In our daily interactions with technology, we have accepted digital reproductions of others’ voice and image as alternatives to the real ones. “Hello, My Dear” is a participatory durational performance piece, which explores the new dynamics of human interaction in telecommunication and the significance of the co-presence of another human on the other side of the telematic medium. It examines human perception and sensitivity towards detecting the immediacy of interaction and physiological responses during encounters mediated by telecommunication.

“Hello, My Dear” is a theatrical Turing Test, which interrogates the notion of liveness in telepresent interactions by challenging the boundaries between recorded and live, presence and absence, and private and public. In this performance piece, participants enter separate rooms at the same time, then sit behind the computer stations and follow the main instruction in the piece: “sit silently and maintain eye contact with the person on the screen in front of you.” They go through various modes of liveness, in interaction with each other and the artist. The interactions are solely non-verbal, since there is no audio in the video-mediated communications. This interactive performance piece seeks to simulate digitally-mediated liveness in video communication and examine the spectator’s perception towards the presence of the other body on the other side of the digital medium.