http://iml.umkc.edu/art/faculty/toivanen/Review5.html



"Frogs, Snails, Puppy Dog Tails and Big Flaming Machines"
at the JCCC
Review - News Features and Art in Kansas City, MO, 6/2000
Kati Toivanen

Our world is becoming increasingly virtual and many of our activities are mediated by digital and teleco
mmunications technologies. It is not surprising that events that engage our corporeal senses and challenge our
understanding of human mortality would have a certain appeal today. Industrial performance groups have been
around and thriving in the San Francisco Bay Area since the 1970's. They were initially ignited by the most famous
collective Survival Research Laboratory which is led by Mark Pauline. The movement may be encountering a
renewed interest thanks to a different sort of technology, computers. Media technologies are making us aware of
our desires for actual experiences and these performances can fulfill this need by providing the audience with
intense physical interactions.

Seemen is a robotics performance group spear-headed by the entertaining and charismatic master of ceremonies
Kal Spelletich. The collective includes about 40 members, who build and perform with a variety of whimsical, quirky
and plain dangerous pneumatic rides. The audience volunteers are invited to join in to either experience their
dangerous stunts or to drive the machines. Seemen call their medium Post Industrial Folk Art in which found
materials are recontextualized into machines. Most of the pieces seem to deal with love and death in a very basic
and simple manner. Currently on a tour from their native San Francisco the collective is on their way to New York
hitting various cities along the way. Kal and his traveling companion Jay entertained and wowed their Kansas City
audience hosted by The Johnson County Community College on the Campus Commons on April 27, 2000.

Blasts of flames, robotic jaws, cyber dick - big, powerful, sexy and literally hot - the elements add up to a very primal
experience. The courtyard at JCCC fused the characteristics of art happenings, freak shows, and carnivals
complete with a pop corn cart. The local sculptors stood by equipped with safety goggles and fire extinguishers.
The audience organically ebbed and flowed out of line of fire as Kal introduced the various machines and invited
audience members to assist with the robots.

The performances by Survival Research Laboratory and other groups often deal with the crowd and involve mass
chaos, but most of Seemen's pieces relate to one individual directly. In the Fireshower the participant is encased in
the contraption as it spins around in flames. In another piece fire is directed towards the volunteer in a three sided
box. The approaching flames can be viewed through the front, which is made of clear Plexiglas. Some pieces, like
the Bull Fight, engage a small group of people, each with a specific role. Even the machines that do not involve
people seem to emulate human activities and events.

Perhaps the most surreal and interesting aspect of this performance was the make up of the audience. I suspect
this crowd included an unusually high count of children and pairs of designer shoes. The event provided a forum
that brought together the West Bottoms/Crossroads art die-hards, students from area schools, families from
Johnson County, unsuspecting passers-by, among others. Spring is an ideal time for renewal and opening our
minds to new experiences. This performance bridged gaps between the somewhat divided regional art scene and
for that sheer fact the event was worth sponsoring.

One of the most elegant pieces shown at JCCC was called the May Pole. Four green shop jackets were dangling
from clothes hangers in a carousel-like contraption. Spray painted words "sculpture" indicated the institutional
ownership of the garments. Each jacket was generously doused with solvent while the grouping was circling with
the help of an air hose. A fire gun was used to aim flames at the passing shirts and they each began to burn at
different speeds and patterns. The fluttering jackets randomly set off fragments of fabric, still on fire, towards the
audience. The May Pole as a celebration of Spring seemed appropriately specific for the event. Also, the green
jackets of a sculpture department referenced the college setting: the sense of immature power gained from
acquiring institutional property. But most importantly this piece seemed to generate the most democratic and
successful audience participation. The element of danger was evenly distributed amongst the gathered crowd as
there was no way of knowing where the burning bits of fabric were to land.

Last year I watched my then three-year-old nephew Lasse run his first remotely controlled truck. The excitement he
exuded was beyond my grasp. There was something magically intuitive about the fierce head-on collisions between
the apartment walls and the toy. I don't think I ever have or will experience the excitement from destruction and
danger I witnessed in this young boy. The toys Seemen build and perform with are bigger, more inventive, and
certainly more dangerous, but they appear to tap into the same source of primal energy already evident in a tiny
boy. This comparison may be an extreme simplification, but the beauty of the two events lies in their directness and
honesty.

Playing with fire, random demolition, fear, surprise and danger make us face mortality. Trust, threat, courage, risk,
power, and control all enter into the equation and may make us uncomfortable. Most of the Seemen robots did not
seem metaphorically specific or clearly focused, but the performance offered the audience and participants a
welcome reality check with our corporeal existence in an increasingly virtual world.