Épica i Singular 2.0

Èpica i Singular 2.0 is the second edition of the project carried out in 2017, whose objective is the labor insertion or the return to the educational system of young people between 18 and 29 years old at risk of social exclusion. Through a common objective, such as the realization of a stage project, the participants develop new skills and receive regulated training to be able to access the labor market.

The 6-month project is organized into different themes and training blocks. On the one hand, sessions on creation, design, stage theory and new technologies are taught. On the other, regulated training blocks in disciplines such as rigging and construction (forklifts, tubular structures, among others). In addition to training, the program is complemented by guidance and advice on job search.

The project, which is an activity subsidized by the Employment Service of the Generalitat de Catalunya within the framework of the Youth Guarantee programmes, has been developed in collaboration with Anigami S.L. and BTC S.L.

The first week of the workshop is dedicated to giving the participants some of the essential tools for the development of the course. To begin with, group cohesion exercises are carried out to ensure that students begin to build trust and strengthen ties between them. In addition, there are masterclasses in scriptwriting and creativity, both focused especially on the theme chosen as inspiration for the workshop performances: Transhumanism, or the idea of transforming the human condition with the help of science and technology.
The script masterclass, taught by Albert Mauri, aims to teach participants how to translate their ideas; turn reflections into concepts and make them manageable so that they can be developed and put into action. On the other hand, Rafa Montilla and his creativity class intend to enhance the skills that the participants already have to strengthen their creative potential: listening, observing, asking questions and accepting the error as part of the process are some of the key elements that are transmitted to them.

The theme of the second week is the creation of an advertising spot on Transhumanism. Based on some transhuman product ideas developed during the script class the previous week, the participants, divided into work groups, receive audiovisual language and video editing classes taught by Sara López. The objective is to polish the script, prepare a storyboard, prepare a production plan, shoot all the necessary material for the spot and edit it throughout the week.
In addition to the audiovisual lessons, there is a Masterclass on Production with Nadala Fernández and another on Photographic Self-portrait with Lisa Pram. In the first, students learn everything that being a producer entails: knowing perfectly the project in which they work, applying creativity to problem solving and being able to manage ideas, budgets, teams and timelines. Self-identification skills are worked on with Lisa Pram: Questioning and reflecting on what defines us and what we want to convey, as well as being aware of the weight of the other’s gaze that can interfere with the idea of oneself.

The highlights of the third week are the Lighting and Sound masterclasses; The time to start preparing the final performance is approaching and it is essential that the participants familiarize themselves with the technical part of stage creation so that they have all the creation elements available. Jaime Llerins, in his Lighting class, shows students how to create a lighting design for a scene based on the dramatic needs that are present, as well as talking about the type of material they can find and how to work with it. Marc Sardá, for his part, gives the participants the theoretical keys to sound design and elaborates with them a small performance based eminently on the auditory part.
To conclude the week, the viewing of the spots on Transhumanism produced during the previous days is carried out and the results are evaluated in order to outline the ideas on visual storytelling and clarity of concepts worked on in the audiovisual classes.

The fourth week marks the beginning of the creation work for the first exhibition with the public of Èpica i Singular 2.0. The participants are divided into work teams and, through brainstorming and putting into action, they begin to define the themes and scenes that will define their collectively created performance on Transhumanism.
In addition, there are the last master classes of this first part of the course before fully dedicating yourself to the creation of the show. This week’s guests are Anigami, a rope access company that introduces participants to the world of rigging (including a theoretical section on materials and safety) and David Casacuberta, from the UAB Department of Philosophy, who gives a class entirely dedicated to Transhumanism to give students all the theoretical tools to develop their performance.

The fifth week is dedicated entirely to the creation of the performance on Transhumanism that will mark the conclusion of the first block of Èpica i Singular 2.0. The work groups formed during the previous week are in charge of preparing the scenes that will make up the show in its entirety, from the first plot sketches to its final execution.
The workshop participants decide that the performance is, above all, about technological uniqueness. According to this hypothesis, the progress of robots and artificial intelligence could reach such an extreme that the machines themselves would be capable of recursively self-improving to the point that they would dispense with human action for their development, and could even rebel against their own creators. In this way, scenes arise about warehouses of defective robots that decide to rebel, scientists that create failed cyborgs, machines that create humans… There is only one week left for the final exhibition before the public and the show has to finish shaping up.

Week six corresponds to the final stretch of the first block of Èpica i Singular 2.0 before its first exhibition before the public. Thus, the scenes created during the previous week have just been polished and all the technical aspects of the performance are worked on: lighting, sound, set design, costumes, props… During the entire process, of course, the greatest number of rehearsals is done. possible, first by groups and then globally, in addition to technical passes during the last days before the final performance. The general rehearsal with the public will take place on Thursday and the premiere of the show on Friday, so there is no time to lose.

The performance opens by welcoming members of the public as investors in a prototype in development: the chip that eliminates pain, suffering and any other emotion. It goes on to demonstrate how it works: two scientists implant the chip in a test subject and proceed to insult and hit her, without any kind of reaction on her part. The experiment will soon fail: a laboratory assistant, alarmed by the cruelty he is witnessing, will free all the experimental subjects, who will rebel against the scientists.
Next, the public will witness a robotics convention where an inventor introduces them to Sari, a revolutionary domestic artificial intelligence capable of doing all kinds of household tasks. When Sari doesn’t seem to work at all and just dances for the audience, they boo the inventor, who vows revenge for her humiliation. She retreats to build another robot, much more violent, that will attack members of the public and even her creator herself until the battery runs out.
The next scene is located in a clone manufacturing plant: through a washing, drying and activation process, the clones go through quality control. “Since the year 2089 we have had only 98% defective subjects,” the public is told. It does not take long to verify the veracity of this data: of the two subjects that are tested, one is defective. The first task of the clone that has passed quality control will be to remove the partner from it.
Then it goes to a research laboratory with human-plant hybrids. Through the injection of chlorophyll and exposure to sunlight, the researchers get their subject photosynthesize and even be able to regenerate limbs. This seemingly harmless experiment takes a turn when the lab’s keepers capture people against their will in order to experiment on them. Finally, the plant-beings manage to communicate with each other, rebel against their oppressors and escape from the laboratory.
The public will enter a new laboratory, in this case working to create the Luminous Woman. Through experiments with bioluminescence, they have managed to create skin that glows in the dark. Once the demonstration is done, the audience is asked to leave the room, which will be made impossible by an altercation in the laboratory: it is discovered that the luminous woman was forcibly held and that other experimental subjects are among the audience. Those in charge of the laboratory will detain anyone who tries to escape and, now, they will ask the public to leave the room accompanied by projections with the message “Transhumanism, yes or no?”.
The final scene of the performance takes place in a dump in the purest cyberpunk style: a couple of junk dealers are in charge of guiding the public there, who witness a scene full of futuristic debris while their guides load a huge box from one end to the other room. When the time comes, it is revealed that there was a person inside the box: this time it is the machines that have managed to build a human being.

During the central block of Èpica i Singular 2.0, the participants receive training in Occupational Risk Prevention with BTC and in Operation of Forklifts, Operation of Lifting Platforms, Vertical Works and Assembly of Structures with Anigami. These classes, which combine theoretical and practical knowledge, involve obtaining an official degree in the fields studied; This represents a fundamental part of the accompaniment and support that the workshop offers its participants when it comes to developing skills and obtaining skills for the world of work. In addition, the knowledge acquired will be useful for the last part of the workshop, where a final performance will be developed making use of everything learned in recent months.

The beginning of the third block of the workshop has as a guest the photographer, Lisa Pram, who returns to Èpica i Singular 2.0 to teach a second Master Class on photographic self-portrait: participants must reflect on the changes they have experienced on a personal level in recent months to develop a portrait concept. In addition, on this occasion they are asked to relate her work to Transhumanism in order to delve into the central theme that her performance will deal with. They have four days to design, carry out, edit and present their self-portrait.
Meanwhile, the research work begins for the final performance of the workshop. Participants are divided into working groups, each tasked with one scene from the performance, and assigned themes to explore before beginning the script:
-Immortality + Clones
-Singularity + Cyborgs
-Artificial Intelligence + Robots
-Biogenetics + Avatars

The professional invited during week 15 is Coral Martínez, specialist in product design, who guides the participants in a Master Class from the idea to the execution of a product. The combination of functionality with aesthetics, the choice of the appropriate material and the communicative intention of the design are some of the points covered in his class and that the students must take into account when creating their own products, which they will manufacture with the intention of using them in the scenes they are preparing for the final performance. To do so, you visit the FabLab Badalona, a digital manufacturing space equipped with 3D printing technology, laser engraving and 3D scanning, among others. At the end of the week and with the finished products, the participants must present them to the class as if it were a professional product presentation.

Week 16 corresponds to the Master Classes of the Mugaritz, R&D department, specialists in research, experimentation and gastronomic development. Working with jellies, silicone molds, bubbles and other unconventional materials, participants learn to deal with new textures and develop prototypes that they will be able to use in their final presentation on Transhumanism. As the performance takes shape, the script feeds on the new knowledge acquired in collaboration with the invited experts. There is less to go until the premiere and we must begin to define actions with all the material generated.

During week 17, we take advantage of the fact that the work of creating the final performance begins to reach its most intensive stage to delve into some technical aspects of stage work that had already been worked on during the first part of the course, this time focusing on the content of the classes in the knowledge that the participants will need to develop the final sample of the workshop. In this way, students receive classes in production, sound, video, projection and execution of the Kalliope app.

At the same time that the stage assembly process for the final performance begins, the participants of Èpica i Singular 2.0 complement one of the last weeks of the workshop with two outings outside the Foundation. On the one hand, they visit The Bdn Climb, a climbing hall in Badalona where the owners give them a talk about some of the professional opportunities that their training in vertical work can have. They also visit the Banzai Studio facilities, a set where they become familiar with the filming processes in areas such as advertising, video clips or television.

During the penultimate week of Èpica i Singular 2.0, the participants must put all their energies into preparing the final exhibition. The script is outlined, actions are defined and the stage assembly is finished to ensure the success of their performance on Transhumanism, the central theme in this edition of the workshop.
In addition, during this week the latest visits from experts who give talks to students about the professional environment of the world of television, cinema and communication are received. In this way, they have the presence of Josep Viñeta from Badalona Comunicació, who informs them about the news coverage processes and the importance of transmedia in the current audiovisual panorama; Iván Armesto from Personal 7 Audiovisual, who introduces them to the world of hiring extras and extras for film projects and, finally, David Fernández from Overstone 57, a specialist in the design and construction of large sets and interior architecture.

The final stretch corresponds to the last three days of preparations before the general rehearsal and the final exhibition before the public of Èpica i Singular 2.0. With the script closed, the actions defined and the scenery fully assembled, the workshop participants must outline all aspects of their performance as much as possible and spend their last days doing rehearsals, performances and technical meetings with the help of the Epic Foundation team.

Those attending the final performance wait at the entrance of the Épica Foundation, where they receive a video announcement from the mayor of the city in which the performance is taking place. According to the governor, the cyborgs that are hidden among ordinary citizens are the enemy: they must be found, hunted down and neutralized. The audience is soon led to a meeting of anonymous cyborgs, where they will witness the stories of four metahumans: a deaf DJ with ears all over her body, a cook with a skin regeneration mask, a supermodel addicted to body transplants, and an elite athlete with an external spine. The meeting is intercepted when the police storm in to stop the cyborgs.
Next, attendees are welcomed to a demonstration by Nula Tiempos, a company that offers beauty treatments to the elite population. In a society where cell regeneration has reached such an extreme that it is possible not aging or die, high society has reached a level of “purity” that can eat their own face masks after using them and even consume their own offspring to avoid overpopulation. An act entitled “The boredom of immortality” that ends when a hacker bombards Nula Tiempos with images of ugly and disfigured people, causing a massive escape from the venue.
After leaving Nula Tiempos, the public is introduced to a labyrinth: they are promised that if they pass all the tests that are presented to them and reach the end of the path, they will reach the secret of life and death. The labyrinth is a space that invites you to reflect and interact on the subject of cloning (Who is the original individual? Does immortality imply suicide? Should clones have the same right col-10 offset-2 col-lg-8 offset-lg-4s as us?) through different scenes: a cloning workshop, a mass audience birth, a christening ceremony, a young woman locked in a room of mirrors, a re-enactment of the birth of Adam and Eve, and finally a young man surrounded by casts of his own face that he eats himself and invites audience members to do the same. They are ready to go to the other side.
The final act takes place at a clandestine party to celebrate the first death in hundreds of years. Actors, assistants and clones participate in a ritual around the corpse shouting the mantra “Vita mors est” (life is death, only if there is the possibility of dying can we truly appreciate what it means to be alive) to end up witnessing how the performers attack of their own clones until they all cease to exist.