Bodies INC was an outgrowth of another project, Virtual Concrete which consisted of a concrete walkway that had two bodies, (a male and a female) superimposed on it. We figured out a way to attach the prints to the surface without the paper, with only the pigment bonding to the concrete. The bodies were covered with chips in order not to "offend" anyone, yet if you looked closely, you would find small print of various sex chat rooms from the net. This required bending over to read, although crawling on the piece was the most effective way to see the work. As one crawled on top of the bodies, reading the text, light sensors would go off, sparking of a recording of various destinations on the net, occasionally interrupted with "habeaus corpus". All the while a CU-SeeMe camera was capturing this and streaming it to the web site. I felt that the installation was interactive and successful, judging by the audience response, but wasn't satisfied with the level of audience involvement on the web, which was pretty much limited to watching the streaming video. So, I thought it would be interesting to do a questionnaire asking the audience what kind of body they would like in "cyberspace'. To my surprise, the response was overwhelming. Within weeks, there were thousands of body orders. But, soon after, there was an equally overwhelming demand from people to "see" their bodies. This created a real problem for me. I never imagined anything but text-based conceptual bodies, and the idea of visualising them brought up many questions about identity and representation that I was in a creative impasse for a period of six months. I finally came up with an idea to use textures which had meanings attached to them. The meaning of each texture was derived from alchemical or new age texts and company marketing. I thought that this kind of contradiction perfectly illustrates the kind of bodies we are collectively projecting. The logo of the project is a copper head with a copyrighted third eye. Had you any particular goal in mind when you began bodies INC? I had a few goals in mind in addition to addressing the group body in a corporate environment. By moving away from the idea of replicating the flesh body and developing the idea of textures with contradictory meanings, my goal was to shift the discourse around the body into a psychological realm. I was curious to see how people would project themselves in this space. I also wanted to create a space that was not "democratic" or even "user friendly" and to question how we operate in this environment. The idea of home was based on the city of Irvine in Orange County California. It is a gated community, a chip board, a "safe" place that is constantly surveilled. Limbo was conceptualised as a space of endless legalities that are attached to cyberspace, Showplace as a place that addresses the exhibitionist sides of our presence in this space and the relation of the privileged physical gallery space to networked showplaces. Finally, it was my intent to make the idea of the deletion of the body a laborious and emotional experience, out of which Necropolis evolved. One has to create a memory chip gravesite, write an obituary and choose one of the horrendous methods of death that were taken from crime archives and medical sites on the net. What motivated the choice of questions? The questions evolved out of the original questionnaire from Bodies INC. It was also a result of discussions with my collaborators and a reaction to the audience responses. What - if anything - has the project taught you about peoples approach to their bodies? (real or virtual) I noticed that we all have an attachment to our physical self that very much projects to the virtual realm. There is also a certain type of superstition many of us share, that a weird, strange body will somehow have an effect on our physical one. For instance, there have been very few cases of bodies with no head. I consider this also proof of how much we innately believe that it wouldn't exist without our head... Has the data collected for the project been used for any other research purposes? There has been talk about it being used by sociology and psychology departments at the University. But, nothing really has come out of it, at least in an empirical fashion. On the other hand, many scholars and students, from all over, have used it to discuss the sociological, psychological and philosophical issues the project raises. In a sense that is much more interesting use of data anyway. Why Dublin Bodies? When I visited with the CAiiA group last year, I responded strongly to the environment and the people. I already started thinking about using the project to address the issue of local environments and personalising the experience and thought it would be a great place to start. Of course, I also liked the sound of it. If you don't hear me properly, you think I said "Doubling Bodies," which in a sense is what this project is about. How were the participants chosen and what was the general reaction? I asked Niall Sweeney who was organising the event to think about people he would like to have on show. I was particularly interested in "players" in the art scene and very busy people. But, I also felt a need to work with people who I developed a relationship with during my stay regardless of their social standing at the moment. The overall experience was very powerful for me on many levels. I decided, consciously, not to rush the process, and concentrate on working with only a few local participants. By asking for very busy people, of course, I was able to do this easily. It was a way to shift the relationship of the artists to the audience, not only by having them participate in the project by building out bodies, but by having a one- on-one chat. Many wonderful discussions came out of this, from the highly philosophical issues being raised to really personal matters. Generally people would initially feel a bit unsure, if not downright nervous about what I was trying to do, but would very quickly relax and enjoy the interaction. I made some significant conceptual progress on the piece through the process. What will become of Dublin Bodies? I plan to create a web page for Dublin Bodies that will be in Showplace (a subsidiary of Bodies INC). Because I kept the number of people small, I will be able to keep personal contact with the Dublin Bodies I interacted with. I am curious to see how what kind of relationships will continue to evolve. Will there be other projects within Bodies INC? Next week I am going to Melbourne for a conference called "Being Connected: the artist's studio in the 21st century." I am hoping to sit down with a few Melbourne Bodies and incorporate some of them into the project. After Melbourne, in the first week of September, I am doing a show of Los Angeles Bodies at the Barnsdall gallery on Hollywood Boulevard. I am looking forward to continuing to work like this. Future plans? Creating these small nodes of people in different cities is a first step towards laying a foundation for my next project, Networked Art Marketplace (NAM). I am interested in working on developing a community of people with no time. This is part of a larger collaborative research project at the University that involves developing mobile online agents. My idea is to approach this agent design as a conceptual work, in collaboration with people who decide to join me in experimenting with this notion through NAM. The central question that I will be addressing is our perception and relationship to time. I will give people an option to abandon their idea of the body and enter into a realm of pure information exchange. Virtual
Concrete: Bodies
INC: Victoria
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