Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival gets Interactive with Liminal’s Objects for the Emancipated Consumer

Liminal Media Contact: Bryan Markovitz, 503 890 2993, bryan@liminalgroup.org
Seattle Fringe Media Contact: Wesley Middleton, 206 342 9172, wmiddleton@seattlefringe.org

Seattle, Washington—On March 8, 9, 10, 11, 15 and 17, the 2001 Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival will feature a unique performance event from the Portland-based multimedia performance group Liminal. Objects for the Emancipated Consumer is Liminal’s new hi-tech film-noir spy drama that merges original text, theatre, movement and technology into a unique interactive event. The performance places you at the mediatized center of a story with six characters condemned by flight delays to wander the concourses of an airport city where they fall victim to passion, paranoia and defective memories.

Audiences are encouraged to interact with the performance by moving through the surreal performance space to manipulate sound and visual media. The result is a performance that amplifies the human struggle between the real and the virtual in our culture. Objects for the Emancipated Consumer fragments the image/identity codes of a media society and reacts to them through a continuous flow of tension and release, movement and stasis, chaos and control. “Fusing music, movement, text and technology,” writes Willamette Week Theatre Critic Steffen Silvis, “Liminal brings its audience to the hallucinatory threshold.”

Liminal is an ensemble of artists collaborating through live performance to discover new disciplines that merge theatre, the fine arts, and multimedia technologies. Our mission is to expand public interaction with performance and engage in critical dialogues about contemporary culture through an ongoing evolution of new work.

Objects for the Emancipated Consumer
An original work by Liminal
2001 Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival
Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Avenue, Seattle, Washington
March 8—7:45 pm
March 9—6:00 pm
March 10—5:25 pm
March 11—6:55 pm
March 15—9:45 pm
March 17—2:00 pm
Tickets available from the Seattle Fringe Box Office, 206.366.2018, or at www.seattlefringe.org

###

Objects for the Emancipated Consumer Mixes Airport Crime Drama with 360-Degree Interactive Performance

For immediate release

Media Contacts:
Bryan Markovitz, 503 890 2993, bryan@liminalgroup.org
Andrew Armour, 604 254 1265, dynamo_gallery@hotmail.com

Vancouver, BC—On October 25, 26 and 27, Portland-based theatre and media ensemble Liminal will present Objects for the Emancipated Consumer at the DYNAMO Gallery in conjunction with Vancouver’s LIVE Biennial of Performance Art. Liminal’s original airport drama and 360-degree media performance premiered at the 2001 Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival and played to sold-out Portland audiences last spring. Objects for the Emancipated Consumer recently received a 2001 Portland Theatre Critic’s Drammy Award for Best Original Work.

Objects for the Emancipated Consumer tells a nonlinear story of six characters as they search for answers to an ambiguous series of crimes in a fictitious international airport terminal. Scenes from the performance run simultaneously as audience members participate by scanning bar-coded objects at the performance’s central “duty-free” shop. As in a choose-your-own-adventure novel, the audience’s interaction with the bar-code scanner activates sound, video and other media throughout the open gallery that actors directly engage. Audiences are free to watch scenes up close or from a broader perspective.

“Liminal gives you many direct opportunities to choose how you experience the performance,” says Director Bryan Markovitz. “While it is not unusual to break down the division between performers and audiences, Liminal heightens the impact of the interaction by giving participants access to media and technology that can change and inform their environment.”

Liminal is an ensemble of artists collaborating through live performance to discover new disciplines that merge theatre, the fine arts, and multimedia technologies.

The DYNAMO Arts Association was incorporated in August 1996 with a mandate to provide a forum for emerging artists working in the areas of sculpture, installation, and performance art.

It fulfils this mandate by providing eighteen publicly rented studio spaces, providing our space as a resource for community groups, and by running a non-profit gallery.

OBJECTS FOR THE EMANCIPATED CONSUMER
Part of the LIVE Biennial of Performance Art
Thursday—Oct. 25—9 PM
Friday—Oct. 26—9 PM
Saturday—Oct. 27—6 PM

DYNAMO Gallery
142 W Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, V5N 1G9
Tickets—$10
Reservations—604 602 9005

Objects for the Emancipated Consumer is supported in part by The Allen Foundation for the Arts, Meyer Memorial Trust and STEP Technology.

###

Liminal’s ‘Objects for the Emancipated Consumer’ Mixes Multimedia Spy Drama with 360-Degree Interactive Performance

For Immediate Release

Liminal Media Contact: Bryan Markovitz, 503 890 2993, bryan@liminalgroup.org

Portland, Oregon—From April 19 to May 19, Portland’s theatre and media ensemble Liminal will present Objects for the Emancipated Consumer, a sci-fi spy drama and 360-degree performance that merges theatre and technology into a unique interactive event. Liminal recently presented its new work at the Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival and will perform it at the Vancouver, BC Performance Biennial this fall. The Portland performance will take place on the top floor of downtown Portland’s historic Dekum Building.

Objects for the Emancipated Consumer tells the frenzied story of six characters as they search for answers to an ambiguous series of past, present and future crimes in a fictitious international airport city. Scenes from the performance’s six episodes run simultaneously as audience members activate sound, video and other media throughout the space to reveal clues about the characters and their crimes. Objects for the Emancipated Consumer allows the audience to customize their own theatre experience and follow any thread of the story that they wish to pick up. Audiences may approach characters to watch scenes up close or stand aside to watch the whole event from a broader perspective.

“Liminal gives you many direct opportunities to choose how you experience our performance,” says Director Bryan Markovitz, “While it is not new to break down the division between performers and audiences, Liminal heightens the impact of this open interaction by giving you access to media and technology that can change and inform the environment.”

Through a blend of surreal situations, intimate live action and cinematic sounds and images, Objects for the Emancipated Consumer brings audiences to the hallucinatory threshold of new performance.

Objects for the Emancipated Consumer
April 19—May 19, 2001, 8:00 pm
The Dekum Building, top floor
519 SW Third Avenue between Washington and Alder, Portland
Tickets: $8 Thursdays, $10 Fridays and Saturdays
Liminal Box Office: 503.229.3979

Liminal is an ensemble of artists collaborating through live performance to discover new disciplines that merge theatre, the fine arts, and multimedia technologies. Our mission is to expand public interaction with performance and engage in critical dialogues about contemporary culture through an ongoing evolution of new work.

Supported by The Allen Foundation for the Arts, Meyer Memorial Trust, H. Naito Properties, STEP Technology.

###