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Thanks group! Some great additional examples of post-2000s works incorporating technology.

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Thanks group! Some great additional examples of post-2000s works incorporating technology.

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Another counterpilot work, everyone probably remembers this from BCF. It used biometric sensors, specialised tech and used sound so interestingly.

https://www.counterpilot.com.au/truthmachine/

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https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/karen/

Smart-phone based work. Could be argued that it is not performance? But could also be argued that the user is made medium...

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Explore a fragmented cityscape on CD-ROM. Unsettling but freeing, the work is 'geographically incoherent, but poetically charged.'

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Drawing on real places, Nightwalks creates a fragmented cityscape to be explored on CD-ROM, an eerie landscape which lies somewhere between a distorted portrait of urban England and a catalogue of frozen locations for an imaginary film. From lost sleepwalkers to murders, lone drunks and inexplicable hallucinations, the events of the work are all halted at some banal or significant moment, while the viewer alone is free to move, explore and investigate.

In place of a rigidly defined game or a single narrative to be discovered, Nightwalks invites the user into an experience more akin to that of wandering, of trying out versions of the truth and of making playful connections. The links and routes between its many scenes are geographically incoherent, but poetically charged. Following the links embedded in its landscapes, the user plunges into tunnels of still photographic images and fragmentary texts, which lead 'out' to further scenes. The links are associative, playful, circuitous in their relationship to sense, whilst the still images and texts are fragments creating flurries of narrative and visual associations.

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Drawing on real places, Nightwalks creates a fragmented cityscape to be explored on CD-ROM, an eerie landscape which lies somewhere between a distorted portrait of urban England and a catalogue of frozen locations for an imaginary film.

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Turned audiences into 'interventionists, encouraging the freedom to play out on the streets & engage with their city radically.

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SITUATION ROOMS (Rimini Protokoll, 2011)

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SITUATION ROOMS (Rimini Protokoll, 2011)

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A multiplayer video piece documenting the end of an international weapons manhunt.

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- A multiplayer video piece

By Haug / Kaegi / Wetzel

May 2011, a photo flashes onto screens around the world. It shows 13 people in a room. The expressions on their faces speak volumes: triumph, fascination, scorn, horror, scepticism, preoccupation. The photo from the White House "Situation Room" documents the end of a manhunt that was pursued with all possible weapons.

'Situation Rooms' gathers together from various continents 20 people whose biographies have been shaped by weapons in a film set that recreates the globalised world of pistols and rocket-propelled grenades, of assault rifles and drones, of rulers and refugees, becoming a parcours of unexpected neighbourhoods and intersections.
With the personal narratives of the 'inhabitants', the images start to move and the audience follows the individual trails of the cameras they have been given. They start to inhabit the building, while following what they see and hear on their equipment. The audience does not sit opposite the piece to watch and judge it from the outside; instead, the spectators ensnare themselves in a network of incidents, slipping into the perspectives of the protagonists, whose traces are followed by other spectators.

One spectator sits at the desk of a manager for defence systems. At the same time, another follows the film of a Pakistani lawyer representing victims of American drone attacks in a cramped room with surveillance monitors. On her way there, she sees a third spectator who follows his film into the shooting range of a Berlin gun club, listening Germany's parcours shooting champion. Around the corner stands another spectator in the role of a doctor carrying out amputations in Sierra Leone, while in the room next door a press photographer sorts pictures of German army missions in Afghanistan, only to stand in the shooting range himself a little later to do exactly what he was able to observe in passing just a while ago, thereby becoming a subject for observation himself.
The audience gradually becomes entangled in the film set's spatial and material labyrinth; each individual becoming part of the re-enactment of a complicatedly elaborated multi-perspective "shooting".

"Situation Rooms" is a multiple simultaneous cinema; augmented reality as three-dimensional as only theatre can be!

"Interweaving reality into an event in this way is the art of Rimini Protokoll. Everyone there is involved and yet the technique maintains a distance".
"A gripping theatre experience: its fascinating immediacy makes an individual impact on all those taking part".
Annete Stiekele aus "Im Zauberwald der Theatermagie", Die Welt am 08.08.2014

"Situation Rooms" was awarded with the Children's Choice Award from the Ruhrtriennale 2013 in the following categories: "Best of the Best" and "Most intense show that was so intense that I didn't want to miss a second".

In addition, Rimini Protokoll received the Excellence Award of the 17th Japanese Media Arts Festival on 05th February 2014 in Tokyo.

The virtual tt of nachtkritik.de voted "Situation Rooms" to the top ten theater productions of the year 2013, and also the Theatertreffen of the Berliner Festspiele selected "Situation Rooms" from 395 productions.

with:
Abu Abdu Al Homssi, Syria
Shahzad Akbar, Pakistan
Jan van Aken, Germany
Narendra Divekar, India
Nathan Fain, USA
Reto Hürlimann, Switzerland
Maurizio Gambarini, Germany
Andreas Geikowski, Germany
Marcel Gloor, Switzerland
Barbara Happe, Germany
Volker Herzog, Germany
Richard Khamis, South-Sudan
Wolfgang Ohlert, Germany
Irina Panibratowa, Russia
Ulrich Pfaff, Germany
Emmanuel Thaunay, France
Amir Yagel, Israel
Yaoundé Mulamba Nkita, Kongo
Familie R, Lybia
Alberto, Mexico
and: Christopher Dell, Alexander Lurz, Karen Admiraal

by: Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi, Daniel Wetzel
Scenography: Dominic Huber / blendwerk
Video: Chris Kondek
Sound Design: Frank Böhle
Technical Director / Light: Sven Nichterlein
Research: Cornelius Puschke / Malte Hildebrand
Director Assistance: Malte Hildebrand / Ann-Kathrin Büdenbender
Production Management: Heidrun Schlegel
Scenography Assistance: Claudia Bartel / Ute Freitag / Sophie Reinhard / Leonie Süess
Video Assistance: Philipp Hochleichter
Directors trainees: Karen Admiraal / Ann-Kathrin Büdenbender / Sybille Enders / Annabel Hogefeld / Sebastian Klauke / Kirsten Moldenhauer/ Markus Posse / Belle Santos / Yael Sherill / Zofia Smolarska / Thomas Zimmermann / Viktoria Metz / Eva Trummer
Scenography trainees: Till Hörnig / Paulina Januszyk / Laura Rehkuh / David Gieseke
Set-up: Thomas Alperstädt / Florian Altenburger / Rosemarie Becker / Markus Bernhard / Marcel Blechschmidt / Chris Cockrell / Jörg Fischer / Bodo Herrmann / Chris Kärgel / Steffen Knauf / Jennifer Mäurer / Tomoko Okada / Robert Price / Marianne Schwarzbach / Uwe Sprenger / Patrick Voss
Management workshops: Steffen Fuchs
Lightning Design: Hans Leser / Stefan Neumann
Elektronic Effects: Georg Werner
Production management Assistance: Caroline Gentz / Christin Prätor / Daniela Bellm
Interpreters: Amina Orth / Günter Orth / Djengizkhan Hasso / Riad Ben Ammar / Othman Saeed / Nahal Saeed
Translation and subtitles: KITA Berlin
Voice over: Christoph Bovermann, Stephan Brynner, Jordan Smith, Michael Norton, René Stäbler a.o.

Touring Team: Markus Bernhard / Ute Freitag / Steffen Fuchs / Bodo Gottschalk / Bodo Herrmann / Elisabeth Krefta / Hans Leser / Stefan Neumann / Sven Nichterlein / Skadi Schulz / Martin Schwemin / Hanke Wilsmann

A production of Rimini Apparat and Ruhrtriennale, in coproduction with Schauspielhaus Zürich, SPIELART festival & Münchner Kammerspiele, Perth International Arts Festival, Grande Halle et Parc de la Villette Paris, HAU - Hebbel am Ufer, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt am Main, Onassis Cultural Center-Athens.
Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Regierende Bürgermeister of Berlin - Senate Chancellery - Cultural Affairs.

With the generous support of os-cillation GmbH

funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation

Movie Maker Christine Cynn and her team were producing their documentary "Shooting Ourselves" during our workingdays at March 2013 in Berlin. The movie is based on our project, trailer and further details here

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By Haug / Kaegi / Wetzel May 2011, a photo flashes onto screens around the world. It shows 13 people in a room. The expressions on their faces speak volumes: triumph, fascination, scorn, horror, scepticism, preoccupation. The photo from the White House "Situation Room" documents the end of a manhunt that was pursued with all possible weapons.

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Made in collaboration with Flipside Circus, inspired by a series of techno-circus experiments.

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A bold new collaboration between Counterpilot and Flipside Circus. Statum uses tricksy technologies to amplify, zoom in, splice open and reveal entirely new perspectives on moments of virtuosic physical performance.

On average we produce around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. Our lives are edited, recorded and uploaded.

Inspired by a series of techno-circus experiments, Statum explores the interplay between human bodies and technology - audiences are invited to inhabit performer's bodies, analyse their heart rate, and explore the space between acrobats and the digital in this astounding re-imagining of movement and circus.

Step inside a stranger and take a look around, this is going to get personal.

"Engaging and unique... should be applauded for their creativity and innovation"
-Luisa Ryan, Scenestr

" A technically complex piece... a Mesmerising integration of circus, data and video..."
- Catherine Lawrence, Creative Futures

"Definitely worth the standing ovation!"
- Christie Campbell, IMHO

Premiere Season

17 - 26 OCT, 2019
Visy Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse
Presented via the Bridge Program

Team

director / video co-design / creator: Nathan Sibthorpe
director / dramaturg / creator: Robert Kronk

performers / creators:
Flipside Circus Performance Troupe
Mia Hughes, Tula Homes, Zebedee Davies, Eden Vann, Oscar Morris,
Samantha Giles, Cassidy Burke, Lucy Hunterland, Aurora Bennett-Godde.

production manager / video co-design: Jeremy Gordon
main trainer / creator: Aliya Abisheva
lighting design: Christine Felmingham
audio / sound design: Mike Willmett
design consultant: Sarah Winter
set construction: John Felmingham
software design: Clinton Freeman
associate artists/design: Kelsey Booth

voice performances by: Lucas Stibbard, Kate O'Sullivan

production partner: PQI Audio Visual
production photos by: Creative Futures

special Thanks to Ben Murray, Veronica Neave, Freddy Komp, Craig Wilkinson.

Supporters
This project has been supported by The Bridge, an initiative of Brisbane Powerhouse and Brisbane City Council.
Development supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

Touring

STATUM may be available for touring and/or co-presentations from 2021.
For any enquiries, please contact Robert Kronk at Flipside Circus.

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A bold new collaboration between Counterpilot and Flipside Circus. Statum uses tricksy technologies to amplify, zoom in, splice open and reveal entirely new perspectives on moments of virtuosic physical performance. On average we produce around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. Our lives are edited, recorded and uploaded.

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THIS IS CAPITAL CITY (Counterpilot, 2013)

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THIS IS CAPITAL CITY (Counterpilot, 2013)

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A technology assisted journey work investigating the death of a co-worker in Capital City.

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Presented by Brisbane Powerhouse
An interactive performance work that guides you around Brisbane Powerhouse, as you search for answers surrounding the death of a co-worker in the world of Capital City.
The war's going well, tables are fuller, and there's enough ready power that the sun will never set again on Capital City. You're a hero, a savior to the city, one of the engineers who created a remarkable resource system. Life is good...But Olive is dead, and you're coming back for the truth. For justice, for Olive. But can you trust the system or your colleagues you left behind? What counts more: yourself or the truth? The many or the few?

This is Capital City is an intimate promenade performance that uses location based technology to guide audience members through a solo experience around Brisbane Powerhouse, transposed as Capital City.

After its critically acclaimed presentation at La Boite Indie in 2013, This is Capital City returns in an all-new version to Brisbane Powerhouse.

Season

Dates: Monday 26 - Saturday 31 October
Starting times: 6pm, 6.20pm, 6.40pm, 7pm, 8.10pm, 8.30pm, 8.50pm, 9.10pm
Duration: approx. 50 minutes

All Tickets $32 (+ transaction fees)

Book NOW via Brisbane Powerhouse

Team

Director and Producer: Sandra Carluccio
Dramaturg and Assistant Director: Nathan Sibthorpe
Writer: Toby Martin
Sound Designer: Mike Willmett
Software Designer: Clinton Freeman
Production Assistant & Stage Manager: Kristen Trollope

Live Cast:
Kylie Stephenson
Cameron Clark
Terri-Leigh Redding
Stephen Sadler

Voice Actors:
Peter Cossar
Sandra Gattenhof
Lauren Jackson
Toby Martin
Kate O' Sullivan
Belinda Raisin,
Lucas Stibbard

Photo by Kate O'Sullivan, edited by Nathan Sibthorpe

Reviews

"Upon reading the provided synopsis, one enters with expectations of something almost quaint - a curious little theatre piece...The actual work is drastically different. Infinitely more complex and substantially more visceral, This Is Capital City is a work defined by inescapable paranoia and remarkable stylistic flair....it remains a great work of fiction as well as design throughout. Honestly, it's just brilliant."
-Matt O'Neill, Australian Stage

"Part choose your own adventure, part theatre, part walking tour, Carluccio has created a masterpiece."
-Nathanael Cooper, Courier Mail

"So much fun to experience the immersive environment provided. I would thoroughly recommend This is Capital City and can't wait to see what they do next."
-Bobbi-Lea Dionysius, Aussie Theatre

Touring

THIS IS CAPITAL CITY is no longer available for further presentation.

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Presented by Brisbane Powerhouse An interactive performance work that guides you around Brisbane Powerhouse, as you search for answers surrounding the death of a co-worker in the world of Capital City. The war's going well, tables are fuller, and there's enough ready power that the sun will never set again on Capital City.

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OPERATION BLACK ANTLER (Blast Theory, 2016)

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OPERATION BLACK ANTLER (Blast Theory, 2016)

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UNCLE ROY ALL AROUND YOU (Blast Theory, 2003)

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UNCLE ROY ALL AROUND YOU (Blast Theory, 2003)

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A collaborate theatrical game between strangers.

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A game in which online and street players collaborate to find Uncle Roy before being invited to make a commitment to a stranger.

Players explore a mixed reality city and collaborate to find Uncle Roy's office before being invited to make a year long commitment to a total stranger.

The city is an arena where the unfamiliar flourishes, where the disjointed and the disrupted are constantly threatening to overwhelm us. It is also a zone of possibility; new encounters. Building on Can You See Me Now? the game investigates some of the social changes brought about by ubiquitous mobile devices, persistent access to a network and location aware technologies.

The following text describes the work in June 2003 at the world premiere at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. The work was changed significantly in subsequent presentations.

The Game

Street Players buy a ticket and then are shown to the registration desk. They have their photo taken and hand over all their possessions: phone, purse, bag, loose change, etc. The Street Player receives a unique code, which they enter into their handheld computer thus triggering the 60 minute countdown to begin.

Having been told they must meet Uncle Roy within 60 minutes, Street Players take their handheld device out onto the streets. Their device shows a map and the names and positions of Online Players. The map can be dragged around to show other areas and can zoom in or out. A button marked: "I'm lost" is always available. Once outside, they receive a message from Uncle Roy. It says:

"Meet me in the park by the lake. I've marked your map with the location. Click on the "I'm here" button to confirm you've arrived and I'll come to meet you." A red dot indicates the meeting place.

Online Players are moving around a virtual city which correlates exactly to the real city. They too are sent on a mission to meet Uncle Roy. They can view photos of the real city by going to the corresponding location in the virtual city and clicking on an icon. Initially they can chat with other Online Players but cannot see or contact Street Players.

When the Street Player first declares their position (by clicking "I'm here" on the handheld computer) their avatar appears in the virtual world at that location. Their card becomes visible to Online Players: it shows their name, their photo and a brief description of their clothes.

Selecting a Street Player's card allows the Online Player to send private messages to the Street Player. The Street Player can record audio replies or ignore these messages. Only the most recent audio message from each Street Player is available: a new message 'overwrites' the previous one. Potentially every Street Player and every Online Player can be in contact: social interaction governs how this actually happens.

After the Street Player arrives at the first location, Uncle Roy sends another message. It says: "There's something I want you to do for me. Start heading north into the West End. I will contact you as you go."

When the Street Player declares their position, Uncle Roy replies with context specific directions, e.g. "Pay no attention to the street cleaner with long gray hair. Find a dead end and follow it." After a time these directions become less context specific and more direct, e.g. "Go to 12 Waterloo Place and ring the bell marked Roy".

Online Players can assist Street Players by matching photos and Uncle Roy's comments and then passing relevant information to the Street Player, e.g. "The door to Uncle Roy's office has a metal grille".

The Office

When the Street Player arrives at the Office they ring the buzzer. The glass door slides open and gives them access to the deserted office.

Inside the room is an architect's desk, a chair and the rest of a typical executive office of the 1970s. Radio 4 comes from a Roberts radio. A blood red vinyl chair sits on the thick brown carpet. Black metal shelves hang on the dark olive green walls. A model of the surrounding city made of Post It notes sits on the desk: on a monitor nearby is an Augmented Reality display showing the Post It note city populated by all current Street and Online Players.

Online Players are informed that the Street Player is in the office and are invited to join them. Once in the virtual office, they see the Street Player on a live web cam. They are asked a series of questions culminating in: "Somewhere in the game there is a stranger who is also answering these questions. Are you willing to make a commitment to that person that you will be available for them if they have a crisis? The commitment will last for 12 months and, in return, they will commit to you for the same period."

If they agree, the Online Player is invited to enter their postal address. Once they have completed the questions they 'enter' the office and can see the web cam showing the Street Player.

On the desk is a postcard with "When can you begin to trust a stranger?" printed on it. Via the handheld device Uncle Roy asks the Street Player to answer the question and keep it with them as they walk outside to a nearby phone box.

Car

Once they are in the phone box they receive a call instructing the Player to get into the back of a white limousine parked across the street.

A man gets into the car and asks the Street Player the same series of questions that the Online Player has answered.

If the Street Player agrees to make the commitment to a stranger then they are paired with an Online Player who has also agreed. As the Street Player is dropped off at the ICA, the postcard is posted to an Online Player who has given their address.

Meanwhile the Online Player emerges from the virtual office back into the virtual city. Their experience has no definite end: they can choose to chat further with Street Players, to go into the office a second or third time or to log out.

Technology

Street Players are loaned Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) to play. The game has no GPS or other location based technology; instead it infers players positions based on which part of the map they are looking at on their PDA.

Uncle Roy All Around You premiered at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in June 2003 and has since been presented at Cornerhouse in Manchester, in collaboration with Digital Summer, and at The Public in West Bromwich as part of Fierce! festival. It is a collaboration between Blast Theory and the Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham, with support from British Telecom, an Innovation Award from the Arts & Humanities Research Board, Equator and the Interdisciplinary Arts Department of Arts Council England through the National Touring Programme.

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A game in which online and street players collaborate to find Uncle Roy before being invited to make a commitment to a stranger. Players explore a mixed reality city and collaborate to find Uncle Roy's office before being invited to make a year long commitment to a total stranger.

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An installation & performance within a collaborative virtual environment.
*have a watch of the interview videos in the sidebar!

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A game, an installation and a performance placing you in a collaborative virtual environment and sending you on a mission into a virtual world.

Desert Rain is a war game. Six players at a time suit up and go into the virtual desert which is video projected onto water spray. It is our first collaboration with the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham. In a world where Gulf War images echo Hollywood images, where Norman Schwarzkopf blurs into Arnold Schwarzenegger, Desert Rain looks for the feint line between the real and the fictional.

Standing on a footplate and zipped into a cubicle, each of the six team members explores motels, deserts and underground bunkers, communicating with each other within the virtual world . . . a world projected onto a screen of falling water. You have 30 minutes to find the target, complete the mission, and get to the final room, where others may have a very different idea of what actually happened out there.

one of the most complex and powerful responses to the first Gulf War to be produced within the sphere of theatrical practice.
Gabriella Giannachi
Virtual Theatres

Desert Rain is a collaboration between Blast Theory and the Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham. It was originally co-commissioned by Contemporary Archives and ZKM Centre for Arts & Media (Karlsruhe, Germany) in association with DA2 (Bristol) and KTH (Stockholm, Sweden). It is supported by the Arts Council of England and the European Commission's Kaleidoscope Fund for NOWninety9.

It was nominated for an Interactive Arts BAFTA Award in 2000 and received an Honorary Mention at the Transmediale Awards in 2001. It has toured internationally including the UK, Central and Eastern Europe and Australia with support from the British Council.

Conceptual Background

Desert Rain uses a combination of virtual reality, installation and performance to problematise the boundary between the real and the virtual. It places participants in a Collaborative Virtual Environment in which the real intrudes upon the virtual and vice versa. It uses the real, the imaginary, the fictional and the virtual side by side and juxtaposes these elements as a means of defining them.

The piece is influenced by Jean Baudrillard's assertion that the Gulf War did not take place because it was in fact a virtual event. Whilst remaining deeply suspicious of this kind of theoretical position Blast Theory recognise that this idea touches upon a crucial shift in our perception and understanding of the world around us. It asserts that the role of the media, advertising and of the entertainment industries in the presentation of events is casually misleading at best and perniciously deceptive at worst. As Paul Patton says in an essay about Baudrillard, "the sense in which Baudrillard speaks of events as virtual is related to the idea that real events lose their identity when they attain the velocity of real time information, or to employ another metaphor, when they become encrusted with the information which represents them."

In this sense, while televisual information claims to provide immediate access to real events, in fact what it does is produce informational events which stand in for the real, and which "inform" public opinion which in turn affects the course of subsequent events, both real and informational. As consumers of mass media, we never experience the bare material event but only the informational coating which renders it "sticky and unintelligible like the oil soaked sea bird".

This reference to the "oil soaked sea bird" as an icon that stands in for the reality of an oil spill (and which, in effect, distracts attention from and even masks entirely the real complexity and significance of the events surrounding an oil spill), gives a direct example of the ways in which these processes affect us every day.

While these ideas form the backdrop to Desert Rain the piece is not intended to be a demonstration of this theory merely to accept its significance in informing our view of the relationship of the real to the virtual and especially in its assertion that the virtual has a daily presence in our lives.

Indeed we also have a great interest in those who have coruscatingly attacked Baudrillard's ideas as "absurd theses" which are "ill equipped to mount any kind of effective critical resistance"The role of the cinema, particularly Hollywood, in this process is also important. As a vehicle for dreams, aspirations and fantasies, films play a major role in affecting our self image and as a source of inspiration.

The key motif of the individual overcoming all odds to triumph is a touchstone for our culture and has an impact on real life. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Norman Schwarzkopf both exemplify certain aspects of leadership, for example, and each draws on the attributes of the other.

Desert Rain therefore attempts to bring visitors to a new understanding of the ways in which the virtual and the real are blurred and, in particular, the role of the mass media in distorting our appraisal of the world beyond our own personal experience.

I can guarantee that you will come out changed and humbled...utterly gripping...a brilliantly judged experience
The Scotsman

Description

On arrival, six visitors at a time enter a small antechamber. They are given a magnetic swipe card of a person they must find. They leave their coats and bags and put on hooded black jackets. The visitors are then lead in total darkness into the next space. Each visitor finds themself standing on a foot pad. In front of them is a rain screen, 4 metres across, which provides a surface of fine water spray which holds the projected image of a virtual world. The visitor begins alone in an American motel room.

Reaching the apparent safety of an underground network of bunkers and tunnels, the visitors come face to face with performers, fragments of the Gulf War and each other. If they successfully find their target a performer emerges through the water screen and hands them a magnetic swipe card.

The final virtual space is a vast underground hangar containing a floating field of numbers, all of which are estimates of Iraqi casualties. As the visitors push their way through the densely packed numbers they reach the exit. Only if all six visitors escape together has their mission been a success.

Having left the virtual world and crossed through the water screens, the visitors find the exit corridor is blocked by a large pile of sand. Having climbed up the sand and down the other side they reach the final room of the installation. The walls of the final room are full scale photographs of the walls of an English hotel room. The room contains no objects apart from a magnetic card reader and a monitor cut into the wall exactly where the television is in the hotel room.

As each visitor swipes their card, their target appears on a monitor sitting in the very same hotel room. Each of the six targets has had their life changed by the Gulf War in some way: as a soldier, a journalist, a peaceworker, an actor or a passive spectator. They talk about their relationship to the events, their proximity to them and how 'real' it felt. On leaving, the visitors collect their coats and bags. At some point later they will discover a small bag of sand concealed in their coat or bag. The bag contains approximately 100,000 grains.

one of the most successful and advanced digital performances of the late 90s... a seminal experimental production fusing the technological complexity of hard science skills with a truly original artistic vision.
Steve Dixon
Digital Performance

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A game, an installation and a performance placing you in a collaborative virtual environment and sending you on a mission into a virtual world. Desert Rain is a war game. Six players at a time suit up and go into the virtual desert which is video projected onto water spray.

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An exercise in voyeurism and surveillance. Lottery winners were  abducted from a public place; their 48-hour containment was broadcast live on the internet.

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The winners of a lottery get kidnapped.

Entrants paid £10 to enter a lottery in the hope of being kidnapped. Ten finalists were chosen at random and put under surveillance. Two winners - Debra Burgess, a 27 year old Australian working as a temp and Russell Ward, a 19 year old from Southend working in a 24 hour convenience store - were snatched in broad daylight and taken to a secret location for 48 hours. The process was broadcast live onto the internet. Online visitors were able to control the video camera inside the safehouse and communicate live with the kidnappers. During the run up to Kidnap, a 45 second video Blipvert was shown at cinemas around the UK.

Kidnap, a work about control and consent, was inspired by the notorious Spanner Trial in which consenting sadomasochists were convicted and sent to prison.

The project launched to the press and public on May 15 th 1998. Registration was open to any resident of England and Wales. Each entrant paid a fee of £10 and filled out a detailed registration form explaining the process and including a signed disclaimer. The form included details of where the entrant lived, where they worked, how they travelled, the type of clothes they wore as well as requesting a current photo of the entrant. Each entrant chose a safe word allowing them to end their participation in Kidnap at any time.

The form also had options whereby the entrant could modify their kidnap. For example by paying a small supplement they could choose to have 20 cigarettes during their kidnap or to be given access to one piece of music.

When registration closed ten entrants were picked at random and put under surveillance. We found each of the entrants and photographed them going about their daily lives over a two week period. The first any of the ten knew about this was when they received a brown envelope by post with the resulting photos in it.

Next two of the ten were selected - again at random - for actual kidnapping. We sent two teams to each kidnap. The kidnap team consisted of a driver and three kidnappers. The support team had a video maker, a photographer and a liaison officer. The liaison officer talked to any members of the public and explained the situation. The police were informed in advance.

In the early evening of Tuesday 14 th July a kidnap team and a support team travelled to a pub in West London and kidnapped Debra. The following morning the two teams, accompanied by a film crew, arrived in Southend and engaged in a lengthy game of cat and mouse with Russell. Eventually a work colleague helped trick Russell into leaving his house and he was kidnapped as he got into a car.

The winners were held in a purpose built room at a secret location until the morning of Friday 17 th July. During that time they were fed and cared for by the kidnappers. The process was monitored by a psychologist. A pan tilt zoom camera streamed audio and video to the web site and, via ISDN, to a dedicated space in Manchester site as part of Digital Summer. Russell ordered a piece of music - "Nowhere to Run" by Martha and the Vandellas- and at dawn on the 17 th July the kidnappers played the music and danced for him.

Either winner was eligible for a further prize of £500 if they managed to escape, reach a telephone and call a designated number.

Following a 90 minute drive the two winners were released at a press conference at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. The project was covered by BBC News 24, Channel 5 Exclusive, Channel 4 News, ITN London Tonight, Channel 5 News, The Sunday Independent, Daily Sport, Dazed and Confused, Skin Two, Greater London Radio, Sunday Times, The Independent, The Guardian, Esquire, Time Out, The Big Issue, Sky, The Spectator, The Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph.

A 30 minute film of the project was premiered at The Green Room in Manchester in September 1998. The project was made possible through the sponsorship of clothes company Firetrap who also distributed 10,000 application forms through their outlets.

Short essay defining ideas and themes for production

December 1997

The Ideas

Last year there were 1421 kidnappings in Britain, a 700% increase in the last decade. As well as highlighting a current phenomenon Kidnap is about control and consent, the media, theatre and lottery culture. It is a conceptual act, a perversity and a psychological investigation.

Control and consent

The project invites entrants to hand over their lives to strangers for two days. It asks for an act of trust, of abandonment, for faith in the unknown. The psychological bond between kidnappers and their victims is well documented by the Stockholm Syndrome and cases such as that of Patty Hearst. This project will raise this relationship to a new level: one of mutuality, a shared fantasy. The winners may pretend that they are in a real kidnap packed with drama or they may approach their 48 hour trip in a matter of fact way, openly acknowledging that a kidnap without coercion is in fact merely a holiday with bells and whistles. The level of make believe is in the hands of the two winners and will be arrived at by some kind of negotiation between them.

All of this also raises issues of consent. In the context of the Spanner trial is it possible to consent to an illegal act against you? Kidnap does not - in the strict sense of the definition - even involve a kidnap at all. In a world in which any form of risk is routinely legislated away, where does this project stand: an adventure weekend or an unresponsible abuse of the gullible? After extensive consultations with legal firm Harbottle & Lewis about every aspect of the project we are satisfied that Kidnap is both legal and ethical. It should not perhaps need confirming that Blast Theory is passionately convinced in the rights of adults to consent to a project of this kind.

Media

This project is designed to highlight and to some extent expose the workings of the media in Britain. It is our working assumption that any thorny problems of morality will not hinder media outlets from covering this event. In fact, if we do our job properly we expect them to cover Kidnap in large numbers. The key question will be: how will they cover it? As a wacky human interest story, as art event or as news story? Will it be condemned, condoned or merely reported? What space is there for this kind of unclassifiable activity in the media? Our aim will be to keep all readings as open as possible. We will closely follow the media coverage and respond to it. The fact that we - the tail - will almost certainly be unable to wag the dog is a fate we are prepared for.

A further irony is that Blast Theory itself will be mediating the experience of the winners. The group will, in effect, create a low tech TV station for 48 hours. Problems of distortion and representation will confront us directly.

Media coverage will fulfill other functions. It will give Kidnap a conceptual function: no one who hears about it will be unchanged by it. They will surely ask who would do such a thing? Why? To most people both kidnapper and kidnappee will seem crazy. But perhaps it will also set off secret chains of thoughts in their minds: what would I give to leave everything behind for a couple of days? They will perhaps be quite attracted to handing someone else responsibility for their life for a short while under very specific conditions. And perhaps one in a thousand might even register. This seeming perversity, an inversion of all normal values, might just set someone onto a different path in life.

Lottery culture

In lottery mad Britain we have already started to see the possible ironies of winning and Kidnap will also niggle away at those doubts. Who is the winner in this scenario and what have they won? Will the person who is kidnapped be ecstatic that they have been chosen or actually terrified by a proposition that they never thought would become a reality? Will their fame or notoriety become a source of joy to them or a headache?

Theatre

Kidnap is also a performance, a piece of theatre. This is a play with several acts but with improvised scenes and an unknown ending. It is a drama where you pay for the chance to play the lead role. And it is a performance both for the media and for the winners. Those kidnapping will play their roles but will those who have been kidnapped? Perhaps those shortlisted will rehearse for the big moment, practicing being kidnapped in a number of ways. Perhaps they will hone their performances for the most captive audience anyone will ever have: the kidnappers.

The theatricality will be maximised even further by the fact that each entrant will be able to specify a scenario that they would like enacted. They will be able to choose different types of kidnaps that they would like to experience from Son/Daughter Of A Millionaire through to Story At Bedtime. Furthermore Kidnap will be a Pinteresque drama: two strangers find themselves in a locked room for 48 hours. We will document the resulting script.

Voyeurism

Kidnap is an exercise in voyeurism and surveillance. The kidnappers are being paid by the entrants to watch them, monitor them and track them. But the kidnappers will also do some voyeurism all of their own. They will crouch in silence watching the winners through two way mirrors. Are the winners OK? How are they getting on with each other? This voyeurism will be extended via the web site and the remote site to the world at large. We all like to be the centre of attention: the two winners of Kidnap will have an international audience.

Psychological Investigation

The resulting audio and video tapes will also be a record of an experiment in human interaction with sociological and psychological resonances. As in the work of Sophie Calle in which she followed strangers or employed people to follow her, a strange form of coexistence will develop. In this symbiotic state the winners have given themselves over to the kidnappers and are thus free of self determination. And at the same time the kidnappers have also given up their freedom to the winners. For they are dependent on the winners for the outcome; they can only watch and wait to see what happens.

Finally Kidnap will be a great adventure, a step into the unknown, a chance for two people to have a once in a lifetime experience.

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The winners of a lottery get kidnapped. Entrants paid £10 to enter a lottery in the hope of being kidnapped. Ten finalists were chosen at random and put under surveillance.