Mobius Artists Group operated a performance space on Congress Street in the Fort Point Channel district of Boston. It was on the fifth floor. I was a member of the group from about ’94 to ’03. In order to support the space they would host fundraisers.
Their parties were a big hit with the art crowd and always made money. Someone in the office would arrange with Boston Wharf to use a floor in one of the semi- or fully-abandoned factory buildings that composed Fort Point Channel. The group, including me, would spend a day or so cleaning the place and setting up what one might think of as booths around the space. Bands played. Performance art happened. Objects and sculpture abounded. Everybody had a good time.
To create the piece in the photo above, I designed hats made from chicken wire and paper mache. With the help of my son’s pre-school class, the children painted them according to their whims. I fitted each helmet with tiny speakers wired to a headphone distribution amplifier I built. It sat in the middle of the table. The raw speakers dangled from the helmets, so, as you can see, the listeners had to hold up the speakers to their ears. It produced a gesture I intended.
Before the event I was having a lively interchange over the internet with my nephew Robert, who was a high school student in Corvallis Oregon. He made digital recordings with a program called ——, in which those interested could share files through the program. 8-bit stereo I believe. I recorded sound files that he sent me onto a cassette tape and placed it under the table along with a power amp and a mixer which connected to the headphone amplifier sitting on the table. The tape player had an auto reverse function, so it would play continuously.
Add plastic chairs, or maybe benches, I can’t tell from the photo, a festive red plastic tablecloth, a single utility clamp work light and voila!
Most of the night I was very concerned that someone would spill beer onto the table and it would somehow short out the headphone amplifier but everyone was very well-behaved. Rave was a very new and hip word, back then. I never went to one, and I’m pretty sure Robert didn’t either, but it made for a catchy title. The representative art crowd pictured at the table above probably would have attested they had been to one, I can assure you. Photo by Bob Raymond.
HinjNoiz 