The among us series (2015-2020)

“A strikingly personal experience...I considered my own ideas and notions of community in a new way..”
– LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE

“We participants become a shifting microcosm of society, witnessing each other’s and our own contradictions in the things we say about ourselves and the ways we actually behave. Such a communal encounter feels particularly poignant during an election season and at moment in our country when gaps in privilege are finally now more widely seen as causing gaps in empathy, and sometimes with terrible consequences.”
—Sylvan Oswald, riting.org

“…the mere act of listening and participating in a public space is being investigated. Marike Splint’s piece Among Us does this masterfully…”
—Martin Gimenez, noproscenium.com

(Click on the pictures on the left to see a gallery for each version of AMONG US.)

AMONG US is an audio-theater experience that navigates participants through the streets of a city, while inviting active observation, quiet contemplation and self-revelation to explore the tension between our desire to belong, and our desire to be free. The audience members are the protagonists, and the city is the stage. A voice heard through headphones prompts the spectators to consider how they relate to the strangers on the streets and what they can imagine about their lives. The experience culminates in a game of choice and affiliation that gradually illuminates the hidden social structures that define us.

Each iteration of the work requires development: the text is adjusted to the new site, sounds from the environment are incorporated in the soundtrack, and the timing is tailored to the geography of the space. Over five years, I created five iterations of the work: one in The Netherlands at Oerol, one in Downtown Los Angeles as part of the LAX Festival, one in San Diego by invitation of the Without Walls /WOW Festival La Jolla Playhouse, one on the Santa Monica Pier by special commission of the Cultural Affairs Division of the City of Santa Monica, and one by the Center for the Art of Performance (CAP) at UCLA for the campus’ centennial year.

Credits

Concept, direction and text: Marike Splint
Sound design: Arnoud Traa
Voice: Thomas Dudkiewicz
Software developer: Sylvain Vriens
Assistant director: Anne Maike Mertens

This project has been realized with generous support of: Oerol Festival, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunsten, Fonds Podiumkunsten, Consulate General of the The Netherlands in New York, UCLA School of Theater Film and Television, The Netherland-America Foundation.