Agents of Èṣù's Quantum World

Agents of Èṣù’s Quantum World is a poetic convergence of performance, Yoruba cosmology, and quantum computation—an immersive Mixed Reality experience where bodies become code, movement becomes logic, and myth meets mathematics. Here, performers embody qubits, tracing invisible circuits in space. Each gesture collapses possibility into form, triggering real-time quantum calculations that reshape their shifting environment.

Rooted in dual visions of the quantum, the work first imagines the performer as a being suspended in probability—a living waveform navigating existence through perpetual choice. This reflects a Schechnerian view of performance as life itself, where identity is fluid, and each act reveals agency.

In parallel, the piece invokes Èṣù, the Yorùbá orisha of paradox and transformation, who thrives at the edge of binaries. Embodied both virtually—as real-time avatars—and physically—via Èṣù’s red-black phallic cap atop the MR headset—the performer channels a deity who is neither one thing nor another, but many things at once.

A rárà chant, performed by Ayoola Mayowa Esusupo- once the rárà artist to the Alaafin of Ọ̀yọ́, which a user reacts and performs to, guides, albeit instinctively, the performer's movements that feed a 6-qubit algorithm, generating a quantum density matrix—Real and Imaginary—that breathes life into this ever-evolving virtual terrain. In this dance of uncertainty and code, transformation is not only possible—it is inevitable.

The stage is layered: a digitally scanned garden of Gaussian Splats overlays the physical world, creating a liminal space where spirit and matter coalesce. Each location, like each performance, is unique, evoking the singularity of every ritual.