As part of Nocturne2, the Satosphère hosted the world premiere of Rapid Eye Movement (REM, a well-known acronym for obvious reasons) last Thursday, an immersive performance conceived by British artists Bertie Sampson and YeffYeff, aka Reeps One. Conceived as a sensory journey through sleep cycles, the work invited the audience to enter a collective dream where voices and images dissolved into a single dreamlike flow.
The performance follows the five stages of sleep, focusing on the last one—REM, the intense dreaming stage just before waking. Beforehand, the artists collected visual, textual, and audio fragments from an online audience, which they then transformed into sensory material: we were literally immersed in people’s dreams.
On stage, YeffYeff experimented live with his voice, sometimes stretched, sometimes distorted, in dialogue with Sampson’s generative environments. His soundtrack, deeply rooted in the heritage of the British garage scene, summoned UK Garage, Future Garage and UK Bass.
To his right, Bertie Sampson manipulated the 360° projected visuals: moving architecture, flower gardens, human silhouettes, abstract textures. From the iris of an eye to hybrid landscapes between human constructions and nature, his images composed a moving map of the unconscious.
On the monumental scale of the dome, Rapid Eye Movement blurs perceptions and destabilizes landmarks, immersing the viewer in a living map of the unconscious. After MUTEK, the two artists will extend this dreamlike journey with new performances at the SAT starting August 26.
