saving, especially for people who crossed the sea in winter. Foil is highly resistant but also can easily be torn apart. Foil reminds us of our vulnerabilities. Its vibrant presence in Multiverse reveals the tensions between a transhuman illusion of reign over the environment and the embodiment of a post-human, post-dualistic, more-than-human world. 

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Multiverse

Bubbles

Multiverse Bubbles, Marie-Andrée Robitaille

The Bubbles are handcrafted circles made of flexible fibreglass rods that are bowed into rings and woven into dodecahedron. The synetic structures are based on the principle of self-similarity and can be found in our environment in the formation of bubbles, living cells, water molecules and crystals. Their shape is similar to self-assembling virus-like particles, representing potential tools for developing next-generation vaccines for infectious diseases. The bubbles remind us of the sympoiesis “making-with” involved in our co-constituted worlds and the tensions between autonomy and dependence, vitality and virality, survival and extinction. 

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Marie-Andrée Robitaille

Multiverse

As I walk in the MULTIVERSE, the performative site is filled with images of planetary constellations, minerals, elemental-biological ecological beauty and devastation, life and extinction; a universe folding and unfolding in and out of itself in which I am not the master but instead a responsible part of the whole. MULTIVERSE is neither an achieved nor achievable fixed circus act but rather a “material-semiotic experiment,” a mutable live fable that composts and re-composes each time. 

The last human on earth is a circus artist.

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