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.

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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.

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Liminal Presents The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other

For immediate release
Contact: Bryan Markovitz
503 890 2993

From March 16 to April 15, 2000, Liminal Performance will present Austrian writer Peter Handke’s latest play, Die Stunde da wir nights voneinander wußten, or The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other.

Handke’s new work features the comings and goings of more than 400 characters who pass by one another without speaking a single word. What is he doing? Is she on her way, or is she coming back? Are they strangers or are they carrying out a prearranged meeting?

In the silence of the square, Handke returns the magic of storytelling to the spectator, while quietly revealing that our rapid culture may no longer seeks language to bring a community together. Indeed, as the play advances further into the hinterland of the surreal, the question arises—is community still possible?

Peter Handke's widely acclaimed plays have been translated into every major language and performed around the world. Handke shook the theatrical world with early works like Offending the Audience and Kaspar. Handke is also the author of screenplays (Wings of Desire) and prose works (most recently, His Jukebox and Other Essays on Storytelling).

Continuing Liminal’s multi-disciplinary approach to performance, this in-progress project will also feature the work of visual, sound and culinary artists who have produced an edible pre-performance gallery installation, digital sound design, original photography and slide media.

AT THE METROPOLITAN ART STUDIO
Standard Dairy #13, 2808 NE MLK, Jr. Blvd. [at Graham]
March 16 - April 15, 2000
Thursdays - Saturdays, 8:00 p.m.
$10 includes drinks/hors d'oeuvres
Reservations recommended, seating is limited.
web: www.metroartstudio.org

Liminal Presents The Evening with the Photograph

For immediate release
contact:  Bryan Markovitz
phone: 228-7231

Liminal, Portland’s boldest theatre company returns this summer to present a new, original performance work, the evening with the photograph. Having fast gained a reputation for resisting the hegemony of theatre and performance practice, Liminal continues their dialectic with this new production. 

Continuing Liminal’s exploration of synthetic theatre, the evening with the photograph is an intriguing and ever-changing mystery that explores five characters trapped in various parallel worlds made by Dr. Saxe, a scientist living on the border between genius and insanity. When his experiments go awry, we are led along a course of events that cause us to question the nature of gesture and performance and the point at which the virtual, or the performed, becomes real. The random nature of sequencing within the show (or metaphorically, the dance along the artery) means that each night is a truly unique experience, with an outcome that is never fully predictable.

The Evening with the Photograph brings together Liminal’s usual stable of talent. Bryan Markovitz writes, directs, and adapts, Amanda Boekelheide directs movement, John Berendzen designs sound, Trent Moore designs set and lights, Julie Burtis designs costumes, and Liminal’s regular company members make up the cast.

Everything is ready for Liminal’s irreverent blend of dream, desire and chaos. This summer, the evening with the photograph promises to be a must-see event. See it before it disappears.

the evening with the photograph
June 10 through July 16 (excluding July 4 weekend), 
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, 9:00 p.m. (doors open at 8:30). 
Tickets are $6-15 on a sliding scale, cash or checks. 
For reservations, call 229-3979.

At the Rose City Ballroom, 700 NE Dekum Street, Portland

Protests Will Not Halt Performances

For Immediate Release
Contact: Bryan Markovitz
Phone: 228-7231

Portland, Ore. - Despite rumors that Liminal’s production of Jowl Movements I-IX would be canceled because of angry protests and vandalism by a small but vocal reactionary extremist group at last weekend’s performances, the company fully intends to continue its performance run as scheduled. 

Liminal’s resolve is clear: the company will not bow down to those who hold differing opinions, nor will one single performance be canceled or delayed because of the intolerance of a few radical factions wishing to squelch free expression in a manner reminiscent of colonial Salem witch hunts.

In fact, it is just such societal unraveling that fuels Liminal’s desire to produce a new and fearful genre of performance for a new and fearful time. As the artifice of the modern era crumbles around us, Liminal will continue its current theatrical exploration of the myth, mysticism, sorcery, and phantasmagoria of what will someday be known as the Neo-Gothic Age. 

“We are prepared to call upon the aid of Hell itself,” said company member Nigel Robeson, “in our battle for free expression and our preparation for a new dawn. We will persevere undaunted by those who remain ignorant to our crumbling millennium.”

Liminal would like to thank Cascadia Holdings Corporation, Inc. for its continuing support of this endeavor.

Saturday and Sunday nights, Continuing through November 22, 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $6-15 on a sliding scale, cash or checks. For reservations, call 229-3851. 

The Portland Building, 1120 SW Fifth Avenue, Main Entrance

Liminal
PO Box 86215
Portland, OR 97286
Phone: 228-7231, Fax: 228-8840, E-mail: liminal@valise.com

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