3LD ART AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER - NEW YORK
29 OCTOBER - 15 NOVEMBER 2009
A Rigorous Mindscape; A Hallucinatory Architecture of Light;
A Dream Machine
Produced by FuturePerfect and 3LD Art & Technology Center
in association with Performance Space 122
Exhilarating and meditative, Kurt Hentschläger’s stroboscopic,
mind-altering new project "ZEE" pushes the boundaries of perception and creates an intense audiovisual
journey -complete with hallucination. This is the latest installation by Hentschläger, known for
constructing immersive environments that fuse sound, video, performance, and sensory overload.
ZEE will have its New York premiere from October 28 through November 15, 2009 at 3LD Art &
Technology Center, 80 Greenwich Street, Lower Manhattan. "ZEE" is the inaugural event of
FuturePerfect, a new citywide performance, media & technology initiative.
Entering "ZEE", the visitor is immediately absorbed in a vortex of dense, odorless fog that
completely obscures the walls, floor and ceiling. Individuals freely roam this environment with the
help of ropes, while flickering light filters through the haze, inducing spatial disorientation and
visual “distortions”.. All the usual cues that contribute to depth perception—texture, shadow, size,
perspective—are erased, returning each spectator, as it were, to a state of “tabula rasa”, where
one’s perceptual framework is reset and then recalibrated. A droning soundscape creates an almost tactile aural field, intensifying the experience and shifting dynamically according to
changes in the color, light and frequency.
"ZEE" succeeds without a narrative or reproducible imagery, since what is seen is not captured
through the eyes, but rather first produced in the brain. As James Turrell has said, “Objectivity is
gained by being once removed. As you plumb a space with vision, it is possible to 'see yourself
see'. This seeing, this plumbing, imbues space with consciousness."
"The question of how, and what we perceive as the world, around and within us—what is real, a
dream or illusion—continually occupies me,” stated Hentschläger. “When the fabric of our minds
is manipulated, whether through psychedelic drugs or other sources that confuse the synapses
firings, such as the strobe lights in "ZEE", this "enlightening" reveals the malleability of our minds
and consciousness. The question of what originates from within us, and what are reflections of
the world around us, is the basis of my work.”
For over a decade, Kurt Hentschläger has been exploring ways of enhancing and intensifying
perception. Wishing to expand beyond the two-dimensionality of video and film projection, and
the limitations of adapting to a given architectural space, Hentschläger has constructed his own
alternative worlds through live performance, installations, multi-screen projections, and recently
through environments that disorient through stroboscopic lighting and shifting color fields, intense
soundscapes and sub-bass. From the large-scale audio-visual events produced as part of the
Austrian duo Granular-Synthesis, to collaborations with French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj
and vocalist Diamanda Galas, to his solo immersive installations, Hentschläger finds ways of
collapsing the gap between viewer and work, image and reality, inside and outside. Offering a
compelling contemporary version of the aesthetic of the sublime, Hentschläger’s work insists that
we not merely “watch” and “listen” to images and sounds at a safe distance, but that they
penetrate, confront, and overwhelm us by their sense of limitless power and complexity.
“Artist Kurt Hentschläger makes immersive experiences that disorient and even overpower the
senses, taking daring art lovers to new places of perception. Pushing through discomfort and lack
of control, not an easy task for New Yorkers, one is rewarded with new sensations and a mind
expansion that actually allows one to create new images. It is so exciting to have the artist back in
NY from Europe after his breakout Noisegate debut with Gran-Synthesis at Creative Time's Art in
the Anchorage in 2000," stated Anne Pasternak, Director, Creative Time.
About the Artist
Chicago-based Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger creates audio-visual compositions that lie
somewhere in between performance and installation. The immersive nature of his work reflects
on the metaphor of the sublime. Trained as a fine artist, in 1983 he began as a sculptor by
building surreal machine objects, followed by works with video, computer animation and sound. Between 1992 and 2003 he worked collaboratively as part of the duo Granular-Synthesis. His
most recent solo work is more poetic and further researches the nature of human perception and
accelerated impact of new technologies on individual consciousness. Kurt Hentschläger is represented by Richard Castelli / Epidemic. Technical Assistance for ZEE
New York is provided by Ian Brill.
About FuturePerfect
ZEE is the inaugural event of FuturePerfect, a new citywide performance, media & technology
initiative. Its mission is to research and present hybrid performance practices, media forms, and
artistic ideas that continue to emerge as computer technologies and electronic networks mature
and become inseparable from contemporary culture. In particular focus is the future of live
performance and related visual culture. Wayne Ashley is the founding director and organizer of
FuturePerfect 2011, a performance festival and exhibition, is slated for New York City during
Spring 2011. He was formerly the Director of Arts in Multimedia at Brooklyn Academy of Music,
BAM. Contact: wayne@wayneashley.net
About Performance Space 122
Performance Space 122 has been a hub for contemporary performance and an active member
of the East Village, as well as the wider cultural community in NYC and across the globe for the
past 30 years. In just the past 4 years, under the curatorial vision of Artistic Director Vallejo
Gantner, P.S.122 has opened the curtain for more than 2,100 performances, welcomed more
than 100,000 visitors, and supported the work of more than 1,800 artists, performers,
choreographers, playwrights, directors and designers. P.S.122 is dedicated to supporting and
presenting artists whose work explores innovative form and content and challenges the traditional
boundaries of dance, theatre, music, and performance, and continues its steadfast search for
pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures, nations and beliefs.
About 3LD Art & Technology Center
3LD Art & Technology Center is a non-profit theater and media group focusing on large-scale
experimental artwork. Their work has been seen in New York City at such venues as the Kitchen,
La Mama, The Ontological-Hysteric Theater, PS 122, and Signature Theatre Co. Since 1994,
they have become a mainstay in the experimental arts community and have been performing
downtown ever since. 3-Legged Dog (ELD) is the first producing arts group to sign a lease in the
Liberty Zone and the first to rebuild downtown. A cultural anchor for the Greenwich Street Arts
Corridor, the new center provides complete production and presentation facilities for emerging
and established artists and organizations that create large-scale experimental works, many of
which incorporate and create new tools and technologies.
PANEL DISCUSSION in conjunction with ZEE
Performance, Installation and Immersion
Presented by FuturePerfect and CPR—Center for Performance Research
More than any other concept, “immersion” has become one of the most taken-for-granted
expressions in writings on technology, and increasingly used to describe a vast array of different
media, creative processes, and ways of audience engagement. From video games and 3D
cinema, to new counterinsurgency strategies for simulating theaters of war; from realistic touch
feedback medical training systems, to the aesthetics of site specific performance and installation.
They all share the same desired effect: collapsing the gap between viewer and work, image and
reality, inside and outside. Five distinguished panelists will show and discuss their work in
relationship to these and others issues.
Panelists include: Kevin Cunningham (Director, 3-Legged Dog Media and Theater Group), Kurt
Hentschläger (Artist, Austria/US), Kora Van den Bulcke and Thomas Soetens (Workspace
Unlimited, Artist Collective Belgium/Canada), and Allen Feldman (Associate Professor,
Anthropology, NYU). Discussants include Vallejo Gantner (PS122), Morgan von Prelle Pecelli
(PS122), Wayne Ashley (FuturePerfect), Jonah Bokaer (CPR), Dr. Frank Hentschker (Martin E.
Segal Theatre Center, CUNY) and others. http://www.cprnyc.org
http://www.hentschlager.info/portfolio/zee/zee.html
http://www.futureperfectfestival.org
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