Adam Kinner and Christopher Willes have created a one-on-one performance that turns a public library into a space of sensory encounter and heightened awareness. MANUAL, staged covertly during the public hours of Itäkeskus Library, invites participants to arrive on site with instructions to meet a stranger in a particular place. From there they are silently led through a series of subtle events, following written notes and immersive audio in headphones. They walk through the space and listen together. They look at books and read to each other. Sounds and images found in the library combine and blur. And as the piece progresses the materials come to form a manual for slowing down.

Intermingling with the daily life of the library, MANUAL reflects on the act of listening and the intimacy of reading with another person in a public space. Through a carefully guided participatory experience, the piece invites viewers to engage with the library as a site of deep sensory awareness, and to reflect on the social and technological conditions of shared attention.

Adam Kinner and Christopher Willes will host a workshop on the 8th of November, organised by Tanssille ry as part of Focus on the Local Landscape. More information here.

Adam Kinner and Christopher Willes create performances that explore unusual states of sensory awareness. Their work is often staged in public spaces, and informed by an interest in immersive sound, listening, audience perspective, and the possibilities of participatory art. They created MANUAL in collaboration with Montreal-based dance artist Hanna Sybille Müller.