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THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2026
12 PM > 6:30 PM
PALAZZO DIEDO

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Six performances, one every hour starting at 12 PM, with a break from 3 to 4 PM

Free entry until capacity is met

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Human Unreadable: Body not included (2026) is a new performance by Operator that exposes the choreographic infrastructure of their work Human Unreadable. The work deploys the outputs of the Human Unreadable algorithm as the raw material for a live performance the algorithm specifies but cannot itself perform.

In Human Unreadable, each minting transaction on the Ethereum blockchain was transformed into a unique movement sequence, complete with an emotional climate, orientation, tempo, and direction facing. These generative choreographic scores are then stored permanently on-chain, complete as records yet incomplete as events. For this site-specific performance, dancers receive instructions via projected numbers and embody them live, while the full output of this system is materialized as a single unbroken scroll suspended within the exhibition space. Containing every movement instruction the system could generate, the scroll functions as a complete archive of potential performances.

Among the 31 movements in the algorithm's library is IMPROV: a discrete instruction the protocol assigns like any other, indifferent to the fact that what it is specifying is, by definition, unspecifiable and dependent entirely on the desires and mood of the dancers. This paradox sits at the center of the work.

Created on the occasion of Strange Rules, this performance foregrounds the tension between instruction and enactment, system and subject, protocol and embodiment. The score exists as infrastructure; the performance exists only through the temporary appearance of a body not included in the code.

The work is presented in the context of Strange Rules within Attention Guild, the ongoing installation by Mat Dryhurst and Holly Herndon, in collaboration with SUB.

Danced by Valentine Peruch and Giulia Padovan 

Music by Amon Tobin 

Costume by Don Aretino 

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BIO

Operator, the artist duo Ania Catherine (b. 1990, US) and Dejha Ti (b. 1985, US), develops critical and conceptual approaches to experience. With Ti's background as a multimedia artist and HCI technologist, and Catherine's as a choreographer and performance artist, they engineer medium-agnostic output, joining environments, technology, and the body. Their exploration into privacy and extractive technologies began with their installation On View (2019), commissioned by SCAD Museum of Art, and continues with the Privacy Collection, a durational release of works exploring the tension between privacy and transparency in blockchain technology. For their most recent work Human Unreadable, they created an on-chain generative choreography method.

Operator has been awarded The Lumen Prize twice, Prix Ars Electronica, HOFA x Phillips Digital Art Award, S+T+ARTS Prize Honorary Mention. They have spoken at events and institutions including Christie's Art+Tech Summit, TBA21, University of Cambridge, Art Basel, ZKM, Francisco Carolinum Museum, Bloomberg ART+TECHNOLOGY, and MIT Open Doc Lab. Originally from Los Angeles and currently based in Barcelona.