FAKE
Drum and bass collides with performance art in a full-scale descent into digital chaos.
FAKE is an immersive assault on truth itself: a high intensity journey through AI hallucinations, conspiracy theories, scams, misinformation, political extremism and the fractured realities shaping contemporary life.
Surrounded by screens, audiences are dropped inside a live feed of the internet’s collective subconscious. Real time web scrapes from 4chan, Reddit and TikTok flood the space alongside breaking news, chatbots, audience submissions, live video and relentless sonic pressure, generating a volatile snapshot of what the world believes right now.
Nothing is stable. Everything is contested. Reality splinters in every direction at once.
FAKE is not a show you watch. It is a system you enter. Once you see what’s lurking in the wilds online, you cannot unsee it.
Festival of Dangerous Ideas proudly presents the Sydney premiere of FAKE.
Ages 18+ only.
Content Warning:
This performance incorporates live internet content and may include graphic or confronting material, including depictions of war, violence, death, animal harm, sexual exploitation, hate speech and slurs. The work also contains frequent strobing imagery and loud sound. A low-sensory space will be available for audience members who wish to take a break from the experience.
Mark Haslam
Mark’s practice is a hybrid of technical production, design, direction and performance, with a particular interest in raw performance styles and the integration of media into contemporary performance. Through his company, kdmindustries, he makes electronic visual theatre, examining microscopic moments of cataclysmic change. He has worked with many leading contemporary arts companies and practitioners across performance, dance, electronic music and visual arts, touring over 50 works across 4 continents. He lives in Western Australia with a mermaid and their kid.
kdmindustries
kdmindustries make Electronic Visual Theatre – mashing the digital and meat worlds to find moments of extreme humanity within the chaos of contemporary existence. They explore concepts that bring together social, political and cultural concerns and deconstruct artistic hierarchies. Never prioritising one form over another, their performances combine real-time sources from both the audience and the world outside, creating projects that leave audiences with a moment of collective consciousness outside of individual artistic ego. Their tools include live camera, text, movement, web scraping, unsecured CCTV footage, drones, sonic aggression, AI and an ongoing, consistent use of rave and club aesthetic, drawn from years of lighting clubs and Festivals.
We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation - the custodians of the country on which we meet - and acknowledge their Elders, past and present.
The views and opinions expressed by the Festival participants are not necessarily the views of The Ethics Centre and our partners.