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 "I'm committed, to paraphrase poet Audre Lorde, to 'using the master's tools to dismantle the master's house.'" -- Adriene Jenik |
The Early Years of Desktop Theater, con't ___by Adriene Jenik So, then why use computers at all? My work has consistently worked within, not hidden from, these very contradicitions. I'm committed, to paraphrase poet Audre Lorde, to "using the master's tools to dismantle the master's house." This work is posed against audience passivities (and in this case banalities) presupposed in the mainstream/commercial exploitation of media. It seeks to prompt unexpected exchanges which confront chatroom participants with their individual and collective existence. To do so, we use humor combined with cheap (FREE!) simple, accessible, popular images and technologies. We inject art and critical questioning into a larger framework of competing discourse; allowing the "audience" the power to shape & extend the shared experience, for better or worse. INVISIBLE INTERLUDES, a multi-year research project embracing both weekly experiments and public presentations, began with my struggle with how to introduce these rather "heavy" ideological questions to an online audience of young people. Researching the structural and formal qualities of Morality Plays and Interludes, popular forms of theater in 16th century England, I grew curious as to if and how these forms might lend themselves to investigating contemporary themes and contexts. Morality Plays were purposeful sites of learning; vividly illustrated and subtly argued theater written by men concerned with the next world and its effect upon this one. Existing just prior to the institutionalization of theater within an architecturally fixed and commercialized space, Morality Plays traveled through unlocalized public space during their performances. I began to develop the concept of INVISIBLE INTERLUDES, combining the allegory, pantomime and political insinuation of this theater, with strategies culled from street theater, puppet shows, and Futurist Sintesi and Surprise Theater to create an arguably different online (and theatrical) experience. Anyone interested in participating can meet us in the Genetically Enhanced Palace10 most Wednesday evenings at 6pm PST. Public presentations at conferences/festivals will be announced in advance on my website http://visarts.ucsd.edu/~ajenik 
INVISIBLE INTERLUDES I: "Santaman's Harvest" produced and directed by Adriene Jenik written and performed by: Adriene Jenik, Lisa Brenneis, Sue Gautsch, Tania Kamal-Eldin, Stephen Ausbury, Jonathon Delacour, Andrea Slane, Erwin Veytia, John Rouse, Connie Samaras, Elia Arce graphics and programming by Adriene Jenik performed at: Digital Arts & Culture '99, Atlanta, Georgia, October 30, 1999 FutureScreen '99, presented by dLux Media Arts at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, AUS, Nov.6,1999 Supported through a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation for Film/Television/New Media and research and travel grants from the UC San Diego Academic Senate Adriene Jenik is a computer and media artist currently teaching in the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego. Her ideas, interests and involvements eluded narrow categorization. The artistic projects which result from these interests exist outside of the purely aesthetic or entertainment realms; serving as catalysts of community and interpersonal understanding during their creation and reception." Humor, pop iconography and direct challenges to a live audience infuse much of her work. "I assume my audiences are thinking, feeling, multi-lingual people who dream every night and struggle every day." Her work has been screened both nationally and internationally in diverse venues including The Toronto International Film Festival, The San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, AUS. Jenik's current projects include the desktop theater works "Invisible Interludes".
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