mis.comm.unication - the space between us

“mis.comm.unication - the space between us” is about the breakdown and failure of communication, about the desire to be seen and to have one’s identity reaffirmed by the other and the lack of fulfillment of those desires. Communication always involves a significatory excess, miscommunication, misunderstanding. This performance examines how telecommunications technology amplifies this miscommunication, failing to convey the significatory excess of communication and replacing it with its own excess, feedback, artifacts.

[img]http://sdhacklab.org/lotu5/miscomm-2.jpg[/img]

The performance consists of 4 live performers. One performer is in the room with the audience, flanked by 2 video screens, one on each side of her body. A solo performer on one side of a “chat” appears in one video, and two performers on the other side of the “chat”, who claim to be the same person, appear in the other video. The performer in the room enacts the role of the medium, be that language, technology or the body. Through sensors on her body fed through a Puredata patch, the medium builds the amount of distortion, delay and disconnect as the performance unfolds. The video “chatters” react over time to the medium itself in their attempts to communicate. A fifth, unseen, performer may add additional distortion along the way. The performers will each receive only the processed audio, allowing them to explore the actual miscommunication and the emotions associated with it including longing, frustration and seduction.

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This project was presented in the Telematic Performance graduate research group at UCSD led by Adriene Jenik, Mark Dresser and Sharokh Yadegari. The class was supported by CRCA and took place in the Performative Computing lab of the c(a)lit2 building.

The project was realized by myself, Batya MacAdam-Somer, Nina Waisman, Ashley Walters and Grace Leslie. We still have a lot of details to work out, but I’m excited about the performance, even in the sketch state that it is in, so I want to share some of the documentation of what we’re working on. We’re considering a public performance some time in January. I’ll post more about that soon.

What I like the most about this project is that it has been a way for me to continue working through some issues I’ve been dealing with personally, through the medium of network performance. My final line, repeated numerous times in the piece is: “What I really want to know is, when can I see you again?”

Short AVI video clip:
http://sdhacklab.org/lotu5/miscomm-sketch.avi