The Radiant performance/installation is inspired by the novel by the Strugatski brothers, Roadside Picnic a work of fiction based on the aftermath of an extraterrestrial event (called the Visitation) which simultaneously took place in half a dozen separate locations around Earth for a two-day period. Neither the Visitors themselves nor their means of arrival or departure were ever seen by the local population who lived inside the relatively small area of each of the six Visitation Zones. Such zones exhibit strange and dangerous phenomena not understood by humans, and contain artifacts with inexplicable, seemingly supernatural properties. The name of the novel derives from an analogy proposed by the character Dr. Valentine Pilman who compares the extraterrestrial event to a picnic.
In using this wonderful and detailed text gives us a possibility to bring the concept of the novel into a post apocalyptic feeling of today’s world, with modern day catastrophes and economic indifference being reasons why there are a growing number of abandoned spaces. Our aim is to explore these spaces and to collate material in those environments and bring these elements to a public in an informative and tactile experience.
On a larger picture ideally the ongoing process of the performance the aim is to bring an awareness of the state of human civilization today, how fragile we have made our situation here on earth, we all have our journey, but there are powers completely out of our hands, powers that tip the scales into a uncertain realm of where are we all heading, the current situation in Japan at the Fukushima Daiichi Plant is a perfect example of this uncertainty and fragility.
Are the discoveries of technology beneficial in our futuristic plan or is the human race to far ahead of itself, is there a balance in this equation or is the machine running to far ahead of itself spinning out of control?
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