COMMIT!

COMMIT! is an interactive performance in which a performer (Ladenheim) executes hundreds of dramatic falls in an hour, while the audience uses a web app to vote on whether they believe the performer has truly committed. After rounds of falling, an avatar replica of Ladenheim reads the audience's feedback aloud, while Ladenheim adjusts their actions in response. Throughout, motion capture and custom sensors collect data on each fall. The project is, in part, in an attempt to discover the most "committed" fall there is.

Using interactions from game mechanics, COMMIT! shows where systems of technological control and societal expectations collide. Through Ladenheim’s repeated attempts to "commit," the piece highlights tensions between physical effort and digital representation, as well as the audience’s role in shaping and judging the performer’s actions. In this way, COMMIT! critiques societal pressures to demonstrate resilience, adaptability, and perfection. The work emphasizes the inexact and often reductive nature of data collection and digital mediation, inviting reflection on how technology distorts and constrains identity and agency.