Directing
The Surrealist, "Exquisite Corpse" was a French Café parlor game. "Exquisite Moving Corpse" is more of an artist chain letter. 60 artists participated over a two-year period, beginning in March 2020. Each invited artist made a one minute video in response to the last frame of the previous minute.
Involuntary Reception is a double-imaged, double-edged report from a young woman lost in the telecommunications ether. Possessing extraordinary electrical forces — a surging EPF (electro-magnetic pulse field) — she self-broadcasts her unique experience of the world. Appearing as a somewhat tragic spirit, the character, played by Lucas, is quarantined from physical contact and yet always at risk of contamination from the multitudinous signals of our digital age. Lucas investigates the substance, the very electricity of communication. Her performance engages the viewer in a critical yet witty musing on the construction of self and the experience of desire in an era of information overload.
This mock virtual environment is a playground for the imagination. Equipped with helmet, goggles, and a basic understanding of early video game strategies, the artist morphs into an adventureland training camp where she meets with media icons and common ground. She fearlessly changes her intensity and velocity in unison with, and at times under the command of, rival action-heroes and network sponsors. The title implies that there are bugs in the program, undetected viruses in the system. This video performance parallels the heightened sense of anxiety synonymous with computer games, amplifying a "fear of contamination" to a level that borders on insanity.
Lucas states: "In this video, I participate in an on-line therapy session directed by the system operator of a streetside multi-media kiosk. As I indulge in a virtual conversation about a troublesome relationship, the session instantly becomes an amalgamation of daytime television and tabloid, wherein the surveillance camera becomes the eye of the media."
Predates the launch of the first public internet browser and imagines everyday life transformed by access to the information superhighway through a makeshift router/loT device. Recorded on Hi-8 and Super 8 film.
Writes Lucas: "Cable Xcess is a public service announcement/infommercial which informs viewers about the consequences of long term exposure to electromagnetic fields. I perform as both spokesperson and case study, transmitting a pirate broadcast through my body (body as satellite), educating viewers about early signs of exposure, and sharing alternative methods for coping with contamination."
In these short episodes, created while she was in Japan, Lucas is seen within a playful yet alienating landscape of global pop culture and consumerism. Snatches of radio mix with video games and sales pitches on the soundtrack, as we catch Lucas's image, distorted by surveillance cameras or fragmented by the odd angles of electronics store display monitors. In each episode, the human body threatens to recede beyond visibility, submerged in a hissing, buzzing tide of media saturation.
Background Story continues Lucas' ongoing examination of the isolating and disorienting effects of electronic media on contemporary life. Using Amazon's Mechanical Turks program, which connects employers with an anonymous labor pool to complete jobs referred to as "HITs" (Human Intelligence Tasks), Lucas and her collaborator/employee create a self-reflexive rewrite of the creation story, using text and fair use background images.
