‘Media for Solo Performer’ is an experimental media art performance that, in real-time, produces a single channel nonlinear narrative documentary. The performer wears an Electroencephalography Interface (EEG), through which he is able to control panning and zooming in Google Maps, navigating the images and places from memories heard as pre-recorded stories told by his father and himself.
During the performance the raw EEG data from the performer’s brain is displayed on a VGA monitor and used to generate ambient tones that reflect the neural state of the performer. More complex functions of the performance like revealing photographs and performing location searches are controlled by using a timer.
The audience experience lies deep in the uncanny valley, oscillating between viewing a personal documentary and witnessing a performer’s mind activity being displaced from their body. The stories that are told weave an experimental narrative of a life and migration that cross continents and generations. Beginning as an examination of post human technological interface the performance has become an exploration of the mechanization of memory and the dissolution of place.
Presentations – Media for Solo Performer:
Freud’s Bathhouse and Diner | 2011 | Live EEG Cartographic Documentary Curator Kristel Jax, Winnipeg MB
Cyborg Cinema WNDX Festival of Film and Video Art | 2011 | EEG Documentary, Curator Jaimz Asmundson, Winnipeg MB