related links:

66b/cell
About the UNPLUGGED Updates

66b/cell – Performance

The performance by the Japanese media drive unit 66b/cell staged in visually colorful and acoustically shrill fashion is a combination of Faust II and theire brand new work Test Patches.

Positive & negative space: Figures (performing bodies) are not isolated from their ground. Neither figure nor ground is the thing itself: it is the relationship between both and their interconnection that resonates with a certain spirit of place. Each is relative to the other in an ever-shifting dynamic. Within the black and white frames lies a hidden totality. The figure emerges and disappears, takes shape and dissolves—one is often not sure whether it is the actual performer being perceived or one of the myriad shadows cast through illumination…

Test patches, like testing applications, are devised to detect reactions and responses. Each scene or 'edit' can be modified, rearranged, expanded or contracted. Through adaptation and mutation, new and unexpected moods and insights emerge. In some moments, programmed audio-visual effects align precisely with notational choreographed movements. In contrasted moments, movements based on imagery (a kind of structured improvisation) are recreated anew each time. The performance approach here reflects a cut 'n' paste media culture or a freefall between genres.

The performer-user becomes a living interface between the viewer and the installation. Yet the device is not simply attached to the body as a machine or prosthesis, rather it becomes a catalyst to open further performative and audio-visual perspectives.

Chiaroscuro: Software tools are used to extend earlier artistic styles of representation. Modeling by the depiction of light and shade through bold contrasts heightens the perception of depth and the illusion of a solid 3D form. Monochromatic transition occurs through greys to darker and lighter tones, as well as through high contrast between darkness and light. The black and white aesthetics evokes the mood of a live filmstrip reminiscent of the silent screen era, or recalls the electric pulses of early digital bitmapping where the screen lights up on ones and darkens on zeros.

66b/cell will be presented on Saturday, September 7, 2002, from 10:30p.m. at the Peter Behrens Haus (Alte Tabak Fabrik); afterwards, get-together with DJing und VJing by a.s.a.p. and con.trust.music.

A cooperation of Ars Electronica with the Art University Linz: Institut Bildende Kunst und Kulturwissenschaften, Bildhauerei, Experimentelle Visuelle Gestaltung.






no comments yet