At Conflux 2009 you turned your Probability performance into a workshop which introduced participants to the ways of Google Earth pro, Google Sketchup and the nuances of a successful flythrough—so what did they come up with?
WWKSF: Since we started working on Probability about a year ago we’ve been keeping our eyes open for other people using Google Earth as a glorified presentation tool, mostly because we’re really waiting for there to be a better way. Unfortunately, we haven’t really seen too much pop up. Slowly, Google is adding features to Earth with allow custom overlays and better integration of different 3D specs but the fact remains that using SketchUp and Earth the way we do in Probability remains extremely difficult and pretty cumbersome. That - however - doesn’t really stop us because we think it looks amaaaaazing. We just certainly wouldn’t fault anyone for seeing what the process is and going “Oh man… I’ll wait until thats a little easier.”
MemeFactory seems to be your most popular performance/lecture. Do the memes “rank” differently in each performance or have you noticed any trends? What can you tell me about Forwards\Backwards?
WWKSF: MemeFactory is definitely a great crowd pleaser. Our methodology for determining what we talk about at each MemeFactory performance (and it IS different every time) is pretty loose. It all starts with the stuff we think is the funniest, and then we take into consideration the probable level-of-internet-expertise of the audience and a million other things. So in that sense, there is no real “rank” for the way we organize things. For example, Crank That was the “headliner” for one show and the opening example for the next. Different memes serve many and varied purposes when explaining the online ecology; your standard audience loves cute animals and fears being goatse’d. Those’re about the only constants.
Forwards\Backwards is a performance for 1 vocalist and synchronous audio / video about time travel. It retains much of the same look of our other shows - a 1 for 1 relationship between a performer and his or her screen displaying media, but that relationship is reversed. In our work up to this point, the screen has always been controlled by or following the pace of the performer. Forwards\Backwards explores the idea of the performer having to keep pace with his screen - which runs autonomously - with the additional challenge that he cannot even see it. In this way it becomes a kind of memory-related parlor trick, and presents a performer/screen relationship which is new for us.
The pace of your performances reflects the instantaneous exchange of information the internet affords us, but do you find that participants of your theoretical derives are able to keep up? In your opinion, are memes and Google flythroughs turning the world into Marshall McLuhan’s global village, or are our modems and monitors causing more missed connections than meaningful ones?
WWKSF: Our first performance in front of an audience was proceeded by about 2 months of fret. All of our shows operate on the idea that whatever your ears get, your brain will put together eventually (maybe not at the moment you hear it, since our performers speak so quickly, but soon after). And whatever your ears miss while your brain is putting stuff together, will hopefully be filled in or supported by what your eyes get from the visuals (which are also moving blisteringly fast). Back in 2008, we had no idea if this was going to work. After the first show, I had a friend of mine approach me and say “How did you do that?” after asking what he meant, he explained that while he couldn’t tell me a complete sentence from the show, he knew exactly what had been said - knew exactly what the show was about. In the last two and a half years of doing this kind of work, that reaction - thankfully! - has been shared by many people.
We find that our audiences are not only able to keep up - possibly due to their modern media “training” - but they are elated that as performance makers we give them so much credit. We don’t spoon feed or patronize or talk down. We do our best to present challenging and rewarding constructions of logic which put to use those cognitive abilities we’ve developed as consumers of modern culture.
As for the possibly-changing size of the globe, my opinion is that the internet is a symptom and not a cause. In the same way that the industrial revolution necessitated the railways, our growing “need” for goods and products gave rise to a system which supported that; the media revolution necessitates a global information framework. Starting with radio, our constantly growing “need” for information gives rise to a system and way of life which supports that. Now we ask the same questions about the internet that we did about the the printed word, the radio or television before they became defacto cultural standards. I think it is damaging - or at the very least occasionally irresponsible - to think of them as Determining Factors in Cultural Development; rather I consider them products of a culture’s advance. The situation - and all previous media situations - are simultaneously idyllic, grotesque and mundane. To me that is what is most fascinating. “Too bad,” said Jean Baudrillard, “We are in Paradise.”
***
WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR is a Brooklyn-based group of performers and the works they perform. Our performances look like lectures (suits, podiums, slide shows, the works), but are much more theatrical. For instance: there is music. We create complex and fast paced situations which are also engaging and affable.
WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR is directed by Mike Rugnetta and Patrick Davison
Mike Rugnetta is a composer and programmer. He has performed or had work show at HERE Art Center, The Kitchen, Judson Memorial Church, Mass MoCA, The Wexner Center for the Arts, The Walker Art Center, St. Mark’s Church, 3rd Ward and others. He is also a principal artist with Avant Media and his favorite word is elucubrate.
Patrick Davison is a digital artist living in Brooklyn. He is co-director of WWKSF, and has performed work in New York City at the Kitchen, NYU, Columbia University, The Gene Frankel Theater, and 3rd Ward in Brooklyn. He works closely with Eyebeam Senior-Fellow Michael Mandiberg, and film-maker Julie Talen.
Find WWKSF On: Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube and, of course, WWKSF.com
