GOGOL'S OVERCOAT

interactive visual art theatre project
based on the short stories by Nicolay Gogol

                    “The Overcoat” by N. Gogol is considered as one of the greatest short stories ever written.  It is particularly valued for its unique humanistic qualities and compassionate attitude towards each and every human creature, even such underdog and social misfit as the main character Akaky Bashmachkin, treated by the author not as a nuisance, or a figure of fun, or an object of charity, but as a human being who has as much right to happiness as anyone else. This humanistic subject was never out-of-date in the course of the entire history, but it becomes particularly important in the 21^st century due to the inevitable technological expansion and economic globalization that takes over and diminishes the significance of individual life. 
      Challenged by the goal of creating contemporary images for the 19^th century text, we’re searching for the style that would integrate traditional and modern forms of performing arts and would allow to reveal the spirit of Gogol’s masterpiece in a way that it was never yet approached.  
       To create this style we’re planning to combine the following artistic elements:
- live acting with the emphasis on movement,
- live narration with musical/singing elements,
- shadow puppets theatre tradition,
-  remote controlled surrealistic robots,
- new interactive video projection technique based on the cutting edge body-tracking software.

    Creators of this project find it really important to involve recent technological achievements of our digital-, nano- and IT-world into the body of art for it can help human beings survive their competition with machines as well as more decently face the challenge of further isolation, individualization, and globalization of life.
       Such integration of art and technology could: 
- reduce alienation caused by an increasingly technological world,
- help to attune technology to human needs,
- allow to discover innovative uses of technology that will benefit both sides – users and designers,
- reflect, recognize and separate our illusions from our reality.
       
    The GOGOL'S OVERCOAT project as it is presented in this description raises important issues regarding our addictive relationship with technologies and our future identity as human beings.  This art form intends to address many tangled moral and existential questions of our time, such as:  how far should we go in our technological absorption? When do we stop being human and become technological mechanisms? How can we adapt to the new cultural phenomenon where the technological and the biological are increasingly indistinguishable, where machines behave in an increasingly human way, and humans more mechanically? Through which mechanisms we as human beings can take control of the technological race instead of feeling that we are being borne along by a runaway horse?