In the ParaSite performances the cyborged body enters a
symbiotic/parasitic relationship with information. Images
gathered from the internet are mapped onto the body and,
driven by a muscle stimulation system, the body becomes a
reactive node in an extended virtual nervous system
(VNS). This system electronically extends the body's
optical and operational parameters beyond its cyborg
augmentation of third arm, muscle stimulators and
computerised audio visual elements.A customised search
engine gathers, analyses, and randomly scales incoming
jpeg images. In real time the digital data are
simultaneously displayed on the body and its immediate
environment and, to the characteristics of
the data, muscle movement is involuntarily actuated. The
resulting motion is mirrored in a vrml space at
the performance site, and also uploaded to a website
as potential (and recursive) source images for body actuation.
The body's physicality provides feedback loops of
interactive neurons, nerves, muscles and third hand
mechanism with digital video and software code
reverberating through the internet. The body, consuming and consumed
by the information stream, becomes enmeshed within an extended
symbolic and cyborg system mapped and moved by its search prosthetics. (gz/jc)
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