Bluestar Contemporary Art Center - Tell Me a Story
August 4-27, 2006
While in graduate school during the 2005 / 2006 academic year, I traveled to Mexico, Germany and Japan. I decided to take a video camera and a lapel microphone with me in order to collect stories from each location to present later in a video installation commenting on the humanity of everyone. Before I left, I prepared a sheet of paper explaining my intentions in each of the countries' respective language.
I visited Mexico first for the Day of the Dead celebration and found it difficult to communicate with people because of my poorly translated instructions. Luckily a kind gentleman helped me rework the translation. Many people were interested in telling me a story, but stayed away from the video camera. I picked up a few Spanish words for phrases such as, "Any thing is okay." and "One story." I had to ask a lot of people to get the stories that I did, which ranged from old folk-tales to young college students jokes to stories about family.
Next, I went to Germany in March when it was quite cold. Many Germans speak good English so my translation sheet was not as necessary, although it was still difficult to get people to talk on camera. In Germany I collected stories about little boys' love of cake to more serious comments about East Berlin.
In Japan it was easier to communicate because I spoke some Japanese. The Japanese can be shy people to strangers beyond giving directions. Not many people wanted to say anything on camera. Stories ranged from tales of Astro Boy to grandchildren.
Finally, I collected stories from the US to add to the spectrum represented. I found that approaching and convincing Americans on the street to be extremely difficult. Most people thought I was begging for money and just ignored me. With some persistence I gathered the information I needed and took all the tapes home to cut together on my computer.
The installation became an eight monitor piece. Each of the monitors could be seen through a hole cut in a newspaper from the country the storyteller was from. Each monitor cycled through about twenty stories. The various languages created a swell of sound, but looking at the advertisements for goods in the various news papers and hearing some stories in recognizable languages gave a feeling of universality.
Bluestar Contemporary Art Center - Loud and Clear
August, 2006
Loud and Clear was a companion video performance art piece that opened the video installation Tell Me a Story. Becasue this was a captive audience I approached it differently than the general public. Dealing with the general public does not require success. If one person does not like you then simply move on to the next. This setting required that the audience be given something, to be allowed to return home with smiles, with a sense that their attendance was worth it, and possibly with warm fuzzy feelings inside.
I constructed a pulpit like structure containing, sound amplification equipment, a video projection screen, hidden cameras, and two towers of televisions. Similar to previous performances, costume played a major role. My head was completely enclosed in a fabricated, opaque plastic box. In addition to my head and brain, the box housed cameras and microphones pointed towards my face. The signal from these cameras and microphones was delivered to the projection screen and sound amplification equipment on the pulpit. This was how I communicated with the audience without being able to see the audience directly.
The exterior of the plastic box had clips that held ten mini-cameras. These cameras had long AV leashes that connected back to my helmet. The final destination for the mini cameras’ signals was the two towers of TVs by the pulpit. The audience was invited to take the mini-cameras in their hands and document anything that they chose to in the gallery and surrounding area. Movement was not be limited` as the leashes were considerably long. As this developed I boomed my thoughts through the sound amplification speakers and traveled about the audience.
This act leveled the gap between the performer and the audience members. They contributed as much to the experience as myself. Everyone was a director for a moment. People did and said things in front of the mini-cameras that they did not expect and at the same time they forgot that everyone could see them on the TV towers. A completely enveloping and interactive experience and event was achieved.
Invitation Card
