Artist's Statement
*Conductor #1: Getting In Touch With Chicken* is an interactive performance and installation in which I will be placed inside of a box and thereafter assume the role of *conductor*. Within this box I will perform with hopes of attaining energy which may allow effective communication with a chicken called *resistor*, placed into a second box approximately 5 meters away. The *resistor* will be privy to a telephone with a direct line from and to the *conductor* , an answering machine, and a video/CU-SEEME connection. As *conductor* I will be assisted by my own telephone with direct line from and to the *resistor*, a video camera, and a CU-SEEME connection. Participants called *batteries* both local and remote, will utilize me as *medium* and/or *exorcist* for a ritual involving perceptual boundaries, and possible transcendence of these boundaries. World wide participants including those at PORT MIT will participate via a total of 4 possible screens of interaction involving CU-SEEME, Real Audio, and a World Wide Web Site. Integral components of this ritual will be participants at PORT and other remote guests via CU-SEEME connections. All participants will actively assume the role of *batteries* . These groups are encouraged to communicate via CU-SEEME CHAT. *Batteries* may dine upon prescribed meals of fried chicken and/or scrambled eggs with hopes that their internalization of chicken may then twist their tongues into energized and energizing forms that could contribute to my optimum performance as *conductor* thus completion of the circuit called *chicken*. Remote participants and viewers will be able to observe all levels of interaction simultaneously via CU-SEEME windows; the room view window called *circuit* , the *conductor* window, the *resistor* window and all *battery* windows. Local participants and viewers may navigate within the physical space of the *circuit* between the boxes of *conductor* and *resistor*. and may engage two large screens positioned at opposite ends of the physical space which detail online interactions. There will be a total of four performances of "Conductor #1" which will commence once each week for four weeks in conjunction with PORT. During this time period the physical exhibition site and the "Conductor #1" web site will remain intact and accessible via internet to serve as a testament or *holy space* for both local and remote voyagers seeking evidence of physical transcendence.
Recent Reflections On Conductor Number One
1 9 9 7 c a r y p e p p e r m i n t
capepper@dreamscape.com