MIASMA opens in an unnamed coastal town in the artists' home region of Northern England, where an abyssal volcanic hole cracks open in a vacant car park. Although referential in part to Ligottian horror, the presentation incorporates 3D game design, neo-noir film, and the Japanese dance theatre of butoh to unearth sensations of dread, mourning, and alienation.

Uncanny dispositions frequently appear as characters and dancers stagger past illegible signs of defunct businesses in a town that seems compact yet eerily vacuous — a gesture to Mark Fisher’s Ghosts of My Life:

“You suppose that you could be in familiar territory…Few landmarks. The tracks have numbers, not names. You can listen to them in any order. The point is to get lost.”

Lostness is central to MIASMA’s thesis, particularly in its scenes of intoxicated seclusion or the vastitude evoked by its filmography designed in Unreal Engine 5. Its narrative arc and depiction of urban simulations catalyze a duality between the familiar and estranged. Live interventions engender MIASMA’s provocations into a visceral domain, relying on butoh’s notably grotesque motivations to connect viewers to experiences illustrated by the film.

Through the virtual and choreographic, MIASMA autopsies the post-industrial urban corpse, carves out, and meditates on its wounds in unparalleled catharsis: an embrace with a dark simulacrum that’s intimate, melancholic, and abrasive.

Hannah Rose Stewart & Blackhaine, ‘MIASMA’ (2022)

Video, installation, & performance

Presented at Trauma Bar Und Kino on October 12

Curated by Madalina Stanescu

Credits:

Hannah Rose Stewart – Principal

Blackhaine – Principal

Filip Setman – Filmography, Production

Marco Stoltze – Editor

Samuel Capps – Motion Capture

Lucas Hadjam – 3D Asset Creation

Felix Ward – Lighting Design

Rainy Miller – Music Production

Croww – Music Production

Louis Ellis – Choreographic Performance

Alisia Wood – Costume Design

Jordi Theler – Graphic Design

Special thanks to:

Kyle Van Horn

The Trauma Bar Und Kino team