Body Manipulations

June 9, 2012 - The LAB, San Francisco, CA

I curated this show as well as performed a collaborative work.

The sterile exhibition mode is null at this live performance event on the new-net-body. Seventeen artists, performers and musicians will collaborate on an evening of interactive and performative installations referencing the negative reflexivity of "being-online". This one night body-based exhibition takes on theatrics and mystery - now at a loss to the web - while the curator takes on the role of director, moderator and performer. Works will morph, appear, and disappear throughout the evening  thus representing a mode of being and creating while on-line. The works will develop a loose narrative around the idea of physical movement within these limits of the internet.

What has the net done? A compression of the self into new genres of a convertible and alterable nature. But how to use this new power is a dilemma. We extend ourselves to experience as much as possible, but become so broad in our nature that no specifics exist anymore. Physical "clicking" is the new way of experiencing at our leisure without being completely immersed in the subject itself. 

Remixed, chopped and screwed soundtracks by NWL (Peter Conheim of Negativland and Jon Leidecker von Wobbly) and Daniel Leyva (DIS Magazine) mingle the sounds from the net, streets and clubs into hard and heavy techno-net grindcore pop. Curator Caitlin Denny (Jstchillin.org) and Monique Goldwater will present a dance heavy play expressing the concern of the mego-ego in the post digital age. Sara Ludy's  massive architectural digital landscapes will emerge and destroy themselves as Brandon Drew Holmes will intrude on your being with human 'pop ups' and technologically advanced mind tricks. Ann Hirsch, reality TV star, extends herself to you willingly in a game of seduction and intrigue while Bryan Morello slams, cuts and meshes the inflection of digital nativity and naiveté.

Come experience the movement of bodies and sounds through an interface of familiar net nostalgia and disoriented digital dance. The anxiety induced LAN party of 2012 is finally here.

Artists exhibited include JODI, Matthew Endler + Bittany Berg, Ann Hirsch, Brandon Drew Holmes, NWL (Peter Conheim of Negativland and Jon Leidecker von Wobbly), Daniel Leyva, Sara Ludy, Bryan Morello, Zach Shipko, Monique Goldwater + Caitlin Denny, Joel Dean, and Jake Sollins.