I know

I know is a digital ritual created with acclaimed choreographer and theater maker Bill T. Jones for Holland Festival 2020. The work is an open invitation to an online audience to record what they deeply know, and to let those individual acts of knowing accumulate into something collective.

“This innovative idea has effectively taken on the digital daze we are now all living in and created a world in which we connect despite circumstances.”

— Glamcult

in search of the we

Bill T. Jones had planned to bring a hundred people from the local Amsterdam community onto the same stage; together, in person, in motion. Covid-19 closed that possibility. What remained was the question at the heart of the work: in times of rising division and fragmentation, where does collective knowing live? What do we still share?

Van Leer translated that question into a living digital architecture. He designed an open platform where anyone could upload a short video about something they feel deeply and know for certain, expressed in their own words, their own gestures, their own space. As the recordings arrived, Van Leer wove them into a growing visual mosaic: a dynamic composition built from data-visualization and refined sound design by Henry Vega, expanding in real time as the Holland Festival advanced. What began as a single statement - Bill T. Jones speaking directly to the camera - grew into a catalogue of voices from around the world.

“It was a piece about something even bigger than just black people and the sadness and loneliness of being black. I think that the piece really was prophetic.”

— 200% mag

Instagram stylo inspired collages

Every video that someone uploaded became the basis for a personal edit: the uploader at the centre, their words and gestures given their own frame. They received it automatically, ready to share. One upload became one more invitation, and the circle kept widening.

Throughout the Holland Festival we released a new collage every other day starting with Bill T. Jones, then adding his dancers, then the audience, one layer at a time. Within three weeks the project received over 125 video uploads from people across the world, and reached more than 40,000 visitors. Exceeding the hundred people who would have gathered on the stage. The end result: an ever-growing catalogue of knowledge, each entry filmed in a different place, in a different way, by a different person.

credits

Creative
Concept	Bill T. Jones
Creation	Ruben Van Leer
Motion Design	RNDR
Sound Design	Henry Vega
Technology
Web Design	Martijn de Heer
Web Development	Amir Houieh
Video Capture	Essay Video
Digital Production	RVL_studio
Project URL	iknow.hollandfestival.nl
Production
Commissioned by	Holland Festival
Powered by	WeTransfer
Partners	Park Avenue Armory, New York Live Arts, The Mann Center for the Performing Arts & The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage

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