The Machine of Horizontal Dreams is an artistic platform and research initiative that aims to examine, question, and re-imagine the idea of crescendo as the dramaturgy of pleasure and its correlation to the Western notion of progress in our society, environment, and bodies.
Contemporary discussions around the decolonization of academia and the emergence of the Global South have highlighted a lack of multidimensional approaches to how progress can manifest. By critically engaging with these ideas, The Machine of Horizontal Dreams encourages the re-thinking and collective re-imagining of the notion of pleasure/progress through experimentation with its different and potentially new forms.
This research aims to find the dialogue between sensualities of the human and non-human bodies. It will look at progress from a somatic point of view, proposing choreographic thinking and practices of care where nature, human and non-human, redefine progress as a pleasurable and nourishing way of co-existing together.
The Machine of Horizontal Dreams will manifest in different forms: workshops with community members and audiences, a theoretical thesis and a performance installation. The public presentation will be a unique multidimensional performance installation that includes interactive technology, video art, live sound and lighting, performed in a circular space to remove any hierarchical structure, inviting audience participation which will also shape and shift the space.
The Machine of Horizontal Dreams will premiere at Sadler’s Wells East 2025 opening season at the Olympic Park in Newham. The piece will be available for touring across the UK and internationally thereafter.
The Machine of Horizontal Dreams
