24/09 – 05/10

by Rimini Protokoll

Concept & Script / Direction: Stefan Kaegi

Sound Design: Nikolas Neecke

Co-Director: Jörg Karrenbauer

Dramaturgy: Juliane Männel, Aljoscha Begrich

Director Assistance: Ilona Marti

Production Management: Caroline Lippert, Juliane Männel

Hordes of people who have never met in the real world swarm out on virtual treasure hunts when playing online games. In "Remote Vilnius" we're a horde of people wearing radio headphones, swarming out into the real city.
A synthetic voice in our headphones (of the kind familiar from GPS navigators or airport announcements) directs the movements of our swarm. Binaural recordings and film scores turn the cityscape into a personal film; artificial Intelligence explores unknown territories, mustering human activity from a remote perspective. And yet the voice sounds ever more human to us as we progress, while in the eyes of passers-by our remotely controlled horde starts to look like a kind of alien entity.
How are joint decisions made? Are we all hearing the same words? As 50 individuals observe each other the swarm breaks down into ever-smaller units, before re-forming as a collective in which decisions are ultimately taken individually. Might this be the beginning of a movement?
"Remote Vilnius" lays a trail through the city for this swarm of 50 people. It composes a soundtrack to streets, parking garages, churches and backyards. Each new city-specific version builds on the dramatic structure of its predecessor, writing more storylines for new sites.