[-empyre-] setting fire to avatars, collapsing realities

[Johannes Birringer]

dear all   (        )


not sure what to do about the parenthesis, but on a late Thursday night, what worries me is 
the role, as Katja well describes it (in her book) of the audience and performer/feedback
and thus the "sociological concept of interaction" or the processes here, right here on the empyre list
as it felt a bit lonely last week when the discussion on interactivity and collapsing realities
began; and now I wonder whether one should interpret one's own work, or post "provocations"?
and what would those be (our own work which we have observed diligently?),  or other work,
or wait in silence?  It appears to me that many are not participating and thus I wonder whether it's the
subject and its futility,  or other reasons.

Thanks Alan for commenting on the " immersive and definable hierarchies" in regard to screen/virtuality - do you believe
that feeling "as if" one were "there" is something that can be analyzed in terms of Katja's reception/applied aesthetics,
based on receiver-participant evidence (interviews, reports, recordings, documentation, etc)? how is interactive art documented
by the way? how do we track the social? 


A remark I picked up from Nathaniel worries me too (namely that ballet dancers dance with mirrors): they rarely do. 
Then Nathaniel suggests that >Each of the four electronic installations in the Body Language exhibition uses the moving-thinking-feeling body as an interface with language and technology. 
They give us a number of different ways to investigate and perform precisely what bodies, as “an expression of meaning” .. can be.>

It might be interesting to ask how meaning is expressed/established/assumed and posited (by the producers),  
and how we make sense of the groping for shadows or the immersion with projections, if that were indeed so.

I can only speak for myself, and I have not been immersed in a projection. I try to stay distanced as much as possible. When I dance (with interactive projections), I never look at them. 


Just got word from a concert that Christina McPhee is preparing,  so share with you (expressing my respect for these artists' magnificent work)  -
>
Pamela Z and Christina McPhee's intermedia work for chamber ensemble and expanded cinema comes to San Francisco for a 2 night run at Joe Goode Annex in Project Artaud.
CARBON SONG CYCLE , by Pamela Z and Christina McPhee/ Friday and Saturday, February 7th & 8th, 2014 at 8pm / Joe Goode Annex (at Project Artaud
Scored for voice & electronics, bassoon, viola, cello, percussion, and immersive multi-channel video, the work will be performed by the composer Pamela Z the video maker Christina McPhee, Dana Jessen, Theresa Wong, Charith Premawardhana, and Suki O'Kane. // 
>

respectfully,
Johannes Birringer