SWEETENER

video, 12 mins, 2021

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Sweetener takes its title from the TV production practice of 'sweetening' the response of a live studio audience with pre-recorded laughter samples. Set against the colours of Battenberg cake and Mr Blobby, the film simulates a well-behaved audience via post-production collage, providing a laugh track for our everyday sitcom of shared delirium.

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As they watch some unseen performance, the audience see-saws between forced and spontaneous laughter. Kept apart by the threat of viral transmission, they somehow manage to stay synchronised; laughter proves infectious.

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The video blurs the space between live and recorded, authentic and fake, whilst gesturing towards the almost comical fatigue of a year in lockdown. As polite chuckles mutate into hysteria, the crowd appears to ask, 'are you feeling what I'm feeling?'

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Sweetener was commissioned by the Performance Research Network at Newcastle University.

 

Created and performed by Clara Potter-Sweet and Ben Kulvichit

Outside eye & post-production sound Nat Norland

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Dates

From 5 May 2021 / Performance Research Network, Online 'Liveness' Exhibition 

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