Electric Circus is a Amsterdam‑based duo that merges kinetic art, puppetry, animatronics and custom software to create fully electro-mechanical, puppet performances. The company consists of Fred Abels and Mirjam Langemeijer. Fred Abels (1961) is an artist and inventor, specialised in kinetic art. Mirjam Langemeijer (1976) is a puppeteer and creator of visual theater. Together they explore new approaches to puppetry and street theater for already 20 years. They have traveled the world with a lifelike robot 'Dirk the homeless robot' and a robot circus-monkey that is indistinguishable from a real one. In recent years Electric Circus has focused on miniature automatons. Like little cartoons without screen or projections (!) all characters and sceneries are moving mechanically, live and tangible, all sounds are acoustically generated by machines. Team member Rolf Meesters coined the word ‘ NON-VIRTUAL-REALITY’ to describe this working method.
