Francesca Mariano, in art Francesca Heart or Serpentine Dance, delves deep into computer music and shells vibrations: a cyborg nymph at the crossroads of sound and body performance.

Francesca Mariano's eclectic performance project lingers around self-discovery and hydro-feminist agency. In the wreckage of the environmental crisis fluidity is a method of radical collectivity and the artist attempts to reach this dimension through post-modern juxtapositions of human-made and machine-created sounds and vibrations. Water and myths as cultural references and methods serve the artistic research and intent to set the basis for a fluid, counter-narrative of body agency and in the era of machines and other intelligences. Also known as Serpentine Dance, Francesca takes cue from her somatic therapy expertise to expand her music practice to a body movement, physical dimension

How would you describe yourself and your multidisciplinary and research project?

As a process of self discovery and constant transformation.

Computer music is at the core of your practice. The human and machine merge in your work and result in a cyborg entity, namely yourself. How do you relate to this assertion?

Technology is a tool but it's not at the center of my thoughts. The roots and core of my practice go back to the early 20th century, where in Europe it started to develop an interest for spirituality and the body, which was very much excluded until then because of puritanism and religion. I'm obsessed with figures from that time such as Mary Wigman for her evocative, beyond-human dances and also with the dances of Eurythmy for their cosmological qualities. In this sense, I think computer music has become a vehicle for expressing these feelings and giving them a space-choreographic dimension.

You clearly refer back to a mythological cultural dimension. Why so?

Myths are stories that attempt to open the imagination and they have psychological healing powers. I think the stories we tell end up determining our realities. As Joseph Campbell wrote, "myth offers ways to contextualize the transcendent unknown within the conditions of the actual, physical world". We have based our myths on a patriarchal and Western center for a long time, so most of my projects have an underlying theme of reclaiming agency of the female experience through art. Working as a somatic therapist, I've clearly witnessed how telling stories has a positive impact on our lives as a collective as well as the individual soul.

It’s fascinating to delve deep in the circular interplay of human, natural and technological elements of your performances. Where does your interest in this interplay stem from?

I think it's about evoking feelings and metaphors through this interplay. If I blow the conch shell, is the signal received somewhere? What if I translate this signal into a dance? Is the dance coming from me or from the sound of the shell? Or could the dance be the translation of a message received from whoever heard the shell call? I think using different mediums offers a possibility of ambiguity and intuitive communication with otherness.

What’s the ideal context to experience your performances and music?

Mmmmh an old Victorian bath tub! But also at the upcoming Lost Music Festival, where I will present a new live show with two fantastic dancers.