10/10/2001
Public spaces / private places
FADO, Toronto
Is a three-year long international performance art series featuring over 25 artists from Canada, the US, Europe and Asia. "Mettachine (Sequence 1)" is an interactive performance installation with Canadian artist Louise McKissick.
Is a three-year long international performance art series
featuring over 25 artists from Canada, the US, Europe and
Asia. The series explores the elements that turn neutral
'space' into meaningful 'place' through performances that
examine the degrees of intimacy, connection and interaction
that mark the dividing line between public and private. The
series is particularly focused on performances created for
intimate audiences. Some projects feature site-specific or
installational environments that invite participants into a
sensory or experiential journey. Others are process-oriented,
involving public intervention, intimate gestures, or actions that
may, by their nature, be nearly invisible. Above all, the series
explores the points where identity and geography intersect to
generate meaning.
Mettachine (Sequence 1) - LOUISE McKISSICK
TORONTO, Canada ... From October 11
- 13, FADO will present METTACHINE
(SEQUENCE 1), an interactive
performance installation with Canadian
artist Louise McKissick. This event,
presented in conjunction with Tranz <-
- -> Tech, the Toronto international
video art biennial, is the latest
installment in FADO's ongoing PUBLIC
SPACES/ PRIVATE PLACES series.
METTACHINE (SEQUENCE 1) is the first
in a series of works by Louise McKissick
that explore the social framework of
medical biotechnology. A biofeedback
machine will be used to track the
effects of touch and language on the
bodies of subject participants. These
effects will then be mediated and
broadcast over the web. Audiences can
be a part of the project either as
subject participants (to sign up for one
of the 45-minute sessions, contact
FADO at 416-822-3219); by visiting the
waiting room, which will feature a live
feed of the biofeedback results; or by
monitoring a live stream on the web
(check www.mettachine.org for
details).
LOUISE McKISSICK
McKissick creates a provocative performance situation by marrying clinical
and relaxation biofeedback techniques -- including hypnosis -- with
brainwave interface technology from IBVA Technologies Inc. IBVA provides
an interface between brainwave patterns and personal computers -- in
essence, allowing users to control computers by thought. FOR METTACHINE
(SEQUENCE 1), McKissick will use the brainwave patterns of subject
participants to access a web stream of live and/or archived visual
information. This information will be relayed back to the participant, creating
a biofeedback loop. The technology allows McKissick and her subjects to
map a geography of information through visual narrative, where the rules of
navigation are controlled by brainwaves.
Louise McKissick is a Canadian new media performance and installation artist
based in Chicago. Recent exhibitions include "The Julia Set" (Artemisia
Gallery, Chicago), an interactive installation featuring borrowed library books
and a series of subtly erotic photographs influenced by the work of Victorian
photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. The images were placed between the
pages of library books based on mathematical calculations from the Julia
Set, which is part of the Chaos theory branch of mathematics. Using the
photographs as a guide, sound pieces were created by scanning the
photographs and feeding them into software designed to create complex
sound patterns based on Chaos theory algorithms. After the exhibition, the
books were returned to the library with the photographs still hidden inside.
Her digital video microshort, "iloveyou", won the Palm d'Or first prize in the
Aggressively Boring Film Festival (billed as "the world's first film fest for the
Palm OS"), and was broadcast on an outdoor LCD video billboard as part of
the Transmedia 2000 show in Toronto. Louise has performed internationally,
most recently at the Exit Performance Art Festival in Helsinki. Currently, she
is Assistant Professor of Academic Computing at Columbia College Chicago,
where she teaches web programming.
FADO: Mettachine (Sequence 1) - LOUISE McKISSICK
October 11 - 13, 2001
Trinity Square Video
35 McCaul Street, Suite 310 Toronto, Ontario
10 am - 5 pm
FREE