NOWISWHENWEARE (the stars)

December 11–14, 2024

Andrew Schneider brings his interactive theatrical installation NOWISWHENWEARE(the stars) to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. With nearly 5,000 individually reactive points of light and a 496-channel sound system, the stars envelop each audience member, pushing the idea that every point in space occurs once at each moment of time.  Schneider will be the unseen narrator guiding each participant through an individualized journey into a precisely programmed matrix of light and the cosmos of themselves.

Part meditation, part exploration, the stars draws visitors into a hyper-focus of the present. NOWISWHENWEARE(the stars) invites viewers to become active explorers, to discover the traces of themselves in light, the universe, and those who have been here before us, all contributing to being “here” and being “now.”

 THE STARS / We Won’t Be Here Anymore
These times are uncertain for most of us
Most times are uncertain for at least some of us
and
No times are uncertain for none of us
(from the artist’s webpage)

Andrew Schneider, an OBIE award-winning, Drama Desk-nominated performer, writer, and interactive-electronics artist, developed N O W I S W H E N W E A R E (the stars) to be part meditation, part exploration, and a hyper-focus of the present. Using custom-built software and hardware systems that he developed over the past ten years, NOWISWHENWEARE(the stars) incorporates ultra-wide band micro position tracking, high order ambisonics, wave field synthesis, and individually controllable, pixel-mapped, hand-soldered LED “stars,” or points of light.

Schneider states, “I started fabrication on Prototype I of this project in late March of 2020—at the start of the global pandemic and just after my new choreographic work for the Berlin dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests premiered and closed (on the same night) due to the increasing restrictions on public gatherings. With an ever-increasing call for performance work to transition online in the beginning of this year, I chose to double-down on ‘liveness’— focusing on ways we can pay close attention to the moment and movement we are presently in—in both time and space. I chose to challenge myself to keep curating meaningful experiences in-person rather than on-line.  How can we continue to provide a safe in-person experience? How can we commune? How can we grieve. How can we remember? And how can we say goodbye?”

NOWISWHENWEARE(the stars) is offered as both an Open Universe, which is a self-guided exploration, and a Guided Universe performance.

Guests at the Arts Center’s annual members-only Winter Social will get a first glimpse of the Open Universe on December 8. NOWISWHENWEARE(the stars) will take place in the Matrix December 11-14. Afterward, Schneider will remain in residence at the Arts Center for another week to create a new work. During this vital time for creation and development, Schneider will be accompanied by three members of his production team and two dancers.