hubert blanz
Vernetzungen
Sound performance in three acts, Hubert Blanz, 1998
Description
The sound performance is called Vernetzungen [Networks].
It lasts twenty minutes.
Several people interact with a soundtrack.
The performance is divided into three actions.
These are played in different sound spaces.
Performance venue: Underground passage at Karlsplatz,
at the opening of the exhibition, Auch Heinz und Susi ...,
Künstlerhaus Passage Gallery and surroundings, Vienna, 1998.
Sequence of events
The intro to the first sound begins.
Three people appear.
They are wrapped in insulating tubes.
They wear breathing masks.
They stand in three cabins.
They are spatially separated from each other.
The tubes are connected.
The people breathe on each other.
Heartbeats and clock ticks determine the sound.
Human breathing sounds begin.
Breathing becomes faster.
The situation culminates.
It ends with the intro.
The breathing cycle is ended.
The actors leave the booths.
A television set is installed in the middle cabin.
A microphone is positioned in front of it.
Two people take up positions in the two outer cabins.
They have EEG systems attached to their heads.
The cables are connected to the microphone.
A connection is established between the people and the device.
A German newsreader appears on the screen.
He reports on current political issues.
The newsreader is replaced.
A Turkish newsreader appears.
Both can be heard.
Other newsreaders appear and disappear.
Voices in different languages overlap.
The volume increases.
The sequence of images becomes shorter.
A visual staccato emerges.
Information becomes unrecognisable.
The flood of images and fragments of speech intensify.
A sine wave tone begins.
It confirms the ‘virtual transmission’.
The cable connections are disconnected.
The people move away.
Six people appear in a specific sequence.
They wear identical masks.
The masks are collages.
They consist of models' faces.
The people are wrapped in plastic film.
The different bodies have certain limitations.
The actors are restricted in their freedom of movement.
The music and the radius of action create the apparent situation of a fashion
show.
The finale is the positioning in the cabins.
Two people stand opposite each other.