Engages,
Jessica Tanto, Juliana Luna Mora, Jeremee Bautista, Ben Koder MEga Yoga: A counternarrative experience
Dates: Thursday 19 September, 6:30-8pm
Rejuvenate your body and mind with MEga Yoga’s counter narrative yoga class.
MEga Yoga is a participatory embodied performance that uses the structure of a yoga class inviting participants to move their bodies slowly and their minds critically. MEga Yoga is a more than human collaboration between Jessica, Juliana and an Artificial Intelligence’s perception of the wellness industry’s values and ideals. The performance is accompanied by an original 30 minute New Age style soundtrack designed to function as an uncannily reflexive mantra. This participatory experience intends to invite participants to question the increasing commodification of spirituality through practices such as Western Yoga. The experience explores the nuanced capitalist and spiritual tensions that many wellness products, services and experiences present through sensory activation and embodiment as a way to actively reflect on these topics.
This performance is part of a creative practice research project which aims to raise awareness and spark conversations about participation within neoliberal spiritual practices and the wellness industry. Participants may choose if they want to share their experience as a part of this research.
Held at: Next Wave (270 Sydney Road, Brunswick VIC 3056)
$15 to attend to cover costs for the artists, tickets through Eventbrite.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Use of Brunswick Mechanics Institute was generously supported by Next Wave.
Jessica Tanto uses their art practice to construct thought-provoking and absurd situational encounters, inspired by their lived experiences in Java and Naarm (Melbourne). Their current project, MEga Yoga, draws upon their religious upbringing, fascination with new-age spiritual communities and personal experience of being a certified yoga teacher.
Jessica’s artistic process and outcome are informed by their educational background in Fine Arts, Psychology & Anthropology. Currently pursuing a Masters in Occupational Therapy, Jessica hopes to integrate their multidisciplinary knowledge to create engaging experiential artworks.
Juliana Luna Mora is a lecturer at RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles, yoga teacher and researcher working at the intersection of critical luxury and fashion, embodied practice, wellness and consumer culture. Her research practice explores the current phenomenon of the commodification of wellness and its expansion into aspirational luxury. Juliana specifically looking into ethical consumption products, body-mind practices and spiritual lifestyles and experiences under a feminist framework. Juliana’s research is driven by concerns on the aesthetic and ethical repercussions for individuals when engaging in these new types of commodities.
Based in Naarm, Jeremee Bautista is a Filipino-Australian singer-songwriter and artist who produces sound works that explore the charms of seclusion and stillness through ambient soundscapes. Bautista’s stylistic sound crosses over with his musical projects that reflect a dreamy and melancholic state that is accompanied with honest, heartfelt lyrics, highlighting the ideas of a longing for nostalgia and a yearning for human connection.
Ben Koder is an experimental creative technologist specializing in interactivity and digital games. His innovative works have been showcased at prestigious events and venues, including the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and the Powerhouse Museum. Koder’s portfolio includes groundbreaking projects that blend technology with artistic expression. Currently, Koder is researching ethical and open generative artificial intelligence, aiming to create novel experiences that empower artists and redefine the possibilities of digital art. His work focuses on developing AI tools that enhance creativity while adhering to ethical standards, contributing to the advancement of both technology and the arts. Koder’s vision is to foster a more inclusive and innovative digital art landscape, where technology serves as a catalyst for artistic empowerment.