Output details

Electrode

Performance art

ELECTRODE is a performance installation piece that uses an anal electrode, EMG sensor, video projection, loudspeakers, and packaging material.

In Electrode an ‘Anuform’® anal electrode connected to a modified ‘Peritone’ EMG sensor registers the activity of the artist’s sphincter muscle. ‘Anuform’® and ‘Peritone’ are readily available medical devices for the treatment of faecal incontinence problems. The performer fakes the orgasm of an anonymous subject who took part in an experiment into the nature of the male orgasm in 1980 attempting to replicate the subject’s sphincter muscle contraction pattern which was registered during masturbation and orgasm in the experiment. The performer repeatedly performs the same pattern. The data is projected onto a screen in the form of graphs and is used for digital sound synthesis.

The work is informed by two research objectives: developing a digital performance strategy based on a cultural critical approach to performance technologies; and establishing a performance paradigm that engages with a postmodern cultural condition where all nakedness – also the artistic nude – potentially signifies sexuality (Cover, 2003). Acknowledging that technology is always developed in conjunction with socio-cultural conditions, and can therefore not be considered in isolation from gender, class, and social paradigms (MacKenzie & Wajcman, 1999) ELECTRODE is based on detailed analyses of culturally established meanings of the performer’s body and the technological artefacts involved.

The work responds to – and diverts from – prevalent practices in digital performance, which build on a deterministic concept of technology (e.g. Kac, Stelarc), or focus on technologies’ aesthetic possibilities (e.g. Atau Tanaka, Michel Waisvisz). ELECTRODE was performed widely both universities conferences and international art festivals throughout UK (2011/2013) USA (2011/2012) and Germany (2012).