Interrupt, was a retro-engineered multimedia performance installation that premiered in fall 2000.
Resisting the temptation to put the latest shiny new technology on display, Interrupt explored the underside of progress - meltdown, misfire and miscommunication. Within the performance space, audiences participated in the operation of a mechanized, yet functioning dystopia where ‘high’ technology served the most crude ends. With Interrupt, Liminal uncovered the ambiguity between the archaic and the futuristic, the living and the programmed, and the alchemy of base materials transformed into substances of a different order. Moreover, Interrupt was about letting someone experience something they didn’t quite expect and then seeing how long they would play with it before they get bored again.
Interrupt was directed and programmed by John Berendzen and created by over a dozen Liminal company members and invited artists who collaborated in the design, engineering, rehearsal and production. Performers included Rich Southwick, Amanda Boekelheide, Jennifer Olson and Linda Miles.
Press
Willamette Week, November 15, 2000
List of technology used:
1. One pulse oximeter
2. Seven personal computers
3. 11 monitors
4. Eight VCRs
5. One video camera
6. One vid-bot 2000 video switcher (handmade)
7. Three actors
8. One record player
9. One slide projector
10. One Texas Instruments Speak-N-Spell electronic game
11. One video projector
12. Eight speakers
13. One video switcher
14. One auto-reverse portable cassette player
15. Three CD players
16. One four-track minidisc player
17. Four stereo amplifiers
18. One mixing console
19. Three mixed-media sculptures
20. Three telephone handsets
21. One dot matrix printer