simultaneity

W+F New York Times Review

andrew — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:05:52 +0000

My latest full-length show, WOW+FLUTTER finished a sold-out run at the incomparably fantastic LIC venue The Chocolate Factory Theater in February. I’ve been compiling the documentation and will be continually posting and updating things here. In the mean time, Claudia La Rocco wrote a review of WOW+FLUTTER in the New York Times. Here it is:

photo: Robert Caplin for The New York Times

The distinctive shaftway connecting the two levels of the Chocolate Factory in Queens is the theatrical gift that keeps on giving. It’s only a matter of time until some enterprising artist eschews this Long Island City theater’s larger stages and makes an entire show in the confines of that brick-lined space.

Last Friday night, Andrew Schneider climbed, slid and threw himself out of (and sometimes down) the passageway during his new evening-length solo, “Wow + Flutter.” He was all over the place — literally and metaphorically — using a harness, interactive projections and custom-built, wearable electronics. Gadgets, almost nonstop babble on themes both esoteric and mundane, numerous pop-culture images and even a brief Michael Jackson dance created a sort of technological id, governed by, to take Mr. Schneider’s words slightly out of context, his “internal head speed.”

The audience was pressed against this id, since Mr. Schneider chose to place the stage area lengthwise in the narrow, white rectangular room. In this he evoked another technologically minded artist, John Jesurun, who last fall at the Chocolate Factory used the same spatial configuration and different multimedia smoke and mirrors to create a hauntingly claustrophobic experience.

Mr. Jesurun, of course, has been at this game for decades. By comparison, Mr. Schneider, who does multimedia and video work with both the Wooster Group and Fischerspooner, is just getting going. He is an engaging performer, but “Wow + Flutter,” which suffered from a self-consciously labored script, didn’t quite live up to the promise of an immersive, altered experience.

Still, there were nice touches throughout. Christine Shallenberg’s lighting included assaultive bursts, cool blues that flooded the space as if it were under water, and sleek, white tubing affixed to columns and facing Mr. Schneider. Grainy black-and-white video periodically gave glimpses of activity in the downstairs space, including ghostly dances. Kate Valk’s lips, via one of two video monitors hanging from the ceiling, had a sultry, sometimes creepy cameo as “This Girl,” the remote object of Mr. Schneider’s distracted, self-involved affection.

Mr. Schneider used scientific riffs, Omar Zubair’s live sound effects and a barrage of spliced video (often controlled by his muscular gestures, like sharp air punches done while wearing electronic-enhanced gloves) to hold forth on time, space and experience after death. Yet he kept returning to a quieter meditation on masculinity and the desperate need for attention. Beneath all the wow and flutter of this boy and his toys is the naked need to please.

TWG’s North Atlantic @ REDCAT

andrew — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:06:24 +0000

The Wooster Group‘s North Atlantic is running this weekend and next at the REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles. It’s a great show, and I was lucky enough to get to rehearse as “Lud” for the month that we were in rehearsals at the Garage in SoHo, while Scott Shepherd was in a run of Gatz in Cambridge with ERS. I was able to get out there this weekend to shoot the show for our archive, and was really finally able to experience the show for the first time as a pseudo-audience member. The show is mind-blowing. A reminder not only of why I’ve always wanted to work with this company, but why I became involved in theatre in the first place. Really visceral, inspiring stuff. Go see it.

photo: Paula Court

Grab tickets for the LA run here.

TWG will bring NA to NYC in March and April for a run at the newly renovated Jerome Robbin’s Theatre inside the Baryshnikov Art’s Center. Buy those Tickets here.

Do not miss this!

New work at The Chocolate Factory

andrew — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:47:19 +0000

I’m very excited to announce the opening of a new piece in February at The Chocolate Factory. I’m currently in further development of a piece called WOW AND FLUTTER. You may have seen work-in-progress showings at Issue Project Room last April. Well, the show is back, and it’s still different. From the press release:

When everything, all information is all accessible, and all at the same time and all simultaneously; order, ordinance does not matter. Linear time as we know it is indifferent. Things poke holes in the present moment from other places. The whole of everything is now in one frame. Everything at once. All the time. Flattened out. With a meat tenderizer.

Click here to watch an early excerpt from WOW AND FLUTTER.

The Chocolate Factory is awesome.COME!

To purchase lots of tickets, (or just one), click here.

cleaning 12-28-09

andrew — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:07:51 +0000

In an effort to organize my life in the two and a half days before the New Year and in preparation for some new New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve been doing a little winter cleaning on my laptop. I’ve been out of the country a lot recently and files for work and pleasure have been accumulating and commingling like I don’t know what. Time to purge. Because I’ve been out of the country I also purchased a Skype number to make it easier to conduct business on the cheap when abroad. When you purchase a Skype number you get to pick any number that is currently available (area code included) and subscribe to it for as long as you see fit. I’ve subscribed to my number for three months. When I’m done with it, it’ll be released back into the pool of available numbers. I imagine many people like me subscribe to a number for a very short period of time, and then give it up. Perhaps because of this high number-turnover-rate, some people pick up and drop numbers without notifying those that they’ve been in contact with that their number is no longer their number. Therefore, it’s inevitable that my number and I are getting phone calls for people whom I am not. When I’m not online to answer, they leave voicemails. Here are a sampling of misdirected voicemails that will never get to their intended recipient. Marcel, Tom, I am sorry.Download audio file (voicemal01.mp3)
It wasn’t but a few hours after I originally published this post that I got two more voicemails.Download audio file (voicemal02.mp3)
And hey. Why not go ahead and leave your own misdirected voicemail. Get some things off your chest before the new year!(917) 720-3227

They just keep coming.

Download audio file (voicemal03.mp3)

what happened.

andrew — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:59:39 +0000

Things have been happening since June. Here are some of them.

my apartment collapsed

Re:placement installation / performance at PS122
opening night panel at the Prelude Festival
Blinkcam @ the ITP 30th anniversary gala
The Archery Contest video design at PS122
Fischerspooner video design at the MoMA
Vieux Carré premiere at the Centre Pompidou, (The Wooster Group)
This mustache started growing on my face
I am Jerome Bel shows in London for Rolex, (The Wooster Group)

wowandflutter performance @ Greylock Arts

andrew — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:11:07 +0000

Last week I was fortunate enough to be able to get out of the city and up to the artsy air of Adams, Massachusetts. The curators at Greylock Arts gallery asked me to give a performance as part of their artist salon and in conjunction with their previous exhibit, Wearable Expressions – “a group exhibition of wearable art, accessories, and technology apparel exploring fashion as a means for individuals to dynamically express themselves.” I had a great time performing and the local audience was absolutely amazing. I wish I had audiences like this in Brooklyn. Maybe my demographic has shifted to the over 50 set. An edit from the gallery is below.

Ignite NYC video

andrew — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:59:51 +0000

You get 5 minutes to talk about whatever you want in front of a large audience. You get to use twenty slides. Each slide auto-advances after fifteen seconds.

Back in September of 2008 I was able to convince someone that it was a good idea to let me do an Ignite talk. Actually, no, I think Tikva Morowati convinced me that it was a good idea. In any case, I decided to use the unique format to talk about Experimental Devices for Performance. The video is now here!

You should also check out Ignite’s Youtube channel as well as Kati London’s ridiculously good talk about plants taking over the world. Ignite!

hello 2009.

andrew — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:09:39 +0000

The end of 2008 has passed. Rather than mourn the loss of a sublimely mediocre year, I’m choosing to look forward, project into the future, and set myself up for what will undoubtedly be a just ever-so-slightly better 2009. Happy New Year!

The Wall Street Journal covers Experimental Devices for Performance!

andrew — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:43:53 +0000

Thanks to Andy Jordan at The Wall Street Journal for doing this nice piece about some of my technologically augmented performance stuff.

A big thanks to everyone who helped make this happen including Kate Hartman (pictured in the poster-frame image), The Wooster Group for use of their space, and Andy Jordan of The Wall Street Journal.

Also covered by:

BoingBoing
Make: Blog
nycresistor

And here’s the YouTube video
And here’s the Dance-Tech.net video

Tell your friends!

CHN01 at The Prelude Festival Tonight ((Uh, last night) Uh, four nights ago)!

andrew — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:56:44 +0000

I totally lied and did not come through with posting CHN01′s progress. We all know how it goes. Too busy making the thing to remember to remember how we’re making it. Anyway, now’s your chance to come see what I’ve not been releasing early and often. ~~I’ve got a performance coming up tonight!~~ Here’s some excerpts (from rehearsal) on video! You should(‘ve) come! I was part of the “interactive art” night so there were tons of great performances lined up throughout the night.

- click to play -

I showed a work-in-progess piece called “CHN01″ which is more or less “PLEASEURE” again. I used a bunch of the EDP set.

Artist Michael Arthur was at the festival all weekend and made some beautiful drawings of some of the artists. I’m honored that he was able to sketch some of CHN01.