STEVE GIBSON

VIRTUAL DJ (2001-04) uses the tracking capabilities of the Gesture and Media System, invented by APR to allow one or more users to use space as a performance tool. Users literally wave their arms, and as if by magic new audio loops are accessed, samples are played, and drum loops are started. Virtual DJ is a prototype for a new type of club- and network-based performance, and can be used by anyone from absolute musical neophyte to the expert performer.

TELEBODY (1998-2003) is a large-scale piece for two music and video "performers." Using digital music instruments, the players have real-time control over an audio environment and images of two bodies. The central theme of TELEBODY revolves around the man-machine interface and the human body. TELEBODY IS the altered human figure in the digital world.

Portal (2003) is a collaborative event featuring Arthur & Marilouise Kroker, Steve Gibson, Randy Adams, Jim Andrews, Jackson 2 Bears, Tanya Doody, and Tom Kuo. Portal is built around the idea of the re-mix, in which the artists engage in some way with the work of the other artists.

CONTACT (2004-05) is a collaborative event by Steve Gibson and Randy Adams, with Jim Andrews. In CONTACT Gibson operates simultaneously as a one-man band and a live video editor by triggering both the music and images in real-time. CONTACT explores the sense of impending technological apocalypse that is quickly becoming the dominant cultural méme of the new millenium.

When Ghosts Will Die (2005), a performance-installation that utilizes multi-sensory elements such as sound, video, light, and text controlled by motion-tracking technology, tells the story about the dangers of nuclear proliferation. Inspired by the play, "Copenhagen", by Michael Frayn, it explores the use of non-linguistic elements in the service of making poetry and telling stories.

Objects of Ritual (1994) is a multi-interface installation piece originally created for the Banff Centre's Art and Virtual Environments project. The piece is conceived as a theatrical work on the nature of virtual reality. It argues that virtual reality is not a new idea, but one whose roots are centuries old. Using the "Story of the Cave" from Plato's Republic as a basis for this argument, Objects of Ritual seeks to create a complex and ambiguous reflection on the nature of technology, power, reality, and personal discipline.

Idle Hands (1995) is an installation by conceptual artist and programmer Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and composer and media artist Steve Gibson. Idle Hands allows two participants to control an audiovisual environment by his or her movements in a large interactive area. Idle Hands positions participants in different power roles which illustrate both the invasive surveillance of contemporary computer culture and the possibility of a shared networked reality.

CUT TO THE CHASE (1997) is a performance integrating live music and live video. In CUT TO THE CHASE the video sequencing is controlled in REAL-TIME by the VIDEO performer: to control the flow of the visual materials, the video performer transmits MIDI data via a guitar controller. Special programming allows for random access of video images in response to MIDI events. The video is longer be a slave to an external timecode, but is free to express itself in relation to the playing of the other artists.