HOME X – Kakilang / Barbican, London

A multi-disciplinary performance that can be experienced in-person or digitally, HOME X ruminates on the meaning of home as well as experimenting with digital technologies.

HOME X

Something I miss about the arts of a couple of years ago is the feeling of experimentation. Sure, those were dark times. But the necessity of delivering arts and culture content virtually really brought out people’s creative streaks. As things have gone back to ‘normal’, something of this exciting trend seems to have receded once more.

Enter Kakilang, with HOME X. Like The Great He-Goat which I saw recently, I barely know how to begin to describe it. The Barbican’s website has the following to say:

Dance performance meets cutting edge technology in this live show that combines theatre, music, gaming and VR technology created with artists in London and Hong Kong.

HOME X | Barbican

That describes the what. But I still found it quite hard to picture what the experience was going to be like. Let me explain a little more before we move on. You have a choice between participating in HOME X online, or in person at the Barbican. I opted for the latter, but I’m thinking about trying out the former as well. If you’re there in person, the Barbican’s Pit space has been set up with screens on three sides, and space on a small stage for a performer/dancer and a sound technician/composer. HOME X starts with a virtual, video game world (with people participating from home). Cute little creatures interact and go about their business, their thoughts and comments flashing up on screen in internet speak.

More technologies then start to be layered in. HOME X incorporates one live performer in London and one in Hong Kong. They don VR headsets and enter the virtual world, their avatars captured by 3D cameras. They interact with each other and the virtual world, but they’re not here to hang out with the little tripod deer creatures. They’re here to colonise in some way.

What Does Home Mean To You?

The act of transgressing the boundaries of this virtual world unleashes something unexpected for the two interlopers. An extended segment of HOME X involves talking heads, also captured by 3D cameras, talking about home. There’s a focus, although not exclusively, on the complicated situation in Hong Kong and how this has impacted people’s sense of home. Of feeling at home, making a home for yourself, knowing where you belong.

So that’s my attempt to explain HOME X to you. In terms of the experience of seeing it and what I think the implications are, there are a few reflections I would like to share with you.

Firstly I think this is a great experiment in how new technologies can be used in the arts, and how the arts themselves may adapt to the needs of digital natives. Those who read this blog frequently will know I love a bit of VR. At first when watching HOME X I was concerned it was going to be like the experience of watching someone else play a video game or have a go with a VR headset. Fine, but you wish you were doing it yourself. After a while, though, it became truly engrossing, and I forgot that I was in a classic physical audience, removed from the action. The inclusion of so many technologies together must have been incredibly complicated to pull off, but the end result is like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Kakilang

Secondly, some of the elements of plot will seem familiar to you. But there’s a reason for that. I used the word avatar above in its digital sense, but you may be thinking “Hang on… Some nice creatures doing their thing until interlopers come in to exploit them… This sounds like a certain James Cameron film I know!” Wait until I tell you there’s also a big tree. But the fact of the matter is, it’s a good metaphor for the ways in which humans are quite crappy. Any number of colonised peoples would agree. In quite a busy performance, it feels like a shorthand to get to the emotional core of HOME X, about home and belonging and togetherness.

And thirdly I’ve briefly spoken already about the experience of seeing it, but I think this deserves a deeper dive. During a three minute countdown at the beginning I was slightly worried the screens might give me motion sickness, but this turned out not to be an issue. The focus moved dynamically so we weren’t having to turn our heads as much as some digital experiences require.

I have a logistical brain, so I loved being able to see some of the ‘behind the scenes’ action in front of me. Director and composer An-Ting 安婷 was coordinating the sounds and music on one side of the stage. And on the other Si Rawlinson was giving a very physical performance as one of the colonising avatars. This meant we could see in real time how the 3D cameras replicated his movement, and brought me a much greater appreciation for the other live elements: dancer Suen Nam and soprano Colette Wing Wing Lam projected onto our screens direct from Hong Kong.

So if you like your arts to be digital, or innovative, or exciting, then HOME X is the experience for you this week. It is part of a festival: Kakilang (formerly Chinese Arts Now) have developed a cultural moment as part of their rebranding, and will be bringing more Southeast and East Asian voices to the forefront through until April. HOME X is a fantastic kick-off and statement of intent: I look forward to seeing more.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

HOME X on until 25 February in person at the Barbican or online