about | projects | writing | 2D | playback | design | games | events | teaching | info | blog
This month's fires in Southern California brought to mind a monologue entitled "Scherzo" from Demotic. Below is an excerpt; the image above links to a 145-MB QuickTime movie of this scene.
It's funny how people say that.
They're standing there looking right at you and saying
We lost everything.
We lost a lot of crap.
The bad photos with my bad hair.
Our tax records.
The stuff I never got around to having a tag sale.
Have you ever thought, when you die,
Everything in your house immediately turns into garbage?
At least the fire turned it all into ash.
We lost the dog.
Thank goodness for that.
We've been dragging him around for so long.
No one had the heart to get rid of him.
Does ash burn?
Does it?
Somewhere in here is the ash of the ash of the dog.
Logophobia, the fear of words.
Fear of memories.
Phengophobia--
Fear of daylight.
Fear of the sun and the moon and the stars.
Fear of clouds and fog.
Fear of ideas.
Of poetry and moths.
Fear of ice.
Fear of eyes.
Oneirophobia, the fear of dreams.
One friend set her mattress on fire.
Another friend, they smelled smoke.
They went around touching the walls.
Those were ordinary fires.
This one, we came out here for the nature.
We came out here to get away.
She took our head in her teeth.
It's huge.
It's bigger than you are.
It's not ordinary.
It shouldn't happen.
It's wrong.
This is the house of ash.
This is the land of ash.
©2006
Above is a collage of the tabootheatre 2.0 performance I participated in last spring. I and my students were in Washington, DC (that's us in the monitors), while the white-suited performers were in a gallery space in Zürich, Switzerland. We had a live video/voice connection to the event as the "Universal Translation Service" whose motto was: "Our goal is perfection. We translate all languages with 100 percent accuracy, guaranteed". However, the real mission of the Universal Translation Service — which featured a running commentary on the performance in Korean, Thai, German, French, and English — was to explore those pleasures of translation that arise once the notion of accuracy has been jettisoned. For more information about this event, check out this recent post on the curating netart blog.
Mediated
Jan. 31-April 4, 2009
I'll be taking part in this exhibition at the California Museum of Photography with a unique video installation based on the Playing the Rapture project.
Scalable Relations
Jan. 23-March 20, 2009
I'll be taking part in this exhibition at UC San Diego's gallery@CalIT2 with a unique video installation based on the Playing the Rapture project.
Future of Writing Conference
Nov. 6-7, 2008
On Nov. 7, I presented a talk at this conference about my use of networked communication technologies to help generate and work with text in my original performance projects.
Difference Engines
fall 2008
I have joined the founding group of a new blog that critiques the shifting technological landscape from feminist perspectives. Check it out, and jump in; the water is plenty hot.
Searching for Sebald
October 2007
Now available: an anthology of original essays and visual projects inspired by the work of the late German author W.G. Sebald. Order the trade edition online, check out what the critics are saying, or find out about the unique collectors' editions. I am an Associate Editor of this anthology as well as a contributor and the lead designer.