Performance Art Demonstrates Origin of Life
Science and art collide (sometimes literally) in Group Intelligence, a new flash mob performance art piece that asks the question, “How did life begin?”
Out of Hand Theater in Atlanta combined forces with the NASA/NSF Center for Chemical Evolution to explore the formation of molecules. But rather than confining it to a petri dish, the group decided to scale it up so that individual people can represent individual atoms.
Group Intelligence requires a lot of space, a lot of people and an MP3 player. Each participant becomes part of the moving pieces that make up the cell, molecules and other microscopic phenomena. Together all the participants synchronize their audio players and begin at the same time, following instructions to guide them through the exercise.
Adam Fristoe, the founder of Out of Hand Theater says, “Once they become public knowledge, once these ideas spread out into the public mind are going to transform the way we think about ourselves as human beings.”
According to the website, Group Intelligence, “While the audience follows the narration, their movements mimic the self-assembly patterns of molecules that created life. The event draws parallels between a mob of people and a pool of molecules: in both, individual behaviors of selfishness or cooperation create a collective intelligence, the very properties that allowed the molecules of early Earth to self assemble to form life.”
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