This amphibious work extrapolates from field recordings of an immense frog chorus encountered by HYENAZ on Yorta Yorta Country in southeastern Australia. The frogs reacted to the artists’ presence and movement by modulating their vocalizations’ intensity and volume, generating an organic techno pulse. PROXIMITY’s singular texture emerges from this interspecies collaboration with wetland wildlife.
The amphibians’ responses to perceived [in]security led HYENAZ to draw parallels between ecological reactivity and human social dynamics—a concept visceralized in the track’s slime-coated video. The visual work lurches across bodies in motion to ask: “Does Our Proximity Bind Us?”
Proximity was first published in Interim 35.2 – The Body Issue in April 2018. Movement research for PROXIMITY originated in HYENAZ’s Proximate Movements praxis, first developed during Isabelle Lewis’s immersive spaces exploration at Berlin’s Martin Gropius Bau as part of Welt Ohne Aussen festival in 2018. Later iterations at Garbicz Festival involved collaborators Ambrita Sunshine, Adrienne Teicher, Mad Kate, Federica Dauri, Danilo Andrés, Bishop Black, and Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau. This research eventually coalesced into CLUSTERFUCK, the collective HYENAZ directed for PEACHES’ There’s Only One Peach with the Hole in the Middle.
The track’s genesis proved revelatory. While camping at Barmah Lakes on Yorta Yorta Country—invited by Elder Professor Wayne Atkinson to learn his community’s cosmology and ongoing sovereignty struggles—HYENAZ documented twilight’s descent. As darkness pooled across waterways, extraterrestrial clicks and pulses emerged, seemingly mapping space through sound. Venturing into marshes with recorders, the duo found sounds retreating from their approach like negative force fields. Only upon stillness did the source reveal itself: tiny frogs throbbing in torchlight, their chorus swelling as HYENAZ surrendered pursuit.
This encounter underscored HYENAZ’s belief that field recording demands sensitivity over mastery. The frogs dictated terms of cohabitation, teaching the artists that creation often involves undoing—a radical receptivity to nonhuman agency.
The experience also catalyzed HYENAZ’s inquiry into proximity’s paradoxes: how safety and grievability (the capacity to mourn lives) fluctuate with physical nearness; how alternative proximities might forge care networks beyond geography. For the PROXIMITY video, HYENAZ collaborated with dancers Adrienne Teicher, Bishop Black, Tereza Silon, Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau, Danilo Andrés, and ROC to choreograph closeness’s visceral grammar.
As the inaugural work in HYENAZ’s Foreign Bodies series—encompassing mixed-reality performances and A/V installations—PROXIMITY exemplifies their practice of learning from communities resisting bodily control by nation-states and capital.
Automine asks: what are bodies worth in the digital age? And answers this question through a performance of the performance through which bodies create value, for themselves, but most likely for others.
Bodies create value through physical labour, bodies create value by emotional labour, bodies also create value by mining the identifying markers attached to bodies, my gender, my sexuality, my story, all of these markers have value, but the value of these markers change through space and time, as society changes, as politics changes, and as the body changes, ages, decays.
As the virtual replaces the real, the body should disappear. But does it really? Automine seeks an answer through, music, essay and a critical recitation of queer aesthetics in the third decade of the twenty first century.
Image: Mirek Fokt
HYENAZ present their musical works as immersive performance intervention. A performance asks that bodies are present: as performer, as audience, as active interlocutor. The assembling of bodies together for the purpose of performance – and the proximity of those bodies to experience or create together – is in itself a practice of (re)discovery of the politics of sharing physical space and the immanent territory of the flesh.
AUTOMINE pushes their ongoing Foreign Bodies project deeper into questions around a/Arts and extractivism, where “extraction” is utilized as metasignifier for the extraction of (creative) labour from (precarious) bodies; the mining of minerals, gas and water from the ground; the taking and recording of sounds, words and images from sentient beings; the seemingly consensual extraction of digital content, and the “mining of the exotic” from our very identities.
Foreign Bodies is a sonic and somatic exploration of bodies in multiplicity: bodies in motion and migration; bodies managed by internal and external forces; bodies navigating boundaries imposed by others, bodies negotiating boundaries they set for themselves; bodies in flux; bodies synchronicity; bodies in resistance to management and control. In 2025, we began staging Foreign Bodies as a series called, “Animacies,” which has synthesised this ten year long work into live interactive performance presentations, each one slightly different from the other depending on the context.
The project initially emerged as a response to paranoid narratives around migration into Europe, Australia, and the United States—different locations in which HYENAZ’s constructed versions of “home”. What truly interests HYENAZ is how movement continually reshapes subjectivity, and how subjectivity, in turn, dictates both how bodies move and how bodies are allowed to move.
While some traverse borders as unchecked tourists, others risk death to migrate—a brutal asymmetry so utterly normalized that it is easy to forget that there is nothing normal about it at all. It has a history, it has a structure, it has interests, and it is these contingencies and determinations that HYENAZ wish to map.
Foreign Bodies likewise interrogates the very notion of the “foreign,” whether weaponized through xenophobic fear or inadvertently perpetuated through allyship that exoticizes the Other. HYENAZ seek to trace the ways we produce the unknowable subject within our own communities and even within our own bodies
HYENAZ work through field recordings – materialisations of time, people and places, which, when played back, produce temporary sound sculptures in the air, and from these fragments the duo creates artworks probing authority, consent, and proximity. Their itinerant research—via trains, buses, bicycles, and hitchhiking—led them to migrant camps, transit zones, communes, and artist colonies, over the course of ten years.
These inquiries have expanded beyond initial scope, compelling HYENAZ to examine how humans construct the Otherness of fellow beings—whether human, animal, plant, or stone, and how that attitude binds or unbinds the self to experience the world in all its senses.
KNOWBODY confronts the contemporary paradox of bodily erasure in an age enthralled by automation, artificial intelligence, and the lure of digital transcendence. At a time when deepfakes simulate authenticity and biometric surveillance reduces flesh to data points, the work insists on the body as an irreducible site of knowledge. HYENAZ interrogates this tension through a dual lens: the performance of the body (its capacities, vulnerabilities, and rituals) and the body in performance (its role as medium and meaning-maker within communal spaces).
The project posits live performance as a radical countermeasure to disembodiment. Unlike virtual interactions mediated by screens and algorithms, “a performance” demands corporeal presence: performers sweating under stage lights, audiences breathing in shared rhythm, interlocutors exchanging glances across a charged void. HYENAZ frames this gathering of bodies—whether in collision, collaboration, or quiet coexistence—as a political act. By assembling in physical proximity, participants rediscover what the artists term the immanent territory of the flesh: the body’s stubborn materiality, its capacity to archive lived trauma and joy, its resistance to full digitization.
Premiering on 15 June 2019 at Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Studio Я—a venue historically engaged with post-migrant narratives and embodied dissent—KNOWBODY weaponizes this rediscovery. The work’s structure mirrors its thesis: live vocals rupture pre-recorded tracks, improvisation undermines algorithmic predictability, and audience touch (consensual, charged, fleeting) becomes a compositional element. HYENAZ does not romanticize the body’s fragility; instead, they amplify its contradictions—how it can be both a site of oppression and liberation, a commodity and a conspirator.
In resisting the abstraction of selves into profiles or neural networks, KNOWBODY asks: What truths persist when we stop performing for systems and start performing through our bodies? The answer, they suggest, is slime. Lots and lots of slime.
Critical Magic 비평 적 마술 is a mixed-reality immersive performance by HYENAZ that fractures physical and mental isolation through somatic labor, sound, and contact. Between June 2016 and July 2018, the work’s full score unfolded 28 times—mirroring lunar phases—as part of their Probability Praxis Series. Each iteration relied on spontaneous interlocutors (volunteer performers) who bridged HYENAZ with site-specific communities, from Seoul to online spaces during the pandemic’s 2020 isolation peak.
The project dismantles the performer-audience binary, reimagining bodies as co-creators of transient utopias. Locations were conceptually mapped with the interlocutors beforehand, then post-processed through communal writing and feedback.
In each performance, HYENAZ invited audiences to join them in the performance of a ritualistic score. Each performacne revealed the challenges and joys of being together in a room, reading consent from strangers and near strangers, collectively building up our energies to reach the “height of gnosis” where a portal to personal and political change opens . As a marvellous and messy organizing of bodies, positionalities and perspectives, it was always a new performance. This praxis transformed each iteration into what HYENAZ term “a marvellous and messy organizing of bodies, positionalities and perspectives“.
Eva Donckers – Strangelove Festival Antwerp – 2017
Critical Magic 비평 적 마술 emerged from a site specific performance called “Spectral Rite” (2014) commissioned by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul with HYENAZ working under the direction of Korean artist Sylbee Kim. In this performance HYENAZ led a procession through the gallery environment, traversing its exhibits, and engaging its public. HYENAZ invoked a ritual to mourn a industrial accident during the construction of the gallery that had been suppressed in public memory and which had left many workers dead and injured.
From this initial performance Critical Magic 비평 적 마술 has evolved into a uniquely interactive performance that integrates electronic music, chaos magic, performance art, digital media, and interactive play; a moment outside of the everyday where HYENAZ blur distinctions between audience/performer and concert/interactive ritual. Critical Magic 비평 적 마술 walks the fine line between theatrical performance piece and sonic concert, critical theory and pop sensibility, bringing its audience into a liminal space of discovery.
Evolving into a hybrid of chaos magic, performance art, and electronic rave, Critical Magic 비평 적 마술 came to occupy a liminal zone between concert and interactive ritual. Styling by Yeorg Kronnagel (makeup/accessories) and Juan Chamié of EXIT (House of EXIT costumes), its aesthetic merged the celestial with pop spectacle. The music was mixed by HYENAZ and Bartłomiej Kuźniak, with high definition mastering by Bartłomiej Kuźniak at studio333.
Over two years of Probability Praxis workshops, HYENAZ refined the piece through public blogging and commentary, ensuring no two performances repeated.
“We want to thank each and every one of our interlocutors who have danced live and on screen with us throughout this series. They created worlds and pictures the likes of which we have never seen before or since. Our Interlocutors throughout this series have been:
Federica Dauri, ReveRso, Valentin Tszin, Nuit Nile, Donato, Savage Slit, David Wampach, Nathalie Mondot, Hana Frisonsova, Tereza Silon, Non la Décadence, Lu, Bishop Black, Olave Nduwanje, Pascal Mourits, Sanne van Driel, Yareth Habermehl, Dennis Snorremans, Lizzie Masterton, Mil Vukovic-Smart, ROC, Simon(è) Jaikiriuma Paetau, Danilo Andres, Yozhi Yazooma, Mojmir Mechura, Ambra Stucchi, Charlotte Busch, Isabel Jagoda, Joschi Rotheneder and Anonymous“
Photo: Claudia Brijbag Urban Spree Berlin 2016
Presentations
1. RTS-ZI RITOPEK, SERBIA PROBABILITY PRAXIS 1 of 28 – NEW MOON 8 JUNE 2016 (Special Thanks to our host Dragan Ilic)
2. Red Gate Arts Society, Vancouver, BC Canada PROBABILITY PRAXIS 2 of 28 – WAXING CRESCENT 2 July 2016
3. Masseria Jesse, near Alta Mura Italy PROBABILITY PRAXIS 3 of 28 – WAXING CRESCENT 12 July 2016 (Special Thanks to our host Donato)
4. Urban Spree, Berlin, Germany PROBABILITY PRAXIS 4 of 28 – WAXING CRESCENT 21 October 2016 (Special Thanks to our Interlocutors: Federica Dauri, ReveRso, Valentin Tszin)
5. Cassera, Bologna, Italy PROBABILITY PRAXIS 5 of 28 – WAXING CRESCENT 28 October 2016
6. Clandestino, Faenza, Italy PROBABILITY PRAXIS 6 of 28 – WAXING CRESCENT 30 October 2016
7. ARGEKultur, Salzburg, Austria at Open Mind Festival PROBABILITY PRAXIS 7 of 28 – WAXING CRESCENT 19 November 2016
8. Humain trop Humain, Montpellier, France at Festival EXPLICIT PROBABILITY PRAXIS 8 of 28 – FIRST QUARTER 26 November 2016 (Special Thanks to our Interlocutors: Savage Slit and David Wampach)
9. La Colonie, Paris, France at MN³ w/ Polychrome – Society of Silence PROBABILITY PRAXIS 9 of 28 – WAXING GIBBOUS 17 December 2016 (Special Thanks to our Interlocutors: Nathalie Mondot and Anonymous)
10. Underdogs Ballroom, Prague, Czech, with MENU and Hana Frisonsova PROBABILITY PRAXIS 10 of 28 – WAXING GIBBOUS 20 May 2017 (Special Thanks to our Interlocutors: Hana Frisonsova and Tereza Silon and Thanks to our host Zdeněk Konečný)
11. Het-Bos, Antwerp, Belgium, STRANGELOVE Festival PROBABILITY PRAXIS 11 of 28 – WAXING GIBBOUS 2 June 2017 (Special Thanks to our Interlocutors: Non la Décadence and Lu)
12. Hedonist International Congress, Rechlin–Lärz Airfield, Lärz, Deutschland, PROBABILITY PRAXIS 12 of 28 – WAXING GIBBOUS 10 June 2017
13. Commune, Yerevan, Armenia PROBABILITY PRAXIS 13 of 28 – WAXING GIBBOUS 8 July 2017
14. Ponderosa Movement and Discovery, Stolzenhagen, Germany PROBABILITY PRAXIS 14 of 28 – WAXING GIBBOUS 22 July 2017 (Special Thanks to our Interlocutor: Tereza Silon)
15. Chateau Perche Festival, France PROBABILITY PRAXIS 15 of 28 – FULL MOON 5 August 2017
16. Garbicz Festival, Poland PROBABILITY PRAXIS 16 of 28 – WANING GIBBOUS 5 August 2017 (Special Thanks to our Interlocutors: Tereza Silon and Bishop Black)
17. Loppen. Christiania Denmark PROBABILITY PRAXIS 17 of 28 – WANING GIBBOUS 13 August 2017
18. AMS St. Georgen im Schwarzwald PROBABILITY PRAXIS 18 of 28 – WANING GIBBOUS 1 September 2017
19. WORM, Rotterdam, Netherlands PROBABILITY PRAXIS 19 of 28 – WANING GIBBOUS 2 September 2017 (Special Thanks to our Interlocutors: Olave Nduwanje, Manon la Decadance, Pascal Mourits, Lu, Sanne van Driel, Yareth Habermehl, Dennis Snorremans)
20. Winchester, England. Probability Praxis 20 of 28 15 September 2017 WANING GIBBOUS
21. COVEN – Underdog Gallery, London, England. Probability praxis 21 of 28 WANING GIBBOUS 16 September 2017 (Special Thanks to our Interlocutors: Lizzie Masterton, Mil Vukovic-Smart)
22. Zürich. Les Belles des Nuit PROBABILITY PRAXIS 22 of 28 27 October 2017 THIRD QUARTER
23. Queercore how to punk a revolution UT Connewitz, Leipzig, Germany. PROBABILITY PRAXIS 23 of 28 11 November 2018 WANING CRESCENT
23A. Urban Spree 17 February 2018 <<48 MINUTE SET >> (Thanks to our Interlocutors: ROC, Bishop Black, Simon(è) Jaikiriuma Paetau, Danilo Andres)
23B Köpi, Berlin, DE 30 April 2018 <<48 Minute Set>> (Thanks to our Interlocutors: Tereza Silon, ROC, Simon(è) Jaikiriuma Paetau , Federica Dauri)
24. S L Y // H Y E N A Z // PUNCTUM, Prague, CZ. PROBABILITY PRAXIS 24 of 28 20 May 2018 WANING CRESCENT (Special Thanks to our Interlocutors: Tereza Silon, Hana Frisonsova, Yozhi Yazooma, Mojmir Mechura)
25. Queer Culture, Thiembuktu, Magdeburg, DE PROBABILITY PRAXIS 23 of 28 26 May 2018 WANING CRESCENT
26. Torstrassen Festival, Berlin, Germany. 09 June 2018 WANING CRESCENT Berlin (Special Thanks to our Interlocutors: Ambra Stucchi, Simon(è) Jaikiriuma Paetau)
27. Les Beau est Toujour Bizarre, Parterre Am Ry, Basel, CH 16 June 2018 WANING CRESCENT
28. Kultur Fabrik, Hildesheim, DE 05 July 2018 WANING CRESCENT (Special Thanks to our Interlocutors: Charlotte Busch, Isabel Jagoda, Joschi Rotheneder)
The HYENAZ edit of Paula Temple’s techno classic “Gegen” was been featured in the Electronic Beats “Right to Assemble!” playlist, which explores music as an agent of change. Read more: https://www.electronicbeats.net/right-to-assemble-sounds/
So many assumptions are made about why people choose to move, who has the right to move, and who does not, who can simply travel on a whim and who must risk everything to leave their lands for others. Our sense of time and space is increasingly unbounded, as access to knowledge, art and the public sphere shared through electronically mediated communication. Yet so many still have to risk death or internment to cross national borders physically, with access to migration arbitrarily determined by pieces of paper distributed along class and racial lines.
HYENAZ were inspired by Paula’s powerful track Gegen, whose title refers to the German word for “against” and already expresses the dichotomous terms in which media and political discourses discuss migration: Are you for or against migration? How do “we” oppose the “others” who are against “our” way of life. The urgency of its siren-like lead synth speaks to the militarised policing of national borders and the desperation that pushes people to risk everything in order to exercise the human right to move freely.
Paula Temple released her track ‘Gegen’ via her imprint Noise Manifesto in 2014, at a time the German term was being widely used by protesters during an upheaval of asylum seekers in Germany.
“As refugees are fleeing for their lives, it is shocking we are creating similar conditions and hateful rhetoric as what happened in 1930s pre-WWII for political gain,” explained Temple in an official statement. “My personal hope is in our efforts to diminish the climate of hate with an overwhelming climate of empathy.”
