Phoebe Robinson
Mimeisthai is part of an ongoing and multimodal
project that includes multi-channel video installation and single channel film
formats. Mimeisthai I was officially selected for Cinedans 2024, 'ongoing
installations', presented at the Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam. A previous, shorter
version (12mins) featured in ‘Dance (Lens)’ 2021 at Dancehouse Inc, and an
earlier incarnation of this film was a four-channel gallery installation (8min
loop), presented at Kings Artist Run Initiative (Naarm/Melbourne, Australia) in 2020.
Mimeisthai I
Mimeisthai II
Mimeisthai I and II are cine-choreographic explorations of Walter Benjamin’s 1933 concept of the 'mimetic faculty'. As a generic skill, the mimetic faculty refers to an ability to perceive and/or reproduce similarity, without necessarily implying sameness. This skill is possessed by all living things and finds expression on various levels, from the biological to the behavioural; such as in reproduction or camouflage, to the myriad ways that creatures communicate. In 'Mimeisthai' movements are shared, transformed and repeated between performers both on and off-screen, and then amplified across multiple frames. Also drawing inspiration from Benjamin's concepts of the 'optical unconscious' and the 'citationality of gesture', this work explores the duplication, repetition, and layering of movements, inspired by early motion study experiments by pioneers like Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey. By reflecting on film's origins as a tool for studying motion and its modern digital transformation, this work engages in a form of mimetic play.