Floating Feather proudly translated this 2024 Oerol Festival hit Artificial by Nature from Dutch into Mandarin. This philosophical and site-specific opera explores the driving force of humanity and was performed at Het Nationale Theatre in The Hague in 2026, as well as in Shanghai in 2025 and 2026.
Artificial by Nature – a minimalist opera on human nature
DE VOLKSKRANT ★★★★★ – NRC ★★★★
Credit: Julia Maiwald (website Het Nationale Theatre)
“Annelinde Bruijs (artist, actor and composer) and Yannick Noomen (artist and actor) take on the role of two humanoid robots. In an hour long electronic composition they speculate, with a good dose of philosophy, about being human in present times. In Artificial by Nature, human life is sung about, by two robots nevertheless.
What does it mean to be human? What do we stand up for every day? And why do we do what we do? In this performance, the actors attempt to find answers as eager androids. Nineties is inspired by the ideas of philosopher Helmuth Plessner, in which he argues that humans are artificial by nature. According to him, humans are a species that is capable of both experiencing themselves and reflecting on themselves. They are not at home in nature, like an animal, but shape and construct their own lives questioning their own instincts. With the help of ‘artificialities’ such as language, technology and tools, mankind bumbles and stumbles through life searching for their true nature.
Nineties Production sees a certain sisyphical irony in the conflict between instinct and consciousness and makes a musical ode to the struggling human being, always trying to become something; itself in the best case.”
Conversations from the Chinese scripts:
Lin: 不，如果有人看到了
对对对，或者他们起床是因为日程安排里写着：一个约会他们和另外一个人约好了：
Choir: 就在这天，在某个时间，在某个地点，
而这个地点不是床，所以他们必须离开那里
Lin: 于是他们就这么做了，他们确实这么做了
因为 因为这是约好的
而且履行这些约定很重要
否则，当有人说：
“我会在那里、在那里跟你碰头”
这句话就不再有任何意义了