Lundahl & Seitl, Tail of the Hen (2021) is a VR experience that takes you on a mesmerizing journey to locations unknown with friends or with
strangers around the world.
DOWNLOAD THE FREE APP to experience
Tail of the Hen
ENTER WITH A FRIEND
Tail of the Hen is accessible to enter 24/7. From a distance you can enter the piece at the same time as someone you know. The app will ask you to share a unique code between each other in order to connect and experience the artwork together.
BE PAIRED UP WITH A STRANGER SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD
A portal will open for scheduled international events, where visitors can enter the artwork from home to be randomly paired up with a stranger inside the APP at that moment.
On December 14, 2023, Tail of the Hen international experience, and talk by Lundahl & Seitl were presented during the symposium Magic Codes at MO.CA. - centro per le nuove culture in Brescia (Italy), December 13-15: Program here (ITA)
Overview of Lundahl & Seitl's talk and Tail of the Hen experience (ITA and EN)
A collaboration Future Storytelling Lab Zwolle - ArtEZ, School of the Creative and Performing Arts - University of Calgary, Canada, Streaming Museum New York City and Walkin Studios in Bangalore, India.
The symposium Codici Magici is curated by Marialaura Ghidini and Sara Bortoletto. The project is produced by MO.CA - center for new cultures, and co-promoted by Fondazione Brescia Musei and the Municipality of Brescia, in collaboration with AVISCO.
Tail of the Hen premiered in 2021 at STRP (Eindhoven, NL), one of the largest art & technology (e-culture) festivals in Europe, in collaboration with Streaming Museum
ذيل الدجاجة
Tail of the Hen series, 2021
Voice 172 hertz
Xylem 85 kilohertz
Ultraviolet 843 terahertz
Dealing with individual, societal and ecological change in different stages, of which the covid pandemic is one component, this series of work studies the paradox of intimacy and presence taking place between two people who are physically separated by space.
Tail of the Hen mirrors the essence of scientists' work at the Boulby Underground Laboratory (UK) With 1,100m of rock in between the ground it makes an ideal site to study dark matter using ultra-sensitive detectors and ultra-low radiation techniques, to try to catch the faint breath of a particle wind, sent blowing across space from a distant constellation: The Swan. This constellation contains Deneb which is derived from the Arabic word for "tail", from the phrase ذنب الدجاجة Dhanab al-Dajājah, or "tail of the hen", hence the title of the series, in which Voice 172 Hertz is the first part.
In the first part of the Tail of the Hen series, we are searching for the occurrence of felt human presence, experienced at a distance and mediated through the human voice. Like dark matter in physics, this felt presence and intimacy cannot be proven, grasped, nor directly studied. Paradoxically, scientists descend into underground labs far away from the sun in order to study stars. Likewise, we are studying the paradox of intimacy and presence potentially taking place between two people physically separated by space, each looking out through different windows, out of different perspectives on the world.
The artwork uses phone technology in a radically different way. With your own voice as a vehicle, you will descend through the ground. What you’ll experience depends on where you’re located, and what landscape or built structures are hiding below you.
Focusing on that which is so close to us that we do not perceive it, such as our own voice and the ability of our mind to imagine a different reality than that which is before our senses, this piece focuses on the ability of two friends or strangers to follow their voices, depart from their anthropocentric bunkers, pass the infrastructure that facilitates their virtual existence via fibre optic communication channels and sewage systems, to meet finally in the echoes of a cave.
Credits:
Tail of the Hen series, 2021, Lundahl & Seitl
Rachel Alexander - Collaborator and Dramaturgy
DVA - Creative Technology partner / Head Developer,
Micke Ring
Hara Alonso - Sound Composer
Emma Ward - Producer
Commissioned by STRP Eindhoven
Lundahl & Seitl are supported by The Swedish Arts Grants Committee and the International Program for Visual Artists (iaspis), Stockholm Stad and Kulturrådet Sweden / Swedish Arts Council and the Embassy of Sweden, Washington D.C.
Stockholm and London-based duo Lundahl & Seitl formed in 2003. They perform, teach, and play with choreography, VR, and architecture, and they create anti-disciplinary artwork experiences. With a background in visual arts (Christer Lundahl) and choreography (Martina Seitl), they discover immersive states as a philosophical tool to observe the boundaries and connections between the living, objects and technologies, places and environments. Their work is shown internationally at museums, biennales, and in site-specific public spaces. Previous works are Eternal Return at STRP 2019 (together with ScanLAB Projects), Symphony of a Missing Room at Gropius Bau Berlin, Symphony - Mnemosyne Revolution at 2nd Kochi Muziris Biennale in India, and The Infinite Conversation at Avignon Festival in France.