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Rotating Brains / Beating Heart : International collaborative performance with Stelarc, the virtual reality ensemble Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, Pauline Oliveros, Martin Parker and saxophonist Franziska Schroeder.

It shows my expertise in performing in virtual worlds (performance in SecondLife and at Brunel University, London). “Rotating Brains/Beating Heart” was the opening performance for the 2010 DRHA (Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts) conference in London, for which I was the conference chair.

The work was a collaboration, initiated by myself, between performance artist Stelarc (Chair In Performance Art, Brunel University/Senior Research Fellow, University of Western Sydney), the virtual reality ensemble Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, composer Pauline Oliveros (Professor of Practice, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and sound artist Martin Parker (University of Edinburgh). The concept and structure for the work was collectively created and my contribution consisted of the development of specific ‘breathing sounds’, which formed the basis for the piece. Over several weeks I explored and extended my own instrument (using extended techniques and preparation of the saxophone’s bell with ‘water balloons’), which I tested in SecondLife in rehearsals with the ensemble and in combination with Stelarc’s avatar sounds. Stelarc’s Second Life avatar, and automaton clones performed a specifically designed choreography of prompted and scripted avatar movements, interacting with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse and Pauline Oliveros in SecondLife and with myself and Martin Parker in the physical performance space in London.

The submission is a portfolio in the form of an online blog: https://networkperformance.wordpress.com.