It's 2019!

Checking in for 2019!

screaMachine takes its "The 99%" series of semi-animated Occupy Wall St protest movies back to the streets of New York's financial district in this latest incarnation of the "Drive-By" series of mobile street projections started in the late 1990's

view video on YouTube

screaMachine @ TED X 2012 NYC

Monday April 23rd and Tuesday April 24th, 2012 -  from dusk till 10pm

screaMachine presents "Target Assault", a multimedia performance on the surface of Cooper Union's iconic NAB building at 41 Cooper Square (3rd Ave/7th Street) as part of the 2012 TED X conference taking place in that building.

"Target Assault", developed in Cooper Union with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts' Film, Media and New Technology Award,  was premiered on Cooper Union buildings in 2010, and continues to be performed at locations throughout New York City. Using the V.R.A.G. (Video Remix Artillery Gun), the performer, looking like he is about to launch a military assault on the building, projects moving images of himself, naked and vulnerable, climbing the structure. The performances will be visible on the North and West facades of the NAB building and can be best seen, after dark, from the street, 3rd Ave between 6th Street and St. Marks Place.

This work is well suited to the TED X conference on many levels, the simplest of which is that it involves a human interacting with a piece of technology to produce a virtual human interacting with another piece of technology (the NAB building). It asks questions about risk and threat, or the illusion of threat and indulges in the merging of person and manmade object. The man/machine combo of projectionist and projector is unique: the unit was developed with interactive switches that allow the operator to remix/trigger video feeds on the fly, while projecting anywhere, using the artillery gun rotating and aiming mechanisms.

Further details:

Target Assault comprises a set of animated digital video clips of a climbing figure which are projected onto architectural structures to the effect of the climber seeming to climb the structure. The video projections emanate from the V.R.A.G. 2010, a projection device that mimics the ability of an artillery gun to point and shoot in multiple directions and is interactive in that the operator can change content on the fly. The performer operates the projector by pointing it to the target and roving the structure with images. He has an array of buttons along the projector handles that allow him to change/edit/mix the video content. He plays the projector like a musical instrument, hitting different surfaces with different clips and endless combinations of clips. The VRAG is designed to look military, to look like a weapon, but to deliver no damage, to do nothing dangerous, but look threatening. Target Assault is a series of visual “assaults” on potential terrorist targets around New York City, by a weaponless naked figure in the form of animated light. The nude figure, devoid of all potential harm, climbs the structure, traverses a portion and returns to the ground. The figure continues to climb the structure into the night, with continuously varying sequences. It is a projected image, offering no potential harm to the structure, leaving no trace. Target Assault  presents a powerful image of intervention, of interaction between the most basic human form and the structure. A strange hybrid of tactical assault and embrace, emphasized by the use of the V.R.A.G.

At Cooper Union the VRAG and performer will be located on a private terrace, not accessible to the public. The projections will appear on 41 Cooper Square building, emanating from Cooper's Foundation building at 7th St and 3rd Ave., hitting the west side (3rd Ave between 6th and 7th Street) of 41 Cooper (the large silver New Academic Building). There is no viewing area set up. Please do not block sidewalks or streets attempting to view.

Check website for further info and further scheduled Target Assault performances

http://www.screamachine.com

This project is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency

2006 gearing up

So 2006 is fully under way now (jeesus it is Feb tomorrow!). I am innundated by teaching freshmen classes and more. I will be presenting 2 performance art workshops in March and June, open to all (at a price) as well as to Cooper students etc. I am seeking a venue to perform my "Define Me with Numbers" piece which keeps getting promises that then somehow fall through. I submitted it to IDea in Toronto for June this year, but didn't get accepted. I am working on getting additional funding for "Separate", to be performed in an even bigger incarnation in New York City this Summer. I already got NYSCA's Film, Video and New Media Award 2005 to produce this, but need additional funds to do it as planned. I will be posting, soon, images, video, other documentation and writings from "Separate" @ Tulca Arts Festival in Galway, Ireland from last November (which was HUGELY successful), on my website (screaMachine.com). Already posted are versions of it done for D.U.M.B.O. Arts Festival in Brooklyn, NY in October, the East Village Howl Festival in August, Tompkins Square Park, NY in March and the ISCP, NY in January... check it out. I will also post soon the full NYSCA proposal, showing the full, big version.