SEEMEN LA

I saw the SEEMEN last night. “SEEMEN create situations where audiences are encouraged to Interact and operate their machines and robots. You get to run a machine that can kill you. IT'S FUN!”

Nobody was killed.

I saw a SEEMEN show a couple years ago in Chicago, where I talked a little bit with Kal Spelletich. He's a cool guy, and I remember him telling me about a party he went to at Rudy Rucker's place: “It was a total brainiac-o-rama, man.” (Hm, Kal mentioning that Rudy's dog Slug was threatened by the cops while they were protesting together plus Reverse Cowgirl's mention of the same dog makes me think that the dog running around last night was Rudy Rucker's... My god, am I now actually a star pet fucker?)

I'm always skeptical of the artistic value of this sort of thing, but when Kal starts telling the stories of why he made each piece I'm convinced there's something there. His concern for the audience is refreshing, too. He says things like “It was the most transcendent experience I've ever had; I made this so that people who couldn't see an island on fire could feel what it was like.” and “I discovered it was easy to freak people out with technology, but I wanted to do something that would make them feel empowered.” (Except when he says it he doesn't sound academic or pretentious; he sounds like he would be prescribed a heavy dose of ritalin if he were a kid.)

Posted by jjwiseman at April 13, 2003 11:55 AM