In mainstream science fiction narratives dominated by heteronormative fantasies, the discourse about (gender) identities, sexualities, social relationships, and sensuous knowledge often lags way behind speculations on technological advancements; accomplishment, conquest, combat, and oppression are popular, recurring themes. Technicolor Dreamz evolves around sensory perception and advocates alternatives to hierarchical thinking and how it structures the ways we act. Synaesthesia – a perceptive phenomenon in which the senses merge in unusual ways when reacting to stimuli – operates as a utopian, fictional superpower which enables a multiplicity of perspectives and aims to disrupt destructive mechanisms of power. In an immersive space where the senses merge to a kaleidoscopic cartography, one can taste music, hear colours, and see smells. Presumed divisions between the material and immaterial, between human and non-human realms are being blurred and repurposed to allow the exploration of new terrains of consciousness.

Malika Fankha studied theatre in Zurich and contemporary dance in Salzburg (SEAD) and NYU (Tisch School of Performing Arts) and works internationally as a dancer, choreographer, poet, and DJ. Fankha’s performative work aims to blur the hierarchies between genres to collapse the threshold of binary and normative social codes such as artifice and nature, intimacy and representation. Shifting seamlessly between multiple narratives, it spectrums the utopian and dystopian characteristics of online narcissism, posthuman fantasies and disconcerting trivia while at the same time declaring everything to be within the textual, visual, and emotive space of poetry. Co-production and residency partners include Tanzquartier Wien, brut Wien, WUK, ImPulsTanz, Wiener Festwochen, Sound:Frame, Tanzhaus Zürich, Dampfzentrale Bern, Art Basel, Zentrum Paul Klee, Pianofabriek Brussels, workspacebrussels, Kaaitheater, CAMPO Ghent, BUDA Kortrijk, Cullberg Ballet Stockholm, Life Long Burning, Golden Days Festival Copenhagen, Mladi Levi Festival Ljubljana, Swissnex, and Counterpulse San Francisco.

The show on 5 November will be followed by an artist talk moderated by Hyo Lee.