Surveillance cameras are an ever increasing part of our society. These cameras observe and record all kinds of everyday actions, but their primary function is to prevent crime. We are interested in expanding the idea of surveillance to include watching other aspects of our culture. As a first step, Baltimore based choreographer Mikey Thomas and visual artist Aaron Henderson are creating performances that explore possibilities of moving in public, which are captured by existing surveillance cameras.

Live Performance
Wang Center Theatre at Stony Brook University, Long Island, NY
Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 7pm

This live/audio/visual performance will be a part of Stony Brook University’s HYBRID GEOGRAPHIES concert on March 24, 2010. This concert examines the transformations of space that have taken place with the advent of digital technologies.

Collaborators

Choreography: Mikey Thomas
Video: Aaron Henderson
Sound: Ted Coffey

More information:

www.hybridgeographies.net

Primary contact email: info@aaronhenderson.com

No related posts.

About the Project

“Midway” is created from footage and images captured at state and county fairs in Indiana and South Carolina. Multi-channel videos examine the impromptu performances, staged competitions and visceral revelations that attendees experience while riding Carnival rides. Sound for these videos is by Ted Coffey. The show also consists of photographs that document the desolate stages and booths at the peripheries of these fairs.

Work

- Pharoah’s Fury – 2 channel 9′ x 9′ projections
Opposing projections exploring performance and competition in Pirate Ship rides.

- Gravitron – 2 channel high-definition video – 4 minutes
Found choreography by non-dancers as they resist and capitulate to Gravity.

- Feuerball – 4 channel video sculpture
Immersive videos that examine that moment when play and terror intermingle.

- Dora, Spongebob, Spiderman (Digital Inkjet, 24″ x 18″)
- Variety (Digital Inkjet, 24″ x 18″)
- The Power of Youth (Digital Inkjet, 24″ x 18″)

Background

Since I was a kid, I’ve always loved local fairs. There was one every year in Dearborn Heights, pretty close to my parents house—I remember it at only at night—harsh sodium lights casting black shadows, the rumble of car tires as the Gravitron took off, cotton candy wisps, too much perfume and sweat streaked backs. I loved the rides, they were an opportunity to exceed the limits of rationality, especially because getting on one always seemed to involve waiting in long lines watching the rusty parts shudder under the impact of the constant surges of momentum.

Currently, I am working on 4 separate video installations (Feuerball, Gravitron, Pharoah’s Fury, Giant Loop), each focusing on the physical experience of a different ride. I’ve been working with one of the largest Midway operators in the country (North American Midway Entertainment) and they’ve been very supportive, even allowing me to attach my gear directly to the different machines. I’m finished shooting most of the rides, and am beginning editing. I’m planning on finishing these up to premiere in a show I have in Charlottesville early next year.

Here’s an update of the shoot in Indiana – www.aaronhenderson.com/carnival_shoot_valparaiso/

Preparatory drawings:

Related posts:

1. Solo Show “Midway” at Ruffin Gallery
2. Carnival Shoot in Valparaiso, IN

The proposed sculpture is a trace of an unrealized action, Russian gymnast Dimitri Bilozertchev’s Pommel Horse routine at the Los Angeles Olympics. The personal, social and political collided when the Russian team decided to boycott the Olympics, derailing Dimitri’s dreams of Olympic gold. The full scale (approx 8’ x 10’ x 10’) steel sculpture imagines the path of his feet as they rise, circle and twist, inscribing a gesture rehearsed thousands of times. The impossibly complex arcs appear to hover, suspended from above, with two points touching the ground.

This project draws from Ettiene-Jules Marey’s early studies of movement, created at the advent of the photographic image.

“Dimtri” is the first of a series of sculptural projects that attempt to physicalize gestures or movements that have not happened, but have been imagined.

Related posts:

1. SLAM SHOW X Review – New York Times