Courtesy of the artist. Radical Ecologies, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth.
RE-WIRED / RE-MIXED: Event for Dismembered Body was an internet enabled performance that explored the physiological and aesthetic experience of a fragmented, de-synchronised, distracted and involuntary body – wired and under surveillance online. For five days, six hours a day, wearing a video headset and sound cancelling earphones, the artist could only see with the ‘eyes’ of someone in London, whilst only hearing with the ‘ears’ of someone in New York. The body was also augmented by a 7 degree-of-freedom exoskeleton enabling anyone anywhere to program involuntary movement of his right arm, using an online interface. In the gallery space itself, the choreography could be generated via a large touch-screen. What the artist was seeing and hearing could be experienced in the gallery space with a video projection and sound system. With his shadow projected on the wall behind him the choreography was flattened into one visual, coherent and chimeric phantom spectacle. The body was indifferent but not insensitive. Disturbed but not dismayed. Not a split mind and body but merely a body with split physiology. After the five days of performances, the exoskeleton remains interactive both in the gallery and online for the remainder of the exhibition. A video edit is projected, indicating what had occurred during the performance.
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