For me, the word "ritual" evokes tradition and cycle. And there's plenty that is traditional and cyclical at this year's Singapore International Festival of Arts (Sifa). But with a new festival director, Natalie Hennedige, the programme under the theme "Anatomy Of Performance: Ritual" also embraces questions of the future and the digital space.
The more obvious futuristic works in the festival include Holly Herndon's Proto, a concert featuring human and AI–made sounds; sci-fi artist and body architect's Sifa-commissioned short film Delicate Spells Of Mind; and the closing performance, Once And Future, which brings together Singapore's filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua and members of the Berliner Philharmoniker to ponder the future of Earth and humanity.
