martyn coutts

Out of Body Exp.

16th May, Black Box, Victorian Arts Centre

A cyborg is created when a human links with a machine to create a new being – in the most simple example of this – someone sitting typing at a computer, riding a bicycle or driving a car becomes this.

My overall impression of Out of Body Exp. was that the metal arms Keith Lim had built to make him move faster/better/stronger ended up only impeding his movement. Appendages that were to create a cyborgian addition to his body, that would enable him to do things he wouldn’t normally be able to do, ended up limiting him and in the process limiting the piece as a whole.

The structure of the work was a very simple an A>B structure that went from him talking to the audience (A) to “dancing” (B). It was such a simple back and forth that progression inside the work seemed stilted.

One wasn’t sure whether to go with the narrative (was there one?) or to allow the pieces just to wash over you. Were we meant to see Keith as a character or as himself? Where did the appendages come from – why did he need them?

The text sequence that hit home to me the strongest spoke of a house made of ipods, with their shining backlit screens warmly glowing. Has he taken the next step that these are no longer accessories in our lives but are the building blocks of our very existence? But do we care? Have we invested enough in this man called Keith that we care at all?

The trajectory of the work was unknown to me and by the final stages, I was left empty. The arms had defeated him.

The one sequence that I loved most of all was ironically the only sequence where he didn’t have the arms on – he was working a text and movement score that hinted at unsurety or of a moving through states of time very quickly. A beautiful sequence that uncovered a vulnerability that I didn’t see again from the piece.