archive / fluent~collaborative / kristin lucas / tom moody
Information about the solo performance night done by Kristin after our collaboration went south is here. I didn't get notice and just found out it took place June 18; I hope it went well!
Points of difference (no hard feelings meant):
"Reacting to the space" vs "Not reacting to the space."
"Incorporating the Austin scene/community into the art" vs "Involving the Austin scene as audience/viewers/listeners"
"Installation that employs fiction or artifice" vs "No installation (other than sound equipment, projectors, etc.); no fiction or artifice"
"Focus on live, real time activities" vs "Focus on the internet and blogging"
"Lab" vs "Lounge"
I have a group performance idea to propose.
[preface: Tom, you do not have to perform]
Do you remember the blogging performance idea that I proposed for the two of us? This is an adaptation of that idea.
Background:
Consider that Austin is known for its stitch n' bitch groups, slang for sewing and craft circles. Austin is also known for its hanging out lifestyle with backyard bbqs and bands, a lifestyle which I quickly mindmelded to, moreso as the weather gets warmer. [Sidebar: New York City tends not to breed the hanging out at friend's apartments lifestyle - precious precious space - and social engagements tend to happen in more strict time slots].
Setting:
Laurence's home (living room, dining room, or both).
Performance proposal:
Several persons in everyday outfits sit in a circle with keyboards on their laps, wearing helmets with single antenna attachments. (Optional... every other person's antenna is connected to the next.) There are intervals of people typing and pauses of staring into space as if receiving information or formulating thoughts. Depending on how this would be best suited to the rooms (I would have to go over and investigate) there could be two separate groups in two separate rooms, or couples paired together, or covering one or both rooms in a more internet cafe style cluster. // I first came up with the idea of wires between antennae as I imagined 2 persons seated on the sofa with a line of tape between them - the wire crossing that line, giving the wireless somewhat of a physical (wired) form. //
Variation on performance idea:
The same group of people wearing helmets with single antennae crochet one large thing amorphous thing with the pretense that they are sharing information about what it is by way of wireless networking. They occupy the room in the furniture configuration that is already predetermined.
Tom~
I like that you interpreted the produce pinatas I am working on as power objects. I'll try to address this and respond to more of your notes this week.
Corporations like Monsato (who today shelved their plans to launch genetically engineered wheat in the US and Canada - a small victory for GE activists) are pushing power plays with a transparent adgenda on the world market.
excerpt from Inter Press Service News Agency:
Activists Wary as Monsato Withdrawls GE Wheat
"Despite this week's announcement, the biotech juggernaut continues to roll, according to BIO, the industry association. Eighteen countries are now growing 67 million hectares (165 million acres) of GM crops, chiefly cotton, maize and soya. The area planted with GM strains rose 15 percent in 2003, it adds."
The produce pinatas are derivative of icons found in games like Ms. Pacman and video poker (strawberries, cherries, oranges, lemons...).
Translated back into physical forms as pinatas, these fruits are disembodied shells of their former selves reflecting 'the fruits of over-cultivated and over-domesticated produce' through traditional biotech farming practices (cross-breeding of related species) and more recent genetically engineered biotech practices (DNA cross-breeding of unrelated species), the latter of which threaten the diversity of life on our planet.
The backyard installation offers a playground to an audience for acting out frustrations over: a) nature's stubborn resistance to human intervention and/or b) the 'fruits' of genetic engineering practices... culminating in a full-blown pinata smashing frenzy.
In brief, a response to article 7 extracted from Tom's previous entry:
"7. Kristin will be the cult's principal missionary and spokesman. Tom, who likes performance art but is not himself a performance artist, will be the main tech guy in charge of surfing and printing. Tom will bring with him a box of paper from his surfing and printing activities in NY during the weeks prior to installation week and will print more paper when in Austin (see below). Kristin and Reid (sp?) will produce the Video and Kristin is in charge of fabricating the [power objects]. Both Tom and Kristin will blog."
Tom, I will not be performing as a cult missionary character. This is a performative installation. Depending on how the animation production progresses, there may be two animations. In this scenario, I would at most control a fade in from one video (a setting the tone video) into the second video (the frenzy trigger), afterward a fade back to the first video for the remainder of the evening.
For the other testsite dates, I suggest that the animation and a short edited documentation of the smashing frenzy leading to people taking the contents to the computer station remain. The backyard projection will probably only work for that one night since it requires darkness (beginning around 9PM). Regular testsite hours (after you leave) are Sunday's from 1-5PM, so a projection outdoors would not be visible. I will also consider saving a few pinatas or making some more just to hang in the tree out back for the remainder of our installation period.
So thus far I am not planning a performance for our testsite.
I'm working on the animation for the backyard with Reed Posey, an Austin area artist and musician.