Shortwave is a series of new digital commissions, designed to platform a diverse cross-section of emerging or early career interdisciplinary Australian artists working at the forefront of digital performance.

Eidolon, 2021
Xanthe Dobbie
with original score by Jorde Heys

Available Free
Commissioned by Sydney Opera House for Shortwave

EIDOLON is a fanatical ode to the image - a myth built on fragmented histories. In the year 2000 Jennifer Lopez wore a green, Jungle-print dress designed by Donatella Versace, so iconic that she broke the internet and Google had to invent Google Images just to keep up. A few thousand years before, Helen of Troy’s face launched a thousand ships, kick-starting the legendary Trojan War. However, some say Helen never even went to Troy, that a carbon copy sculpted by the Gods - an eidolon - was sent in her place. If so, the ten year war was fought for an illusion. Our time is drenched in images and images of images. Merging past, present, and potential futures, this desktop performance dredges the internet, conflating facts and fictions in an act of post-truth digital myth-making.