The Glory Machine is a theatre performance consisting entirely and solely of filming and editing a promotional trailer for the performance itself. We observe the rapid-fire setup and recording of eighty microscenes, which are simultaneously edited and arranged into a short trailer video. Conceived as a virus, The Glory Machine follows social media logic by producing its own promotional material to reproduce itself indefinitely.
The piece was inspired by the ways in which we curate and perform idealized versions of ourselves online through social media platforms and beyond. By privileging the development of web presence over the performance itself, The Glory Machine archly proposes an all-in investment into “cultural capital”, responding to (by playing along with) the labor obligatorily required to generate online presence and social media outreach.
The piece was inspired by the ways in which we curate and perform idealized versions of ourselves online through social media platforms and beyond. By privileging the development of web presence over the performance itself, The Glory Machine archly proposes an all-in investment into “cultural capital”, responding to (by playing along with) the labor obligatorily required to generate online presence and social media outreach.
“It is a laborious madness and an impoverishing one, the madness of composing vast books, setting out in five hundred pages an idea that can be perfectly related orally in five minutes. The better way to go about it is to pretend that those books already exist, and offer a summary, a commentary on them.“
– Jorge Luis Borges, introduction to The Garden of Forking Paths
– Jorge Luis Borges, introduction to The Garden of Forking Paths
Critic's pick, Theaterkrant: https://www.theaterkrant.nl/recensie/the-glory-machine/billy-mullaney-tilt-veem-house-for-performance-productiehuis-tr/
Promotional interview, Veem House for Performance: https://vimeo.com/692552589?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=90976658
Promotional interview, Veem House for Performance: https://vimeo.com/692552589?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=90976658
Photos by Thomas Lenden
