Re: [-empyre-] AFFECT

["James Way" <jarway@hotmail.com>]

With the larger more environmental installations parasite often tries to 
encourage a direct interaction, to encourage people to walk through and 
investigate, even to participate with the performance. "trans-border: 
primitive man @edge of virtual forest / hyaku-take" intended to immerse the 
body in a mediatized environment - projections and audio - but the spatial 
configuration was to impede any direct movement. We wanted to challenge the 
physical body, make one aware of their physicality yet be immersed in the 
speed and ubiquity of the image and aural - the biological/media and 
physical/ephemeral. We had a few takers but most just looked, a curious 
peeking. Most of the viewers remained just that, passive viewers, and looked 
at the work from the periphery. The best participant was a young child - 5-7 
years old.

To address a psychological/emotional reaction: During the opening of 
"parallel conditions in a field of fluctuating probabilities," which 
occupied an empty storefront on a somewhat pedestrian road in downtown San 
Antonio, we had much the same usual reaction - curious peeking, quick walk 
around and on to the next exhibit. However, we did have one strong reaction 
to it. One gentleman inspected it quite closely for nearly 10-20 minutes. He 
approached us asking what we had wanted to make. We said we had some ideas 
but wanted to know his reaction/interpretation first. Quite surprising to 
us, his flat out immediate response was "Vietnam". He was a Vietnam War 
veteran and the materials had a very strong association to his memories 
there - metal screen wrapping bamboo, bamboo piercing a car hood, 
construction lights, and 'floating' stainless steel. He didn't go into much 
detail and we explained our intention. Upon his leaving, "Yep, reminds me of 
Nam".

The subsequent 3-4 installations were directly informed by life cycles of 
insects - larva, pupa, grub, chrysalis - but rather than keeping them purely 
biological they were mechanized and mediatized. Their organic forms were 
'supported' by prosthetic 'organs' - motors, sensors, pumps, monitors - 
salvaged from junkyards or recycling centers so there was always an 
intermingling of animate/inanimate, biological/mechanical or 
organic/inorganic.

During Easy Credit Theater's performance for "Chrysalis Bridge" one of the 
audience members, a mid-twenties woman, basically joined in the performance. 
The performance was a three-hour work that went from absolutely stillness to 
an orgiastic frenzy. During the still portion, the woman approached the 
performers, who were completely wrapped in cellophane cocoons, and lightly 
massaged their bodies, as if attempting to awaken or resuscitate them. This 
was by far the most radical shift from viewer to participant.

In RE:positions (with Scott Pobiner) I had built a smaller version of a site 
in Tokyo - a narrow alley that opened onto a river and overlaid projections 
and soundtrack of various sounds and images from the area. It was an attempt 
to relocate qualities of the site into a gallery space 13 time zones away. 
In "peephole shadow sounds" (with Shubhra Raje) had made an installation in 
her neighboring office that questioned the role of the wall. She cut a 
portion of the wall out and  attached a hinge and thereby making the wall a 
door. I latched onto this by attaching wires to the door that: one, acted as 
a counter weight to provide resistance to opening the door and two, 
triggered sound and video projections. However these actions could only be 
witnessed from the exterior. The interior reaction could only be viewed 
through the building's windows, through a peephole that looked into the 
room, or heard. Thus the installation was never activated by the viewer, but 
by a displaced event.

I think the effect is to recognize the increasing prosthetic nature of 
existence and that we can affect and are affected by remote actions, that 
there are displaced consequences, and that we are increasingly mediated, 
i.e. we use objects (prostheses) to cause immaterial/ephemeral actions.

Ultimately, the viewers' immersion or involvement with the work comes to 
whether one wants to engage the work and whether they are willing to make 
the "suspension of disbelief". So far this seems to be done more readily by 
people with strong visual associations and memories or by people unhindered 
with preconceived notions of appropriateness or reservations of interacting 
with art in space, like the child or young woman.

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