runtime / a performance in two threads at Torn Space Theater

A live audio-visual performance exploring the loop between memory and motion

Part of the in.sight performance series

May 9, 10, 16, 17 – 8:30pm

Artist Talk* May 17, 6:00pm

Torn Space Theater – 612 Fillmore Ave, Buffalo

Presented by Groupwork and Torn Space

Supported by the Cullen Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts

Get Tickets

runtime initiates the in.sight performance series—an ongoing investigation into technology-mediated expression and embodied systems of code, light, sound, and space.

Structured in two movements—one contemplative, one kinetic—runtime traces memory not as something fixed, but as something performed: accessed, executed, and ultimately transformed. Data dissolves into atmosphere. Archive evolves into signal. A body navigates through stored time.

Drawing from Groupwork’s background in ambient rave design and environmental curation, runtime blurs the boundaries between signal and surface, score and system. The performance moves not forward but through—looping, refracting, synchronizing.

runtime is recognition through repetition—meaning built from echo.

This performance contains sequences of flashing lights which may affect individuals who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy or other photosensitivity conditions. The second half of the performance will also include the use of haze.

*Runtime: Systems Behind the Signal | Free Artist Talk | May 17 | 6–7PM

Before the performance, join the artists for a glimpse into the creative and technical process behind runtime. A conversation about building memory systems, approaching the archive as artwork, designing real-time performance systems, and composing with code, light, sound, and motion.