Shawn started
developing an earphone piece and a small lipstick camera that Karen would
wear. Robert Nideffer, from UC Irvine, compiled and edited our e-mail
exchanges to give her as dialogue for her performance on site. She started
coming to the Experimental Digital Arts (EDA) space here at the School of
the Arts and Architecture, to test the equipment and practice. Fabian
Wagmister, from Film and Television at UCLA, was helping test the
communication. Louis Hock, from UC San Diego, came to the EDA to help work
out some ideas, and Sharon Daniel, from UC Santa Cruz, flew in to work
with Karen and Robert. At the ASU conference, the organizers expected nine
faculty to show and share their knowledge. Instead, there was only one
person present - Karen - speaking for us all. Or rather, we were speaking
through her. Sharon, Robert, Fabian, Shawn, and I were in Arizona, hiding
in the back room while we monitored the video coming from her head and the
conversation that was taking place.
| This collaborative project could be interpreted as simply a fun piece, and it was. But it also has tremendous implications for how we may work together in the future, which necessarily has an impact on the student | faculty, and research | development - the very heart of our UC system. | I am not offering any answers on where this will end up, just introducing the pipe, which, for those of you who are interested, on a PC is located on the far right, the last key right above the enter key. Press shift and there you are. The line that blurs is part of your vocabulary. |
 In the background monitoring the video from the head-mounted camera and listening to the conversations. Left to right: professors Victoria Vesna, Fabian Wagmister (UCLA), Sharon Daniel (UCSC), and Shawn Brixey (UCB) |
 Karen Black reading the e-mail script with a projection being streamed live on the Internet |