From the archive 1995 - The Navigator

While we are in pre production for our new work, Mark has been trawling our archive rescuing old work from decaying VHS tape.  Here's a quick edit of our full length production THE NAVIGATOR from 1995.  This is where it all began in terms of our venture into interactive technology...with a lot of hard wiring...a sensitized performance space, and a willing performer.  It looks old and clunky, but we were pushing the envelope in those days... enjoy

The Navigator from Mark Bokowiec on Vimeo.

Sonic Acts Festival: Amsterdam: 24/2/13

The brilliant Andrew Pickering (The Cybernetic Brain) will be talking about our work with the Bodycoder at Sonic Acts this Sunday his keynote: Cybernetics and the Politics of the Dark Universe - is part of the conference day 'Ontologies of the Unknown'...we are extremely honoured, and SO pleased for the work to be recognized as operating within a larger political and ontological context...

Abstract:
What is the allure of cybernetics: what draws people to it? We teach our children to think of the world as a predictable place bound by laws, natural as well as man-made. Modern science reveals what the consistencies are, enabling us to control the world and refashion it to suit our own ends. Politically, this is what many want to escape. This is where cybernetics comes in. Its ontology is different. It begins from the assumption that the world is ultimately unknowable, a place of emergence and becoming that will always surprise us.

For physicists and cosmologists, the discovery that ninety per cent of the universe is mysterious ‘dark matter’ is a self-generated challenge—to tame the mystery and place it within the context of the known and predictable. Cyberneticians, in contrast, work with the assumption that we live in a ‘dark universe’– and that’s it, full stop. This is the source of cybernetics’ allure—an alternative and non-modern notion of what the world is like, which invites us to rethink from scratch all of the traditional academic, artistic and, certainly, political problematics.

SONIC ACTS

 

 

New Publications: Embodiment & Practice

A couple of new publications cite and contextualize our work with the BODYCODER - 'Blood, Sweat & Theory: Research through Practice in Performance' by John Freeman which examines aspects of our making process and 'Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Practices' an edited volume by Dee Reynolds and Matthew Reason - that offers some very interesting exploration and case studies in empathy, embodiment and performance not only from the performers point of view but also in terms of audience engagement.

CYBORG Performance: New Journal Article

LA PERFORMANCE DE LA MACHINE, OU COMMENT LES CYBORG ET LES ROBOTS JOUENT SUR LA SCÈNE by Izabella Pluta. Ligeia 25. 117-120 (Jul-Dec 2012)

Lovely article by Izabella Pluta citing our work with the Bodycoder System and including new insights. Indeed the entire issue looks very interesting, so we recommend you have a browse... LIGEIA

In the last few months there has been a flurry of interest in our early CYBORG performances from the late 90s. Julie is therefore developing responses and picking up the Cyborg-thread again...watch this space for developments.

V'Oct (Ritual) at BEAM Festival 2012 on Vimeo

V'Oct(Ritual)@BEAM2012 from Mark Bokowiec on Vimeo.

RE-New Digital Art Festival: 19/11/12

Mark will present an illustrated paper V’Oct(Ritual): the anatomy of an interactive composition,  at RE-New Digital Art Festival in Copenhagen.  The theme of the festival is Cybernetics Revisited – towards a third order.  The full program can be viewed here:
RE-NEW 2012

Performances 2012: AMERA 22/10/12

Mark's piece AMERA will feature in Sonic Interactions III an evening of interactive mixed works and acousmatic compositions at the beautiful Capstone Theatre in Liverpool. 
SONIC INTERACTIONS III

This concert also profiles the work of the fabulous Lauren Hayes.