For Immediate Release—April 4, 2001

Liminal Media Contact: Bryan Markovitz, 503 890 2993, bryan@liminalgroup.org

Liminal’s ‘Objects for the Emancipated Consumer’ Mixes Multimedia Spy Drama with 360-Degree Interactive Performance

Portland, Oregon—From April 19 to May 19, Portland’s theatre and media ensemble Liminal will present Objects for the Emancipated Consumer, a sci-fi spy drama and 360-degree performance that merges theatre and technology into a unique interactive event. Liminal recently presented its new work at the Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival and will perform it at the Vancouver, BC Performance Biennial this fall. The Portland performance will take place on the top floor of downtown Portland’s historic Dekum Building.

Objects for the Emancipated Consumer tells the frenzied story of six characters as they search for answers to an ambiguous series of past, present and future crimes in a fictitious international airport city. Scenes from the performance’s six episodes run simultaneously as audience members activate sound, video and other media throughout the space to reveal clues about the characters and their crimes. Objects for the Emancipated Consumer allows the audience to customize their own theatre experience and follow any thread of the story that they wish to pick up. Audiences may approach characters to watch scenes up close or stand aside to watch the whole event from a broader perspective.

“Liminal gives you many direct opportunities to choose how you experience our performance,” says Director Bryan Markovitz, “While it is not new to break down the division between performers and audiences, Liminal heightens the impact of this open interaction by giving you access to media and technology that can change and inform the environment.”

Through a blend of surreal situations, intimate live action and cinematic sounds and images, Objects for the Emancipated Consumer brings audiences to the hallucinatory threshold of new performance.

Objects for the Emancipated Consumer
April 19—May 19, 2001, 8:00 pm
The Dekum Building, top floor
519 SW Third Avenue between Washington and Alder, Portland
Tickets: $8 Thursdays, $10 Fridays and Saturdays
Liminal Box Office: 503.229.3979

Liminal is an ensemble of artists collaborating through live performance to discover new disciplines that merge theatre, the fine arts, and multimedia technologies. Our mission is to expand public interaction with performance and engage in critical dialogues about contemporary culture through an ongoing evolution of new work.

Supported by The Allen Foundation for the Arts, Meyer Memorial Trust, H. Naito Properties, STEP Technology.

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Objects for the Emancipated Consumer (2001)

In 2001, Liminal premiered Objects for the Emancipated Consumer at the Seattle Fringe Festival and performed in Portland and in Vancouver, BC, at the DYNAMO Gallery in conjunction with Vancouver’s LIVE Biennial of Performance Art.

Objects for the Emancipated Consumer was an original 360-degree media performance that told a nonlinear story of six characters as they searched for answers to an ambiguous series of crimes. The performance was set in a fictitious international airport terminal where scenes from the performance ran simultaneously as audience members walked through the open space. Audiences participated in the outcome of events by scanning bar-coded objects at the performance’s central “duty-free” shop that triggered interactions between sound and visual media and actors. The performance gave audiences many direct opportunities to choose how to experience the performance. While it is not unusual to break down the division between performers and audiences, Objects for the Emancipated Consumer heightened the impact of the interaction by giving participants access to media and technology that changed and informed their environment.

Objects for the Emancipated Consumer received a 2001 Portland Theatre Critic’s Drammy Award for Best Original Work. Bryan Markovitz directed. Alex Reagan wrote the script in collaboration with the ensemble. John Berendzen created the original sound design. Christoph Saxe programmed. Bryan Markovitz produced slide and video. Cast members included Amanda Boekelheide, Jeff Marchant, Rich Southwick, Jennifer Olson, Georgia Luce and Trent Moore.

©2012 Liminal Performance Group / P.O. Box 40353, Portland, Oregon 97240-0353 / Founded in 1997 / info [at] liminalgroup [dot] org / Join our mailing list.