Important to consider the move from previous ideas of performance & theatre which involve the live body located in a space with a live audience, to new concepts of performance we'll consider tonight; those that still utilize the body, those that merge the body and technology and those that are performed at a distance, or co-located space.

I. Laurie Anderson
O SUPERMAN (mid-late 1980s) - cued
Use of vocoder to change pitches and create new performative range
Reflections on contemporary machinic life
Control & play with light
Still tied to body presence
Visual & video effects in performances

II. Guillermo Gomez-Pena & Roberto Sifuentes
EL NAFTAZTECA (1994)
Cued to 6 mins excerpt (end with live telephone call)
Use of body/props/metaphors of technology
Live satellite broadcast over North America (Canada, US, Mexico)
60 mins. Total
was staged as a "pirate TV broadcast" ­ hundreds of people called in
directed by Prof Jenik

III. STELARC
Australian- based Performance artist Born in Cyprus
Work explores and extends the concept of the body and its relationship with technology through human/computer interfaces
- early work - public performances 1970-71 - suspended by hooks through skin from crane

show Video tape: Artists in CyberCulture (2.5 mins excerpt)

Body's functions happen habitually and automatically -
AWARENESS is often that which occurs when the body malfunctions

"Our actions and ideas are essentially determined by our physiology - We are at the limits of philosophy, not only because we are at the limits of language. Philosophy is fundamentally grounded in our physiology. It's only through radically redesigning the body that we will end up having significantly different thoughts and philosophies."

OUR BODIES ARE OBSOLETE - body must overcome centuries of prejudices and begin to be considered as an extendible evolutionary structure

READ "Obsolete Body"

ELECTRONIC SPACE is a medium of action rather than information
Most recent work - Sculpture to display inside the body
READ last page of C-THEORY article

Puts body on the line ­ penetration of technology into the body ­ performing on a public stage

IV. Eduardo Kac (optional ­ if time)
Eduardo Kac site (www.ekac.org)
 Time Capsule - pics - 1997
transgenic art ­ 1988

V. RTMark (1998-present)
Performance as media/media spectacle/meme
Show site
Watch tape (11:00)

other artists to mention - Adrianne Wortzel, Andrea Polli, Floating Point Unit, Critical Art Ensemble
- Point to Digital Performance Archive **
 

VI. BLAST THEORY ­ group of 4 artists from UK
­ CAN YOU SEE ME NOW? (2002) 8mins. Show whole tape
Read description (first two paras on tape box)
Watch tape
Integration of public urban space & online space

VII. DESKTOP THEATER (1997-2002) - culture jamming in Chat & Game Spaces
Chronology ­ show site archive http://www.desktoptheater.org
no "fourth wall" - wall between actors & audience
-street theater
--reflection, symbolization, clarification
"Waiting for Godot"
others as permitted (Santaman's Harvest images, Bush/Gore, Dreams, Spam Poetry)

GUNSHIP READY(2002) ­ Brody Condon (w/John Brennan)
Show DVD
In beginning read the intro para on cd package
Direct attention to chat box
Make sure you have sound
End with second suicide (maybe 4 mins in)

Leave time to read assignment
Class ends at 6:50pm