Good Vibes only

The performance GOOD VIBES ONLY questions the language and forms of getting to know each other digitally on dating apps. How do dating apps like Tinder, Grindr, Bumble and Co. change our language and thus our behaviour when getting to know each other? What kind of algorithms and selection mechanisms are used by the different platforms to connect people and at the same time guarantee long-term use and commercialisation of the app?

For some, dating apps are important spaces of retreat and opportunities for exchange, for others they are anonymous spaces for sexual harassment and assault. This language also influences behaviour and communication in the quasi-analogue world. It is a stream of encounters and digital introspection between memory and data loss, where some encounters accumulate as deposits. In GOOD VIBES ONLY, an ambivalent artificial world emerges between the physical presence of the performers and their digital representations. They encounter each other textually-digitally and physically on stage and negotiate dating apps as spaces in which dystopias and utopias collide. Through digital screen masks, their movements and the smartphone as interface, the performers meet and get to know their digital doubles. Expectations, desires, longings, intimacy and worries are shared and negotiated between identity construction, image editing programmes and beautification filters.