Using Flags instead of Spoken Word

Save Me is a two handed durational performance in public space. Two performers communicate over a long distance using semaphore flags. The conversation is improvised and documented on large boards. Passers by help de-code messages and draft responses, dipping in and out of this accumulative soap opera, going about their daily lives as the narrative unfolds around them. Save Me can also be performed at night, using high-powered nautical searchlights and morse code.

Save Me playfully challenges the boundaries of intimacy. Using flags instead of spoken words, this rolling and improvised narrative communicates across the city, exposing stories that are hidden, encoded, that simmer beneath the surface. Search Party de-code their intimate exchange of apologies, secrets, half-truths, veiled threats and warnings and inscribe these words on the surface of the city, exposing what is too often left unsaid.

The performance disrupts the familiar act of domestic conversation through physical distance and the codified language of semaphore. This method of encoded dialogue strips away the layers of intuition, physical nuance and telepathy from our discourse leaving gaps between the words we send, gaps filled by miscommunication and misunderstanding. The conversation is documented and inscribed in a public place leaving a physical trace of the imagined narrative created throughout the length of the performance.