“Swarm” is a hybrid digital performance environment with no limitations. This space is a unique underworld of sorts: a digital exploration through a world that has no bounds, a world of Black feminine utopia deep underground. As we wade through the valleys of the living, life is a strenuous action at the bleakest of times. We need a route out, an escape, a dimension which is manipulated with ancestors and deity culture. We started to collaborate on “Swarm” in July 2020, during the first wave of lockdowns across the world. We wanted to create a unique environment and online performance space, and develop it into an interactive game that can be performed in venues and on livestreams. The first performance was a video which featured at the MUTEK Montreal festival in 2020.

We wanted to create a space that emphasised collective consciousness and put capitalism in full view. “Swarm” is based on bee ecology. Bees are now closely monitored by humans, via trackers, using CCTV and AI to make sure they are creating as much honey as is demanded, with environmental consequences affecting their livelihood. They are not dissimilar to us: they work, they feed the queen, they die. Bees are monitored like humans. This piece looks at voyeurism and consumerism and the need to always be in a space you created for yourself.