electronic snoozism

Went to Stephen Vitiello and Andrew Deutsch's performance at Solvent Space on Saturday night. Vitiello has the current show at Solvent Space, which I have yet to experience (it's a sound show) - they are only open three days a week from 1-4pm - so I'm not sure how much Saturday's performance built on or was related to the exhibition.

We all sat on the floor or stood against the walls and a video was projected onto one wall while Vitiello and Deutsch worked a big pile of electronic equipment off to the side. I guess it wasn't really a video, because it was something being projected in real time, and all of it was being created on the spot.

Two small monitors sat on the floor in front of a video camera (they were what was being projected) and one of the two guys was doing something else with another camera and monitor on top of a table. Whatever he was doing is what was being played on the monitors. It's all hard to explain, lots of electronic stuff and electronic noises and feedback and distortion. The images and the sounds reacted and responded to each other, the guys jumped around filming and tweaking and turning knobs.

It was sort of interesting for about ten minutes, at most. Those first ten minutes were spent watching the effects and wondering if maybe concept is following form or form following concept or what, before eventually deciding that in this case both concept and form follow self-indulgence.

Were you there? What happened in the last twenty or thirty minutes that hadn't already happened in the first ten, except maybe for the barely perceptible sound/tone of a little girl's questioning voice that just made me groan and roll my eyes - what did that have to do with any of it?

Most of the people around me were nodding off, checking out the crowd, or fixated on their cellphones - but I'm hoping that someone really liked it and can leave an enthusiastic comment.