Experiential Modifiers

Filed under Game, Walk/Tour, Installation, Performance, projects

Event Information

Artist: Kurt Bigenho
Website: http://www.unfinished.com/projects/2003/em/modifiers.html

Experiential Modifiers is a performative installation where participants can check out and use a wide variety of common objects.

Experiential Modifiers is a performative installation where participants can check out and use a wide variety of common objects. The objects have all been colored a bright, garish uniform pink, and the installation is staffed by a crew of uniformed workers. In essence, the project functions as a lending library of experiences.

My consultants at Experiential Modifiers sit behind the counter and hold a brief consultation with each participant, in order to recommend the most appropriate item. Feeling overheated? Try the portable fan. Tired? The folding chair. Have a headache? Try the ice pack. A desire to nurture? A small potted plant. Have something important to say? The megaphone. Available objects include: an ice pack, a neck pillow, a small collapsible chair, a megaphone, a flag, a large inflatable tube, a potted plant, a remote controlled car, a walkman with Spanish language tape, kneepads, a helmet, a toy wagon, a hula hoop, a large inflatable dolphin, and many more.

To borrow an object, audience members leave a government issued id with one of my consultants. During the debut exhibition in California, the overall effect was playful and contagious. Participants seemed to immediately know what to do and quickly found novel ways to interact with each object and with each other. One woman hula hooped all night. Another took her friend down the street and around the block in the toy wagon. Another drove the remote controlled car around the space, bumping into people’s feet. The effect was as though pink virus had spread through the crowd, encouraging a spirit of play that comingled with, and intruded upon, the official context of the evening (a gallery opening). Visually and spatially, the piece was dispersed and pervasive - little flashes of pink were seen bobbing around the very crowded scene.