Mixed Relations

mixed relations consists of a series of performances and workshops by Elle Mehrmand and Micha Cárdenas that explore the relations between bodies and technology within mixed realities. The performances focus on using the body as an instrument to produce live audio, linking the physical and virtual worlds. The goal is to look at bodies in relation to each other, as well as in relation to the technologies which extend and multiply them, sonically, visually and physically. The performances explore themes of affective tension and anticipation, techno-fetishism, and D.I.Y. cyborg bodies.

In technésexual the performers commit playful erotic acts in physical and virtual space simultaneously, using devices to amplify the sound of their heartbeats for the two audiences. At the Hemispheric Institute for performance art and politics in Bogota, Colombia, an analog stethoscope was connected to a piezo sensor to amplify the actual live heartbeat sound. In subsequent performances, an electrocardiogram was used to monitor the heart rate with an Arduino/Freeduino, playing a recording of the heartbeat at the correct rate using Puredata. In addition, temperature sensors are used to modulate the pitch of the sound. DIY biometrics are used to bridge realities with audio, finding ways of exploring the space between realities.

slapshock consists of a performance with a pain-sharing device, exploring symbiotic relationships. A transdermal electro nerve stimulation unit was wired to a piezo sensor through a Freeduino, creating a device which would send a painful electric shock to the other performer when each performer slapped themselves.

mixed relations opens discussion on the multitude of sexualities outside of the restrictive LGBT formulation and homo/hetero categories, which are rooted in binary gender assumptions. The mixing of realities in this project can be seen as paralleling our own experiences mixing genders and sexualities, queering new media. Virtual worlds such as Second Life facilitate the development of new identities, allowing for unimagined relations and relationships. technésexual looks closely at these new relationships, how they affect our everyday lives and horizons of possibility.

Here, the devices act as a pharmakon, both remedy and poison, oscillating between the two, both/and simultaneously. In looking at technological mediation of relationships, we see both the failure of the technology, adding distance between us, hearing noise in the recording, transmitting out pain, and the new depths opened by the technologies, hearing each other's heartbeats, bridging worlds, providing the raw excitement of the hack. The wires hanging from our bodies conjure at once torture, medicine and DIY open technologies. The blinking lights both hint at the mechanical repetition and the scopic pleasure in seeing, the enjoyment of brightly colored pixels petting our retinas and shimmering across our skin. Biometric technology can be seen as a post-contemporary pharmakon, seeming to decentralize knowledge of the body, but quantifying and shaping the form of that knowledge, presupposing its usages and facilitating surveillance. We acknowledge the problematics of the economies which bring us these devices while embracing our potential to open our bodies up to new hybrid experiences of flesh and electricity.

More information can be found at http://transreal.org and http://bang.calit2.net/wiki/Mixed_Relations