With ℧r, Marco Donnarumma continues his dramaturgical journey into the nexus of bodies,
sounds and machines. As a new rhizome of the project Humane Methods, ℧r reflects on
violence as a foundation of current algorithmic societies: a violence of instructions, of
systems, of infrastructures created with the specific purpose of abusing all living beings.
Such systems work through loops, through organized repetitions of machines and of
humans. Humans make instructions, machines repeat instructions, living things suffer
instructions, on and on and on.

℧r is a solo performance for a Faceless body, AI algorithm, lights and the vibrational force of
sound. Embodied in Donnarumma’s musical instrument XTH Sense, an interactive, machine
learning algorithm transforms the inner sound of muscles, blood, and bones into a real-time
choreography of movement, sounds and light. The piece combines multi-sensorial
stimulation with human-computer interaction and somatic practices to test the seeming
impossibilities of movement and repetition.

℧r is a walk in the dark. A thin body walks while a dim light shines. Soil is between them and
a rope connects them. Gazeless, the figure walks and prays, walks and prays, walks and, as
if entranced, pries into the darkness. The walk is a loop, a prayer, an aggression, an
annihilation and a transformation. The flesh of the Nameless’ limbs is amplified,
microphones onto the muscular tissue. The inner tension resounds in the rising brightness.
Movement is sound, repeat; sound is vibration, repeat; vibration is pressure, repeat;
pressure is released.

A grinding howling grows ominously, repetition turns into dysfunction, brightness turns into
blindness. Is the Unnamed going to reach the light and burn, just as moths do?