Emily Michaels King Remounts DIGITAL, An Experimental Performance for Fringe

Twin Cities based performing artist Emily Michaels King announced today the remount of her recent virtual theatrical work, DIGITAL, performing August 5-15 for the Minnesota Fringe Festival.

Emily Michaels King is known for her fearless solo performances, like her award winning piece MAGIC GIRL and her experimental woman-centered work with Debra Berger in their collaboration E/D (LEWIS/CLARK, ANIMUS, THE SHOW). Michaels King is also a graphic designer, photographer, and art director. Using her myriad of skills, this multidisciplinary artist has integrated these practices into an innovative performance piece made specifically for the virtual realm.

DIGITAL is a pixelated performance by Emily Michaels King that uses MacBook Pro, iPhone, and Zoom to explore identity and bloodline. This inventive and disorienting collage of camera curation, screen sharing, choreography, and image manipulation is an archival assemblage of memory and the detritus of one's life, digital and otherwise. It intentionally presses the bounds of online performance, drawing audiences into a visually captivating and intimate world.

Peppered with neon colors and nods to Emily's 90s/00s upbringing, DIGITAL's content and the way it's delivered are layered and stimulating. "A lot of my work explores the past," Michaels King said, "but DIGITAL doesn't just examine ancestral archeology, it thrusts audiences into the chaos of unearthing personal and collective truth." DIGITAL explores biological and virtual lineage through imagery and video collected from Emily's life and Google searches, applications like Photoshop and Photo Booth, and precisely framed webcam sequences of the artist's body and physical space.

The piece will be presented live via video conferencing and is specifically made with and for the online space where it is experienced by audiences. The technological elements involved in the work such as a laptop, Zoom, cell phone, and their specific features, capabilities, and movements are primary building tools for the work and are theatrical entities in themselves. "It is essential to me that this piece is not simply performed virtually, but that the content and aesthetic of the work fully acknowledge and embrace the technology and platforms on which it's made," Michaels King said. Alone in her room, Michaels King executes the entire intricate performance by herself.

DIGITAL also wrenches audiences into the unexpected intimacy of seeing not only someone's living space but their virtual space: desktop, cursor movements, images, searches. "I want DIGITAL to feel bizarre and familiar," Michaels King said, "like swimming in the technicolor oil slick of our subconscious."

Each DIGITAL show will be performed live via Zoom from Michaels King's bedroom.

About Emily Michaels King

Emily Michaels King is a performing artist based in St. Paul, Minnesota exploring sensory and tactile engagement in live experiences through movement, installations, and visual art. She is also a part of the collaborative duo E/D with Debra Berger who creates performances centered on the female experience. Her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, the Guthrie Theater, and the Southern Theater, among others. On stage she has worked with The Moving Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Children's Theater Company, The Old Globe, Transatlantic Love Affair, Karen Sherman, among others, and she has devised and performed in many pieces with Live Action Set. In recent years, Emily has produced several solo projects, including her award winning evening length show MAGIC GIRL and commissions for the Twin Cities Horror Festival, Four Humors Theater, and the rock band Kiss the Tiger. Pairing minimalism and subtlety with cacophony and bared irreverence, Emily's works employ the lush landscape of the introvert's inner world and the power of unapologetic embodiment. They combine movement with text, poetry, sound, and sculpture to focus on themes of anatomy, introversion, womanhood, self discovery, and bold, or supremely delicate, expressions of personal truth.

On sale now at https://minnesotafringe.org/2021-show-information/digital.

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