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<title>IMMMERSIONIST EVENT PARADIGM- Ebon Fisher</title>
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<p><img src="Psychedelic_Perf3.gif" width="277" height="247"> <font color="#FFFFFF">.
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<p><font color="#08ABA6"><font color="#006699" size=+2>Immersionist Event Paradigm</font></font>
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<font size=+1>______________</font></font>
<p><font color="#006699"><font size=+1>To
reintroduce biological coherence into our cultural life, we must not freeze audience, dancer, media, and ethos into
separate academic or commercial disciplines. Dancing and celebrating must grow out of a reticulum of
living traditions: potlatches, parties, polkas, blues sessions and underground nightclubs.
One rather short and harried tradition, the technology-assisted ambient
performance, is beginning to mature into a paradigm, a mnemonic blur of
sock hops, discotheques, slam dances, house parties, raves, and trance
dances. The Immersionist scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, contributed its own idealistic forms to such an emerging tradition, including four large warehouse events on the waterfront in the early 1990s (Cats Head I & II, The Flytrap and Organism). The first parties began as live rock events in recycled industrial spaces. They involved a large stage and sculptural installations along the perimeter. Eventually other strategies and systems flowed into the mix, ending with Organism's web jam.</font></font>
<p><font color="#006699"><font size=+1>The essential structure of Brooklyn's Immersionist events involved absorbing revellers
into the belly of a living system. Cultural, biological,
and electronic media engulfed both audience and performers. The object was not to isolate components
of the dance for worship, analysis, or sales. Needless to say, commercial
values and academic categories wither the spirit. The object was to integrate
the senses and the disciplines, churning everything into a large, ecstatic being.
Buttressed by the good will of a community of friends, and fueled by whispers
of complete abandon, such events can re-wild and re-energize an urban milieu. Indeed, Brooklyn has been transformed.</font></font>
<p><font color="#006699"><font size=+1>But take note: In his dystopian
novel, "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley warns of an artificially created
religion. Participants pop a pill called "Soma" and enter an elaborate
"Solidarity Service" in which a spirit is introduced electronically from
above. It's quite an omen. All belief imposed upon us by managers, priests, and commercial
club producers is a dreary prospect. It is a golden calf, a Disney
spectacle. Supplication to a precise hierarchy of mechanisms is often substituted for
mutual trust and sincere mental exploration. Running out to the nearest
hilltop and howling at the moon has more spiritual potential than such
exercises in crowd control and pocket change extraction.</font></font>
<p><font color="#006699"><font size=+1>It is of paramount importance that
any immersive event be grounded in a living community, and
built by consensual labor and imagination. Tasks may be divided up, but
the spirit of collaboration must be nurtured throughout the entire process
of planning, building, celebrating and clean-up. The simple ritual
of a meeting, attended by as many participants as possible, maintains the
vision and genuine solidarity of any project. Meetings are significant
subroutines spinning within the larger process of ritual building. They should
be conducted with humor and grace. And don't be stingy with the wine.</font></font>
<p><font color="#006699"><font size=+1>If the universe is truly vast, amazing
and beautiful, then we must arrive at this truth freely, generation after
generation, ritual after ritual. May we never finish the job of tweaking
our systems of belief.</font></font>
<p><font color="#067D79"><font size=+1>_________________</font></font>
<p><font color="#2476AD"><font size=+0>--RITES--</font></font><font color="#2476AD"></font>
<p><font color="#2476AD"><font size=+0>--1--</font></font>
<br><font color="#2476AD"><font size=+0>Secure a large room or outdoor
area.</font></font><font color="#2476AD"></font>
<p><font color="#2476AD"><font size=+0>--2--</font></font>
<br><font color="#2476AD"><font size=+0>Set up sound systems, screens,
and other media in a circle facing in towards a large dance zone.</font></font><font color="#2476AD"></font>
<p><font color="#2476AD"><font size=+0>--3--</font></font>
<br><font color="#2476AD"><font size=+0>Invite an audience into the center
of the circle. Be sure to invite enough familiar people to seed conviviality
and trust.</font></font><font color="#2476AD"></font>
<p><font color="#2476AD"><font size=+0>--4--</font></font>
<br><font color="#2476AD"><font size=+0>Performers, musicians, and media
operators rhythmically interact with the audience and each other until
everyone is as alive and inspired as possible.</font></font>
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<p><font color="#006699">A Convergence of Two Paradigms</font>
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<p><font color="#006699"><font size=-1>ABOVE: Nerve Circle's immersionist performance in Bostion,
"Evolution of the Grid," is blocked by the peops in blue in 1988. Ebon Fisher
(left) is attempting to negotiate with the police. Fisher was evicted from
his South Boston loft a week later. But he popped up again in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in time to help build an Immersionist scene with Kit Blake, Ethan Pettit, Eva Schicker, Stevie Allweiss,</font></font>
<font color="#006699"><font size=-1>Robert Elmes, Terry Dineen, Jean Francois, Megan Raddant, Genia Gould, Kevin Pyle, Jessica Nissen, Fred Valentine, Yvette Helin, Sasha Sumner, Gene Pool, <font color="#006699">Minor Injury, Fake Shop</font>, Lalalandia, the Outpost and dozens of others.</font></font></p>
<p><font size="2">Other Immersionist tendencies in Williamsburg, Brooklyn: <a href="http://www.immersionism.net" target="_blank">Immersionism.net</a></font><br>
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<p><br><font color="#067D79"><font size=-1><a href="ritindex.html" target="_parent">RETURN</a></font></font>
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<p><font size=-2>©2004 Ebon Fisher</font>
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