Tag: Mettachine (Sequence 1)

Canada / USA

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 presents Mettachine (Sequence 1), an interactive performance installation by Canadian artist Louise McKissick. This event, presented in conjunction with Tranz <—> Tech and is the latest instalment in FADO’s Public Spaces / Private Places series.

Mettachine (Sequence1) 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; by visiting the waiting room, which will feature a live feed of the biofeedback results; or by monitoring a live stream on the web.

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 (Sequence1), 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.

Presented in the context of Tranz <—> Tech, Toronto’s international video art biennial.

Public Spaces / Private Places was a 3-year long international performance art series featuring 22 projects, created by 26 artists, from Canada, the US, Europe and Asia. The series explored the elements that turn neutral ‘space’ into meaningful ‘place’ through performances that examined the degrees of intimacy, connection and interaction that mark the dividing line between public and private. The series was particularly focused on performances created for intimate audiences. Some projects featured site-specific or installational environments that invited participants into a sensory or experiential journey. Others were process-oriented, involving public intervention, intimate gestures, or actions that were, by their nature, nearly invisible. Above all, the series explored the points where identity and geography intersect to generate meaning.

2002–2003
Walking and Getting Rid of Something by Kirsten Forkert
Promenades by Sylvie Cotton
The Rootless Man by Iwan Wijono
Disposition by Adina Bar-On

2001–2002
Talking to my Horse by Archer Pechawis
A Gathering for Her by Reona Brass
Mettachine (Sequence 1) by Louise McKissick
Feu de Joie by Randy & Berenicci
Open Surgery by Oreet Ashery & Svar Simpson
Remembrance Day by Johanna Householder
Disclosure by Undo
Meridian by Marilyn Arsem
One Stitch in Time by Devora Newmark

2000–2001
The Addmore Session by Istvan Kantor
spoken house by Otiose
Public Web by Tagny Duff
Numb/Hum: A Subterranean Metropolitan Opera by Christine Carson
Between Us by Jerzy Onuch
Ethel: Bloodline by Louise Liliefeldt
where do I go from here? by Stefanie Marshall
Urban Disco Trailer by Jinhan Ko
Evanescent Rumour by Tony Romano

The Public Spaces / Private Places series presented 22 performance projects between 2000–2003, and was curated by Paul Couillard.