Presence of Absence (A-gain): Kathy Acker

Symposium:

• ISEA98: Ninth International Symposium on Electronic Art

• Presence of Absence (A-gain): Kathy Acker

• Nancy Reilly-McVittie

• The Presence of Absence (A-Gain) Orchestrates a discourse through the use of multi media which explores the untimely death of punk/cyber writer extraordinaire Kathy Acker. Kathy Acker died prematurely from breast cancer. The presentation will explore the relationship between the notion of technological advances and horrific late 20th century female disease. The materials will include, Acker’s writing, testimonials, medical information, technological information, visual material and sound. The interrogation of the materials will take the form of an interactive performance game. The chair will establish a structural game which allows the members to contribute their materials through a process of association with other materials being presented. The idea of the game structure allows for a low grade performative element to ignite random insights from an association of materials. The structure of the presentation will be used to form a sister version which explores the sparks between the Hallucengenic Revolution and the Computer Revolution. (The related presentation took place at ISEA98Revolution, Liverpool).

Category:

• Keynote