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PROJECTS
This archive focuses on my multi-year performance projects, curatorial projects, and web works of the last decade or so. Projects created for output as prints can be found in the '2D' area; game-related projects are listed under 'games'; and books, set design, and similar projects are over in the 'design' area. Works in progress and thoughts on cyberlife see first light on my Avatarist blog. Many earlier projects have not yet made it on to the web.
World of World 2009is a work I created for the Laguna Museum exhibition "WOW: Emergent Media Phenomenon" (July-Oct. 2009). It is a four-panel digital print totaling 2 feet by 12 feet. The idea was to explore the complicated relationship that develops between players and their avatars, but from the avatar's point of view. So it begins with how the avatar views the player and the player's artificial world, as if the avatar were the protagonist and the player were the toon. At the same time it acknowledges that the two (in this case, a female Death Knight and a male gamer) are one, existing as a kind of functional temporary split personality. The piece includes an overlay of running text in the form of an internal monologue/dialogue of the avatar/player. HERE is a detail of the lefthand section of the piece, and HERE is by a photo from the show's opening night (courtesy of Eric Stoner). In addition, there is an artist's book version of the piece in a signed limited edition of 10.
Playing the Rapture 2008is an original performance work that examines American evangelical belief in the Rapture--a moment when every true Christian will suddenly vanish from the earth, leaving the rest of humankind to struggle through a period of extreme tribulation. It is structured around two gamers creating and beta-testing a new computer game about the Rapture, a project that leads them into conflict, confusion, and near despair. It premiered at the Baltimore Theatre Project in March 2008. Two different video installations were subsequently created from the documentation of this show and exhibited in the 2009 shows "Mediated" and "Scalable Relations".
How Much Taboo Does Art Need? 2008
In May, I and my students participated as contributors to the Wieviel Tabu braucht die Kunst?" project organized by Ursula Endlicher, Ela Kagel, and Anke Zimmermann in Zurich, Switzerland. We had a live video/voice connection to the event as the "Universal Translation Service" whose motto was: "Our goal is perfection. We translate all languages with 100 percent accuracy, guaranteed." However, the real mission of the "Universal Translation Service," which featured a running commentary on the performance in Korean, Thai, German, French, and English, was to explore those pleasures of translation that exist once the notion of accuracy has been jettisoned.
Searching for Sebald 2007is an international anthology of original writings about the late German novelist W.G. Sebald and artworks inspired by his unsettling method of mixing text and images. I am an Associate Editor of this volume, as well as a contributor and its lead designer. Among many similar reviews, the Journal of European Studies had this to say: "The layout is generous and clear, the paper and illustrations are excellent, the structure is disciplined and subtle." More on the project can be found here and here.
Manual of Lost Ideas website 2007is an interactive version of a manuscript that originally appeared in the book Benjamin's Blind Spot (2001). The interactive version was published in the online journal Other Voices, issue 3.1 (May 2007). As the introduction notes, "This site offers an overview of what is presently known about the Manual, together with a sample of pages from the manuscript, including a number that have never been made public before.... [in the hope] that this will help facilitate further research on the Manual.
Demotic 2004-2006is a performance work about American Memory, a single character whose many voices are woven together into a complex texture of language, sound, and music. It is an improvisation in which actors, avatars, and musicians create a kind of covert national anthem. Created in collaboration with director Robert Allen, sound artists Cuca Esteves and Jeff Ridenour, actor Tracey A. Leigh, and the Plaintext Players, it premiered at the Beall Center for Art & Technology in July 2004. A new version premiere had its East Coast premiere at the Baltimore Theatre Project in November 2006.
ALT+CTRL 2004is a unique festival of independent and alternative games, showcasing the most innovative new concepts in computer games by independent developers, artists, and game modders. Not unlike the Sundance Film Festival, ALT+CTRL seeks to cultivate a vibrant, independent game community and highlight novel experiments in game design, game genres, methodologies, and approaches to game play. ALT+CTRL is a sequel to the ground-breaking exhibition SHIFT-CTRL (see below). I co-curated ALT+CTRL with Robert Nideffer and Celia Pearce.
Galileo in America 2004is an experimental theater work about Bertolt Brecht's play The Life of Galileo, the FBI surveillance of Brecht during his American years, and the HUAC hearings. Staged readings of this work in progress for which I am the scriptwriter were held at the Goethe Institute L.A. and the Villa Aurora, Pacific Palisades, in October 2004.
The Roman Forum Project 2003is a mixed-reality performance work examining the American political scene between the postelection crisis of 2000 and the invasion of Iraq. Drawing on five Roman characters from the 1st century C.E., a time when Rome's republican government was under great strain from the stresses of building and maintaining a large empire, it critiqued America's vision of its role in the world. An ensemble work designed for nontraditional spaces, it is a kind of "media commedia" melding Internet technologies, video projections, and classical Greek and Roman theatrical traditions. It was created in collaboration with director Robert Allen, sound artists Cuca Esteves and Jeff Ridenour, the Plaintext Players, and a group of actors. A sequel to The Roman Forum 2000 (see below), it premiered at the Beall Center for Art and Technology in March 2003.
Reading Frankenstein 2003is a multimedia performance work about artificial life, recent research in neurological processes related to reading and perception, and Mary Shelley's classic gothic novel. It was created in collaboration with director Annie Loui and neurobiologist Jim Fallon. A half-hour workshop production of an early version of the work was held at the Beall Center for Art & Technology in May/June 2002. The finished work premiered at the Beall Center in May/June 2003.
SHIFT-CTRL 2000was the first major North American exhibition to examine how artists work with games, gaming, and related technologies. SHIFT-CTRL included a mix of installations and networked pieces, looking critically yet playfully at how games have been altering social systems as they emerge to occupy cultural center stage. The exhibition's three featured areas--Role-Playing Games and Shared Social Spaces; Evolvable/Emergent Systems; and World Hacks/Rewriting Existing Worlds--included work by such artists as Rebecca Allen; Perry Hoberman; RTMark; Mongrel; Eddo Stern; Natalie Bookchin; Negativland; Jodi.org; Ken Feingold; Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau; Grahame Weinbren; Lisa Brenneis and Adriene Jenik; Janine Cirincione and Michael Ferraro; Jane Prophet, Gordon Selley, and Mark Hurry; Lev Manovich and Norman Klein; and Eric Zimmerman, many of whom have been included in the numerous game art shows that have proliferated in the wake of SHIFT-CTRL.
The Roman Forum 2000was a series of linked online improvisations and stage events centered on the 2000 Democratic National Convention and set against the backdrop of Imperial Rome. This neo-Vaudevillean exploration by 1st century Romans breached the boundaries between the Internet, the real world, history, and the stage to forge a hybrid work out of the differing perspectives of each. It was created in collaboration with director Robert Allen, the Plaintext Players, and a group of actors.
Virtual Live 2000was a preview event for The Roman Forum 2000 that took place at Location One Gallery, New York.
Still Lies Quiet Truth 1998was a performance work whose script was derived from live avatar-based improvisations on the internet. Show projections featured glimpses of an online virtual world. It premiered at the New York Digital Salon and was re-presented at the New York International Fringe Festival.
Without 1997was commissioned by Creative Time (NY) for the Day Without Art (Dec. 1, now better known as International AIDS Day). It was a deliberate parody of banner ads, which were then just becoming ubiquitous.
Silent Orpheus 1997
Orpheus: I Am the Music 1997
The White Whale 1997
blast5drama 1996-97
The Candide Campaign 1996
The Cake of the Desert 1996
LittleHamlet 1995
Gutter City 1995
I Object 1995
Christmas 1994-95
The Plaintext Players (founded 1994)is a pioneering group of cyberperformers who have been creating live online improvisations since the inception of the web. As the group's founder and artistic director, I direct many of their unique performances, which generally take the form of textual improvisations based on written scenarios. One of the longest-running groups of cyberperformers, the Players have recently been involved in creating mixed-reality works that merge cyberspace and realspace in various ways.
The Museum of Forgery (founded 1991)is a virtual institute dedicated to promoting an appreciation of the aesthetics of forgery. A number of the ideas promulgated by the Museum--such as conceptual Photoshop filters or dumping grounds for old art--have since been taken up and implemented by other artists. I am the museum's founder and director.