PHADROID COLLECTIVE - main page - PHADROID COLLECTIVE

Since 2009 Android and Phaedrana Jones have been pioneering the emergence of a new type of interactive live expression that has pushed interpersonal, artistic, and technological boundaries. Our work explores human potential using technology as a tool for illustrating connectivity.

PHADROID is a synthesis of the visible and the invisible expressed through a seamless fusion of cutting edge visual technology and dance.

It appears as projected visuals – directed live by the stylus pen of the digital artist – follow, initiate, accentuate or intuitively blend in with the fluidity of motion created on stage. This invisible interaction is seen projected in real time – and not through any motion-tracking device – onto the dancing body.

Phadroid

PHADROID COLLECTIVE is the expansion of this well-established performance model into a creative multidisciplinary venture that connects, across the globe, creative artists and technological innovators to, as a collective, inspire the public domain and harness this momentum to discover uncharted territory.

“…wherein one recognizes one’s true being in relation to that reality, and realizes one’s identity with it by being absorbed into it.”

(Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi)

QUOTES

Sometimes I view the body as the technological intermediary molecular machine that is designed to facilitate the expression of consciousness.

At peak moments within the creative experience my consciousness extends beyond the organic body into the energetic matrix of technology – that of circuits, and electricity; and my mind’s intention activates its inert potential.

As I loosen the grasp on my consciousness, the body can begin to behave automatically, and if I let go at the right time the automation is harmonious.

(ANDREW)

Ultimately, how many bodies do we ‘have’? How many layers to our mind? What else is working through us that is higher than the mind? Where does the mind end and something else begin?

Does the body recognize the soul more than the mind, given that it is more instinctual than intellectual by nature?

Is the mind’s carefully assembled creation or the body’s raw spontaneous expression more real?

What is real to begin with?

(PHAEDRANA)

At times I do not even see her… yet I know exactly where she is and my brush will anticipate her arrival out of invisibility to begin a new curve or line or accent.

Perhaps if art is an expression of one’s core being, then this form of artistic union delivers the chemistry between two beings.

(ANDREW)

Dance is medicine and when we become the dance we become the medicine.

I perceive art as a doorway, like a peaking through so that once you reach there, as a natural state, for an extended moment or longer, you may then say to yourself, “Ah, I know this. I recognize this. I’ve been here before.”

Your memory then serves as an affirmation. Like remembering a place you saw in a dream, only more real. It is the thin line where the intangible becomes tangibly acknowledged.

(PHAEDRANA)

The art of technology?

As the individual gains a modest amount of perceived control over a particular software, routine or program, there is a memory stored within the muscles and the body of the user.

The goal is to gain mastery over at least one particular routine, so the memory of your muscles upon the application becomes the vortex of your consciousness, your breadcrumb of reality.

(ANDREW)

The creative process at its core dissolves the borders of conventional reality generated by the integration of the mind and body at a certain frequency.

Due to this shift, it becomes possible to step beyond what we normally perceive as reality, or to see ourselves as separate from events of the past, present, or future, which in turn may ‘allow’ us to detach from them and find new perspectives.

(PHAEDRANA)

As your comprehension of time deteriorates, the value and respect of the eternal equation that you have always experienced expands.

Your perception is the tip of the record’s needle spinning forward. Your decisions are derived from a source beyond knowing, and so it exceeds my ability to describe it.

(ANDREW)

When sense is placed aside the lid is blown off; and if our presence is still complete what may transpire is more than what we could imagine or plan for.

It is in those moments that I begin to allow myself to believe that being out of control can be just as much if not more a blessing as being in control.

I, or the ‘I’ that I know, does not ‘create’ magic. It allows magic through. And for that there are no rules to make up prior; it is a state of being where we are of no importance.

(PHAEDRANA)

Imagine editing along a timeline. If your consciousness exists on a linear timeline at the point of departure, you slowly dissolve the connection point.

It’s like you split the play-head of reality and you become free of time.

The road behind you disintegrates into the void, and you’re so far out ahead of where you were, that there’s nothing in front of you or behind you. You’re free.

(ANDREW)

It works according to its own logic and purpose and those involved in making this kind of art do not ultimately credit themselves for the products of their creative expression.

Expression of this form is its own entity – though as soon as we begin to look for it, it disappears.

It doesn’t like to be documented either. It can only ever be experienced; and I am still challenged to believe it, except for when it is actually happening of course.

(PHAEDRANA)

All technology is a symphony of code performed by an orchestra of machines, routing a conscious and intentional current.

Original art is recognized by its tendencies of unrecognizability; meaning it is a new code being introduced.

Art is either fresh code introduced to an old mind, or new mind introduced to old code.

(ANDREW)

Perseverance combined with focused, disciplined work in literally any direction will assist one in sweeping off particles of dust that obscure our sight.

Dusting the slate clean it is not in any way personal any more.

Art of any form that is in any way universal comes from this place; and it reaches out to people directly.

(PHAEDRANA)

For a large portion of my journey through life the creative process was executed within a container of solitude.

Yet the act of creation, or the moment of the act of creation, is the most exhilarating part of the entire process. A finished painting is only a shadow born from the light of that experience.

I was drawn toward the realm of performance art, and that of live painting, because it allowed for a platform where I could share this moment of creation with a larger group of people.

It fascinated me that the act of making art in front of an audience demystified the creative process while earning an added level of validation for it.

(ANDREW)

Any discipline at its best may allow a witnessing of one’s purest potential as unnecessary and stagnant boundaries of fear, doubt, insecurity, etc. dissolve away even if only for a moment of time.

One might say that which is merely ‘an illusion’ is seen through.

As if you could walk through the thick walls of negative experiences, society’s or your own conditionings, expectations or projections, as if those seemingly impenetrable walls were not even there, as if this ‘potential’ was already a living, breathing, tangible realm ever since you were born.

(PHAEDRANA)

In a deep creative journey there is a point of departure where the only thing keeping you tethered to the physical world are the creative tools in your hands that you hang onto by your fingertips.

The process then transforms into an elusive journey back through your own consciousness.

The pen becomes my walking staff and a lightning rod that grounds and focuses on the most creative aspect of my imagination, disassociated from veils of distraction and repetition.

It’s as if it was an attempt of the tool and my consciousness to merge together.

(ANDREW)

We do not rehearse synchronicity. It points past us.

In the realm of the creative we ask no questions, it is all one big answer.

(PHAEDRANA)

We do not use any motion-tracking device.

At its core, Phadroid is a purely human generated multidisciplinary collaboration and it may not be what it now is if it was pre-programmed to a computerized system.

(ANDREW)

I believe whatever anyone is drawn to from the heart, where one can recognize passion – that’s your toolbox. That’s where your work begins.

And it takes work. Any basics of any discipline take work.

Once you have enough tools to play with though, you can then begin watching your game broadcasted on a screen of its own making.

(PHAEDRANA)

Throughout the course of my entire life, art has been one of the only things that made any sense to me.

The creative process has been a refuge for my mind and a meditation for my imagination.

I had had little interest for anything else, and it became clear to me that the road to my happiness lay in factoring an equation of time/effort that kept me drawing and creating as much as possible.

(ANDREW)

In my experience, true creative expression is not a choice but an overpowering inner drive that arises like some invisible golden arrow, which then gradually takes over the course of your life.

As if a code was playing itself out.

(PHAEDRANA)