Volume 2, Issue 10
April 20 - May 3, 2000


Here Comes the Fire Again
by Kate Williamson


Want to get rid of that spare jet engine? Want to risk your skin? This Saturday night, you can do both The Seemen are coming to town.

Opening for a similar local act, the New Havoc Amateurs, the Seemen are a San Francisco-based performance art group that lets
volunteers play with its fiery robotic creations. The combined groups’ show is called: "And They Feared for Their Lives."

The Seemen will be bringing several of its famous kinetic sculptures, which the audience
and performers use together to create a primal, industrial story. The sculptures are
largely made of cast-off objects and machine parts, and they are indeed looking for a
jet engine to use in their work.

Among these sculptures is the "Fire Shower," a booth roughly the size of a show- er
stall. One brave person will stand within as flames rise up to whirl around him.

Another will stand in the "Shark Cage" as a huge robotic angel throws itself against the
bars. As stated on their Web site (seemen.org), the acts are meant to "allow you to
look death in the eye," because "it is cathartic to operate military-grade
technology....You get to run a machine that can kill you. IT’S FUN!"

Approximately 40 "drop outs and extreme technology inventors" make up the Seemen.
Their leader, Kal Spelletich, will be performing this show with at least one other artist.
Kal will also be giving a talk about his life, his art, and the machine art movement at
CU Denver on Thursday night at 7:30.

The group began in 1990 in Austin, Texas, and has since been seen across the United
States, Europe, and Canada. They are featured regulars at the Burning Man Festival in
the Nevada desert, and have had their sculpture displayed in the New York Museum of
Modern Art and the Getty Museum.

Shayne Martinsen, a New Havoc artist, first saw the Seemen at Burning Man. "It was
amazing," he said. "They had a lot of big machines, remote control machines. They
had flame-throwers mounted on the robots, torching the props. They had a strip mall
set up, and cheerleaders on the side, and near the end of the show I think they burned
the mall."

Their show lasts roughly an hour, to be followed by the New Havoc Amateurs show and dancing to music mixed by DJs Cue, Motif,
and Crackah.
While the Seemen’s robot show, according to their press release,
seeks to "poetically symbolize man’s struggles and triumphs,
Although the Seemen will make no guarantees about the safety of their interactive art -- after all, it calls for volunteers to get
close to the fire -- among other things.

Audience members can choose their own level of risk. The Seemen hope they’ll aim high. As Kal notes on the Seemen’s Web site,
"I wanted to do something that was alive, that made you jump out of the way, that threatened your preconceived notions, that
didn’t separate the audience from the artist or the art."

And don’t forget that engine.



No venue was set as of press time. Further information about the show may be obtained by calling 303-864-1965 or on the Web at
artcrimes_present.tripod.com. Tickets are around $15, and can be purchased at Propaganda Hypermedia at 3145 Larimer St, Denver. Their
number is 303- 324-2724.******************************************** FOR MORE STUFF FROM DENVER 2000 GO TO http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~kmkrol/html/lecture.htm