Some performance art is plain weird and some is intriguing and some is cool. This is all the above. A couple of art students here at CMU recently took advantage of the Public Access Channel on cable TV here in Pittsburgh and set up the following:

A art student was strapped into a harness and hung off the floor in the studio by some ropes. He was free, in a manner of speaking, to move legs and arms and head. Each leg and arm was connected by several wires to a electrical setup that, when activated, caused that particular joint to twitch. It doesn't hurt - but feels funny. Heck, some might even like it!

Each of the limbs is connected to an incoming phone line for a total of four lines. The camera is pointed at the student in the harness. That's all couch potatos can see. Awesome. It gets better.

So now there are four independent phone lines now connected to the student's limbs. Buttons on the phones can be used to trigger a particular part of that limb. If you have the left arm phone line:  Press a '4' and the elbow twitches. Press a '6' and the shoulder twitches. Each limb has three such connections. The system is also set to disconnect a caller if sounds stop for more than a few seconds -- so you have to keep making sounds or pressing buttons to continue.

The audio on the phones are also broadcast over the air so individuals can communicate, albeit a little indirectly, by speaking into their phone and having it broadcast to the audience and the other people on the phone lines. A narrator comes on occasionally and she describes the setup and the numbers to call.

So now picture the scene -- the student is strapped in, hanging there in a TV studio with a number of wires connected to god knows what.  A little like the people in those dunking booths at carnivals -- but worse, you can't see your tormenter.

Now unknown people, who the wired-man-in-the-harness can only hear, begin to call in.  Callers start to press buttons, maybe pressing several at a time. Then they call to each other , 'Hey, let's get him to walk!' tone, twitch, tone, twitch, twitchy, twitchity, tone, twitch.

The guy in the harness is twitching madly, elbows, knees, wrists, ankles, shoulders and hips all moving to the beat, as it were. He's not hurting, but doesn't seem to be smiling a whole lot either.

Now they're pressing buttons like it's a Nintendo game. zap zap zappity zap. Then the fun begins -- people start to use the redial function on their phones. Wonder what this tune will result in? dee dee dom doo dee dee doo daa (twitch, twitch, twitch, spaz, twitch) People get really into it. Some say, 'hey, connect wires to his genitals!' Geez, the sadists out there...

They do this for a few sessions. Pretty popular. Pretty strange!  I was thinking this might be a good fund raising technique for Public TV. Sure would get some attention: "Pledge now and get to zap [insert athelete, star or person of your choice]!!!"

Next week they're doing an election special with a new robotic setup.

Home Zapping Network? Reach out and Zap someone? Gad, the possibilities are endless.

And they said interactive TV was going nowhere....

                                nivek

aka: Kevin Dowling, <nivek@cmu.edu>   address: Carnegie Mellon University