S Y C A M O R E T H E   L E G A C Y   O F   I N V E N T I O N


Blast Effects and Baby Names:
Images of World War III in Family Magazines, 1945-1951

Sam McBride
DeVry Institute of Technology

Notes and Sources


Notes

[1] Thomas Edison figures prominently not only in Anderson's story, but also in the historical portions of this paper. For an incomplete list of Edison's important inventions and patents, visit the Edison Internet Museum at:
http://www.naples.net/ arzone/invent.htm

The Museum includes photographs and biographical information as well. For fuller biographical information, see:
http://www.minot.com/ mps/edison/edison/edison.html

To view and read information on the laboratory where Edison produced many of his inventions (now a National Historic Site), visit:
http://www.nps.gov/edis/

The laboratory, along with Edison's home and an accompanying museum, is celebrating the 150th anniversary of Edison this year (1997). A photograph of Edison in his laboratory can be seen at:
http://edison-ford-estate.com/ed_bio.htm

The business end of Edison's enterprise developed into General Electric Company, which immortalizes Edison in its online history:
http://www.ge.com/lighting/whoweare1.htm
http://www.ge.com/ibhis5.htm
http://www.ge.com/ibhistae.htm

[2] Tesla's contributions to the development of electrical technologies is traced at the Tesla web site:
http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/ bogdan/tesla/index.htm

A listing of Tesla's patents can be viewed at:
http://www.mall-use.com/BPCS/tesla.html

[3] See the following address for information regarding video documentation of Burden's work:
http://www.234media.com/video_art_edition-eng/CHRIS_BURDEN.html

[4] Of course electricity can be argued as having beneficial effects on the body, ranging from electrical stimulus of muscles and exploration of brain functions (both of which require very low energy levels), to 1950s electric shock therapies for psychological irregularities, to "humane" eradication of convicted felons from the social body; link to the Electric Chair web site at:
http://www.theelectricchair.com//index.htm

This latter use of electricity reconnects with the name of Thomas Edison and the climactic last battle of the "War of the Currents," again pitting Edison against Tesla, his arch-rival inventor, as well as Westinghouse, his arch-rival business. Edison advocated the use of AC power devices (constructed by Westinghouse) as a means of instantly killing convicted murderer William Kemmler, under the assumption the public would not want AC power connected to homes once the public knew AC was used to kill criminals (Silverberg 240-242; Josephson 349). A few years later, however, researchers at Edison's lab discovered a method of producing an anesthetic effect on bodies using low levels of (AC) electricity (Millard 152).

[5] For interviews with Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose, see Andrea Juno's and V. Vale's Bob Flanagan: Supermasochist, as well as:
http://www.echonyc.com/ sandbox/conts/bf02.htm

For images of Flanagan, see:
http://www.oberlin.edu/ consult/jeremy/pix/bobflantext.html
http://www.auroraquanta.com/GALLERY/PAIN/P01.html

[6] For an astute analysis of Flanagan's S/M performance art, see Amelia Jones's "Dis/playing the Phallus: Male Artists Perform Their Masculinities"; Jones reads Flanagan's actions as "anti-phallic" (572-575), in contrast with work by Chris Burden, Vito Acconci, and Yves Klein. Sue-Ellen Case provides a brief but pointed reference to Flanagan's work in The Domain-Matrix, citing his penis-piercing as "an apt image of the patriarchal effects of Euclidean space on the body" (50). A general discussion (not referring to Flanagan) of the position of the body within performance art of a (self-)destructive nature, can be found in Kristine Stiles's "Survival Ethos and Destructive Art."

[7] Flanagan further emphasizes the relationship between electronic technology and the body. In one video installation Flanagan used seven video monitors within a large wooden frame, each corresponding to a body part suspended in a bondage rack: two monitors were positioned next to one another at ground level to represent feet, spread-eagle; three more were positioned vertically to represent the pelvis, torso, and head, with the two last monitors suspended side-by-side above the head to suggest hands, bound to the corners of the rack. Video loops of the appropriate body parts enduring torture were displayed on the monitors.

[8] Readers unfamiliar with Anderson's performance art will gain some sense of its scope and strategies through her book Stories from the Nerve Bible, as well as Jim Davies's Homepage of the Brave at:
http://www.c3.lanl.gov/ jimmyd/new.html

See also the Anderson page at Voyager Company: http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/VgerLa.html

[9] Anderson echoes this sentiment in an interview with Gerry McGovern, available online at:
http://www.nua.ie/about/people/Gerry/Anderson.html

In the same interview, Anderson comments on the relationship between the body and technology.

[10] Holthouse's interview is available online at:
http://www.tweak.com/phonetag/Anderson/

For Anderson interviews focusing on her views on virtual reality systems and the Internet, see:
http://www.3rdword.com/archive/Vol3Iss1/Laurie.html
http://www.hear.com/hollow/feature/anderson.html

Interview in French:
http://www.lemonade.fr/multimedia/sem0896/textes/act08964.html

Interview in Italian:
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/3041/int_ande.htm

[11] Anderson describes much of the technology which surrounds her for the stage set-up of her "Nerve Bible" tour at the Voyager web site:
http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/stage/stage.html

[12] Enjoy Arthur Kroker at his most extensive via his online CV:
http://ctech.concordia.ca/krokers/cv_a.html

For more online Kroker materials, see:
http://acc.jc.edu/ stevenso/kroker.html

[13] See in this regard David Nye's excellent Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology.

[14] Anderson illustrates and describes her "Audio Glasses" on page 223 of Stories from the Nerve Bible.

[15] A photo and drawing of Anderson performing the "Drum Dance" is found in Anderson's Stories from the Nerve Bible (217).

[16] That Anderson's reference to body music suggests a new way of thinking about the body (at least for individuals produced within Western civilization) cannot be overemphasized. My students who see "Drum Dance" (perhaps influenced by MTV) assume Anderson is merely doing a weird dance in time with the pre-existing music; in this regard see the reference to Milli Vanilli in a later section of this paper. My students' assumption suggests they are accustomed to the generic separation of genres and disciplines: musicians use parts of their bodies to make music in association with musical instruments, while dancers use the entire body to perform a dance, to the accompaniment of someone else's music. Anderson's work completely merges the two disciplines: the dance is a musical performance, and the actions which produce music are the dance.

[17] A photograph of Anderson operating the Bodysynth appears on page 171 of Stories from the Nerve Bible. A description (with complete verbal text) of the opening scene of her "Nerve Bible" performance, in which Anderson used the technology, is available through Jim Davies's "Homepage of the Brave" site:
http://www.c3.lanl.gov/ jimmyd/new.html

[18] A brief explanation of Joseph Swan's problems in developing a light bulb can be found at:
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/ eww6n/bios/Swan.html

[19] Read more on Charles F. Brush's contribution to technology at:
http://www.foundrygroup.com/cbrush/

Many of Brush's papers, photographs, plans and drawings are held in the Charles F. Brush Collection, summarized at:
http://www.cwru.edu/UL/MC/BrushSum.html

[20] A brief Wanamaker biography is available at:
http://www.sehs.lane.edu/sehs/infos/menwomen/Wanamake/Wanamake.html

[21] A brief Edison biography centering around the electric light is available online:
http://www.invent.org/book/book-text/38.html

For evidence of Edison's importance in popular culture as the inventor of the electric filament lamp, see the homepage describing the annual celebration of Edison's achievement, the Edison Festival of Lights, held in Edison's home town of Fort Myers, Florida:
http://www.edisonfestival.org/

[22] Online sites where nightshift workers share complaints, health concerns, etc., can be accessed through East Coast Night:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/7685

[23] For the complete lyrics of Home of the Brave, visit:
http://www.c3.lanl.gov/ jimmyd/interpretation/lyrics/hotb.html

[24] In Stories from the Nerve Bible (171) Anderson is depicted testing the lights. Anderson has similarly lighted her body by incorporating lights into objects which normally would not be lit, such as her microphone stand, violin bow, and even her violin itself; see Stories(111, 176). In the conclusion of Home of the Brave, one performer wears an electric light and lampshade as a hat.

Anderson also developed a "light suit," a jacket and pants covered in LEDs, but found the outfit so stiff she was unable to walk in it (see Stories 228). Atsuko Tanaka, a Japanese artist associated with the Gutai group in the late 1950s, also developed an electric "Light Dress" in 1956; the lights incorporated an elaborate switching device making the wearer's body flash like a Christmas tree (Bertozzi 98-99). James Roberts's article "Painting as Performance" includes a photograph of Tanaka's "Dress" (119).

[25] For a photograph illustrating Anderson's lighted mouth, see Stories from the Nerve Bible (174); with her jaw closed tightly but her lips forming a wide smile, Anderson's teeth appear to glow. The photo appears in a chapter appropriately labeled "The Electric Body," which also contains her narrative of the Edison/Tesla conflict.

[26] Consider in this context performance artist and ex porn-star Annie Sprinkle and her use of a lighted speculum to allow spectators to view her cervix (Juno and Vale 23). Amelia Jones's "Interpreting Feminist Bodies" discusses Sprinkle's action. A virtual tour of Sprinkle's cervix can be found at:
http://www.heck.com/sprinkleshow.html

[27] Diamanda Galas's homepage includes photos, biographical information, interview texts, audio clips, a discography, and lots of information regarding her relationship to AIDS:
http://www.sundial.net/ endless/diamanda.shtml

[28] Anderson again used red light, this time in the form of a laser, to associate blood and the body, in some versions of her performance "Stories from the Nerve Bible." Anderson appears on stage with a red beam of laser light shining directly onto the palm of her hand, as she simultaneously speaks a dream-text regarding relatives; Anderson sees herself within the dream connected to her relatives by "this line, this bloodline, . . . this thin line, . . . this tightrope, . . . made of my own blood" (Stories from the Nerve Bible 81; see also the cover of her album Bright Red).

[29] For lengthier descriptions of and reactions to Anderson's "Quartet," see reviews by Sally Banes, Harold Olejarz, and Madeline Burnside.

[30] Anderson's brief description of her experience with the Headlight Glasses (accompanying a photo in Stories from the Nerve Bible [192]) makes clear the performance was as much a danger performance as those of Chris Burden. The glasses were designed as goggles, so that the eyepieces fit tight to her face. As a result Anderson could see nothing as she walked her way off the stage onto a diving board mounted over the orchestra pit.

[31] Philip Monk's "Coming to Speech: The Role of the Viewer in Performance" discusses the viewer as performer in contemporary performance art.

[32] Interestingly enough, Anderson has created such effects using a candle combined with electric light. In her mid-1970s performance "For Instance Part 3 (Refried Beans)," Anderson sat in front of a candle and spoke. An electronic sensor aimed at the flame read its intensity and used that data to vary the intensity of a single spotlight illuminating Anderson and her candle. As Anderson's breath made the candle flicker, the spotlight also flickered (Anderson Stories 114).

[33] The text of "New York Social Life" appears on page 63 of Anderson's Stories from the Nerve Bible; the facing page includes four other Anderson performance texts relating to telephones.

[34] For a photo of "Numbers Runners," see Anderson's Stories from the Nerve Bible(49).

[35] Bell's contribution to the history of the telephone can be traced through the following site:
http://sin2.fi.edu/franklin/inventor/bell.html

Bell is immortalized online almost to the extent that Thomas Edison is; thus one can also experience virtual journeys to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Monument:
http://fortress.uccb.ns.ca/parks/agb_e.html

as well as the Alexander Graham Bell Institute ("dedicated to the memory of . . . his work"): http://bell.uccb.ns.ca/#bell1 and AT&T's online celebration of Bell's 150th birthday (in 1997; be sure to "watch Bell & Watson do their victory dance" in Quicktime format):
http://www.att.com/agbell/

For more straightforward historical information on the telephone's development, visit The Telephone History Web Site:
http://www.cybercomm.net/ chuck/phones.html

[36] Emile Berliner's contribution to human civilization is examined at the web site of the MusČe des Ondes Emile Berliner:
http://www.contact.net/berliner

[37] Avital Ronell's The Telephone Book examines this technology as a model for disembodied presence, centering a discussion around Watson and his phone-side vigil awaiting Bell's first telephone call.

[38] The lack of visual data for telephone transmissions, however, has not prevented the proscription of certain phenomena while communicating telephonically. Web sites focusing on "telephone etiquette" include:
http://donrichard.com/jobfair/articles/art15.htm
http://www.saleshelp.com/phone.htm
http://compro-dakota.com/html/service.html

[39] Access the dozens of sites dedicated to U2 (including several relating to the "ZooTV" phenomenon) at:
http://www.unfurled.com/ultimate_artists/u2/index.html

[40] Learn more about "Prof. Dr. Wubbo Ockels" (note the variance from Anderson's spelling, which is used within my paper) at:
http://www.xs4all.nl/ wubbo/frame-spaans.html

As an extra treat, read his description of floating in microgravity at:
http://www.estec.esa.nl/nsewww/moving.htm

[41] Neil Postman provides a more intellectual version of this argument in Technopoly. Considering Postman's argument in the book, which is essentially oppositional toward technology's apparent invasion of human lives, the number of web sites centering around his work is surprising. See, for example, a site discussing Postman's presentation at the Nieman Foundation Technology Seminar:
http://www.neiman.harvard.edu/Nieman/npost.html

Also see book reviews of Technopoly at:
http://www.west.net/ insight/london/postman.htm
http://charon.sfsu.edu/Postman/NeilPostmans

[42] Detailed information on the history of the telegraph is available through the Telegraph and Scientific Instrument On-Line Cyber-Museum at:
http://www.chss.montclair.edu/psychology/perera/telegraph.html

as well as the Telegraph Lore site:
http://www.cris.com/ Gsraven/index.shtml

[43] Furthermore, the telegraphic message decoder was required to use his aural rather than visual sense to decode the message, but then was required to translate the message into visual hand writing.

[44] Anderson narrates her entry into a record contract with Warner Bros. in Stories from the Nerve Bible (155).

[45] For a survey of Anderson's commercially released albums, see:
http://www.roughguides.com/rock/entries/LAURIE_ANDERSON.html

[46] Sites focusing on antique phonographs include the Antique Phonograph Gallery:
http://www.inkyfingers.com/Record.html

as well as the following site focusing on antique records and their machines:
http://www.garlic.com/ tgracyk/

[47] If by chance this particular cultural reference eludes you, visit one of the many "Mary had a little lamb" web sites:
http://www.lds.npl.com/special/teachers/relations/mary.html
http://www.tbdesign.com/MarynLamb.html
http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/asu/edtech/asdf95/lessons/exer04.txt
http://138.87.151.50/English/Hypertext/Hoeniges/NurseryWWW/LittleLamb.html

[48] For information concerning, and audio clips from, Edison's early recordings, see The Edison Shop:
http:/www.enter.net/ edisonshop/index.htm

See also the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ars/ars.html

[49] Berliner's contribution to audio recording technology is assessed at sites maintained by RCA and EMI record companies:
http://www.rca-electronics.com/story/later.asp
http://www.cac.org.uk/m100/emihist.html

[50] A web site focusing specifically on Gramophones and their recordings is the American Gramophone and Wireless Company:
http://members.aol.com/AGW1886/index.html

[51] Examine Homer's place in culture at:
http://www.proeuropa.org

[52] An audio clip of Caruso, with accompanying biographical information, is available at:
http://www.classicalmus.com/artists/caruso.html

[53] Read about Eldridge Johnson's first recording at:
http://www.garlic.com/ tgracyk/johnson.htm

[54] Caruso recorded with the Victor company from 1904 until his death in 1921, recording "Vesta" at least four times (Scott 269). Caruso's first recordings, however, were either in 1900 for the Pathe and Anglo Italian Commerce companies (Freestone and Drummond 1-2), or in 1902 for the Gramophone and Typewriter Company (Scott 56-57, 299n2); the latter company paid Caruso £100 to sing 10 arias over a two-hour period in a modified-hotel-room recording studio. During Caruso's 19 or 21 year recording career, he is reported to have netted himself $2 million and his record companies $4 million (Scott 57). RCA continued to make a profit from Caruso's voice into the 1970s and 80s, releasing several hundred arias on about 20 LPs as "The Complete Caruso" (Scott 292). CD re-releases (and further profits) have appeared in recent years.

[55] Anderson describes her "Jukebox" in Stories from the Nerve Bible (56-59). For descriptions and reactions, see reviews by Johnson, O'Grady, Barracks and Frank.

[56] CD purchases can, of course, be accomplished over the Internet:
http://weber.u.washington.edu/ neile/EctoGuide/anderson.laurie.html

[57] Anderson's Warner Bros. site is at:
http://www.iuma.com/warner/music/Anderson_Laurie

[58] A gendered reading of technology within society is the focus of Judy Wajcman's Feminism Confronts Technology.

[59] Of course, this could have been done before by playing Paul's accompaniment from one tape deck while recording it and the singer's voice on a separate deck; this was generally not done in the age of analog recording, however, because of the "noise" and diminished sound quality which would be introduced into the recording (the accompaniment would be a "second generation," a copy of a reproduction of a performance, and therefore poorer quality than the voice, a "first generation," or merely a reproduction of a performance).

[60] The duet albums are discussed, along with most of Sinatra's solo recordings, at the International Sinatra Society site:
http://www.sinatraclub.com/

[61] Find Natalie Cole's official web site at:
http://www.elektra.com/randb_club/cole/cole.html

[62] Access a surprisingly large number of sites dedicated to Mike Oldfield and his music at:
http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/1147/

[63] The Wendy Carlos web site includes a biographical sketch, photo archive, and a discography:
http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/wendy/

[64] Carlos's "Switched On Bach" album is positioned within audio recording history at:
http://arts.ucsc.edu/EMS/Music/music/landmarks/carlos.html

[65] See also the opening section of part two of Philip Auslander's Presence and Resistance for a discussion of recordings as "originals" and live performances as "copies."

[66] Believe it or not, there remain fans of Milli Vanilli who maintain a web site at:
http://www.eki.com/products/mv/milli.html

[67] Opera information is available (as well as a link to a site titled "A Brief History of Singing") at:
http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/1835/

[68] Siemens provides an online company history:
http://www.siemens.de/infoshop/150_cd/business

The company is celebrating "150 years of Siemens" in 1997.

[69] For one of many Paula Abdul homepages, none of which support my contention that Abdul possesses a particularly weak voice, see her official Virgin Records site at:
http://www.virginrecords.com/artists/VR.cgi/ARTIST_NAME=Paula_Abdul

[70] "Stereo Song for Steven Weed" was one of the songs appearing on Anderson's "Jukebox." That installation included photographic and textual documentation. A copy of the "Steven Weed" documentation appears on page 58 of Anderson's Stories from the Nerve Bible; the photo superimposes two images to show Anderson, Janus-like, facing two opposite directions, speaking into two separate microphones.

[71] The loudspeaker combined with the phonograph has further impacted control over and freedom of bodies. With the loudspeaker's ability to project music at high volume, bodies can now feel recorded music as well as see it, at least until the amplifier blows. This technology gives bodies the "freedom" to cause their ears physical harm by enjoying loud recorded music (and several recording artists, including Diamanda Galas, have encouraged such actions by including messages such as "Play at maximum volume" on their disks). Combine the phonograph (and its descendants, various forms of tape recorders/players) with the intercom and large numbers of bodies can now be soothed and/or stimulated via recorded music. In the work place, employees' bodies can be made more productive by pouring into their ears scientifically selected musical sequences (Muzak) which motivate them to higher productivity levels (Eisenberg 79; see also Jacques Attali's assessment of Muzak as "castrated" music). Simultaneously, consumers can be urged to conformity via low-volume recorded voice messages layered over scientifically selected musical sequences; those messages can urge bodies' minds to control their bodies by not shoplifting or by purchasing product X (on sale now in the Electronics Department where one of Edison's electric light bulbs is flashing in a blue plastic housing).

[72] For commercial versions of the pillow speaker, see the B and H Commercial Services site:
http://www.b-n-h-comm-serv.com/health.html

[73] According to Anderson's response to a question within an online conversation, the "Handphone Table" remains operational; see:
http:/www.c3.lanl.gov/ jimmyd/other/online3.html

[74] For images of "the dummy," see Stories from the Nerve Bible (88, 247, 248). Watch a video clip at:
http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/puppet/pupmo.html.

A review of Puppet Motel is available at:
http://www.macchicago.com/Articles/PuppetMotel.html

[75] Biographical information, photographs and sound clips of Bergen/McCarthy dialogues are available at "The Woodpecker's Pin-Up Boy" homepage:
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/5501/index.html

[76] The Radio History Society can be accessed online at:
http://www.radiohistory.org/

Also see the Radio Days site, which emphasizes early radio programming: wysiwyg://234/http://www.otr.com/

[77] The homepages of Westinghouse Electric Company refer briefly both to the founding of KDKA and to the rivalry with Edison. In Westinghouse's version, George Westinghouse plays the role of protagonist, with the help of Nikola Tesla:
http://www.westinghouse.com/corp/hist/his_001.htm
http://www.westinghouse.com/corp/hist/his_002.htm
http://www.westinghouse.com/corp/hist/his_009.htm

[78] Sales of pianos, sheet music, and even phonographs declined significantly in the early 1920s (Millard 304). For an extensive analysis of the massive social changes brought about by the rapid development of radio, see Douglas.

[79] Edison also deserves credit for creating the kinetoscope in 1892, a device for viewing films he had created with a special camera; the kinetoscope was not a projector, however, but a box into which a viewer would look, an arcade experience which came to be called a "peep show." Edison's device is also credited with bringing about the 35mm film-width standard (McNeil 741-742). For information on early "talking pictures," see:
http://www.astc.org/astc/info/exhibits/dtalk.htm

[80] Two worthwhile Al Jolson sites exist. One is the Al Jolson Society:
http://www.internexus.co.uk/users/davidhamer/default.html

The other is AJ Recordings:
http://www2.ari.net/ajr/recs/

[81] A student-oriented site centering around "The Jazz Singer" as a cultural phenomenon can be accessed at:
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/ nick/e309k/texts/jazzsinger/jazzsinger.html

For an excellent general history of the film medium, see:
http://www.gen.umn.edu/faculty_staff/yahnke/film/cinema1.htm

[82] While my focus here is on movies affecting bodies, a converse relationship is equally analyzable. Movies are rarely more than two hours in length (and longer movies are generally provided with "intermissions," which are unnecessary, of course, in terms of giving the performers' bodies a rest) in part because movie maker's assume that's about the maximum length of time an entertained body can sit still.

[83] Stills of Keaton's "clones" can be seen at:
http://movieweb.com/movie/multiplicity/index.html.

[84] Visuals of Mills performing her two roles in The Parent Trap can be viewed at:
http://www.disney.com/DisneyChannel/shows/ParentTrap/_index.html

[85] For pictorial examples of Anderson interacting bodily with the projected light of the film medium, see her Stories from the Nerve Bible (52, 112-113). Also, of course, see her film, Home of the Brave.

Anderson performed the opposite gesture for "At the Shrink's," a 1975 installation involving a film of Anderson projected on a small clay model of her; the result is a 3D virtual image of Anderson (or in her words, a "fake hologram").

[86] In this regard, see Johannes Birringer's "Overexposure: Sites of Postmodern Media" in Theatre, Theory, Postmodernism. Birringer reads Jean Baudrillard as asserting no distinction between representation and reality.

[87] For a description of Anderson's 1984 experience on the Letterman show, see Stories from the Nerve Bible (68). Anderson provides a similar description of her appearance on the "Tonight" show, along with the script of her brief performance on the show, at:
http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/west/los/los.html

[88] Some historical information, including photographs of early television technology, is accessible via The National Museum of Photography, Film and Television:
http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/nmpft/

[89] A site paying tribute to Barbara Eden makes clear the use of her body within the show, particularly the furor surrounding her costume and the censor's refusal to allow her belly button to show:
http://members.aol.com/edenfanmag/private/edenbio.htm

See also the "I Dream of Jeannie" page:
http://www.idreamofjeannie.com/

[90] For an intriguing reading of the 1950s as an era of idiosyncratically powerful female stars, see Patricia Mellencamp's "Situation Comedy, Feminism, and Freud." Mellencamp argues that while performers such as Lucille Ball and Gracie Allen appeared "ditzy" on screen, they often used their craziness (within their shows' storylines) as a mechanism for appropriating power, and in addition the two (Ball in particular) played important off-screen roles in the production of their shows.

[91] Margaret Morse analyzes the impact of television on the concept of "the news" as it relates to the bodies who function as news "anchors" in "The TV News Personality and Credibility." For images of Anderson functioning as TV newscaster/commentator, see her Stories from the Nerve Bible (150-151).

Television's use of bodies is occasionally satirized in the work of video artist Nam June Paik, particularly his "TV Bra for Living Sculpture," two miniature televisions attached to the breasts of cellist Charlotte Moorman, a frequent Paik collaborator. This work, too, can qualify as a "danger" performance. After taking off the TV Bra during a performance of Paik's "Opera Sextronique," Moorman was convicted of indecency in a 100,000 word court decision declaring that though nudity was accepted within the realm of art history, there was no recognized tradition of topless music (see Moorman's "An Artist in the Courtroom"). For images of the Paik/Moorman "TV Bra," see:
http://www.earthchannel.com/gallery/jud/jud01.htm

A biographical sketch of Moorman can be found at:
http://sevenarts.voicenet.com/paik-links.html

In addition, an intriguing homepage on Paik, titled "Electronic Zen," is found at:
http://www.earthchannel.com/gallery/jud/jud201.htm

[92] The text of this piece, titled "I Hate TV," is printed on page 243 of Stories from the Nerve Bible.

[93] The Ampex Company historicizes itself at:
http://www.ampex.com/html/company_history.html

[94] Thanks to digitization techniques, moving images from portable video cameras can be accessed through the Internet. Several of Anderson's "Green Room" sites (postings she made in 1995 while touring her "Nerve Bible" performance) illustrate the capability of providing images of moving bodies on the World Wide Web. See, for example:
http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/east/pur/pur.html
http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/west/van/van.html
http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/west/brk/brk.html
http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/euro/dub/dub.html

[95] Victor Scardigli, in "Toward Virtual Man?," suggests electronic data storage devices (such as the video camera), by "dismissing memory from the brain," will "free our neurons for new functions" (182).

[96] A brief description of Anderson's "Sharkey's Day" is available at:
http://www.panix.com/ kitchen/VideoCatalog/Titles/SharkeysDay.html

[97] "Sharkey's Day" appears on Anderson's Collected Videos. Visual documentation of the video is included in Stories from the Nerve Bible (221-222). For further technical examination of the video, see Taylor, as well as Goodman.

[98] "What You Mean We?" reconnects Anderson with television, since the video was designed for the PBS "Alive from Off Center" show in its second season (1986); Anderson and the clone then hosted the series the following year. Several of the clone videos were later included on her Collected Videos. Anderson provides pictures and texts from the original video, as well as an intriguing discussion of the video's production, in her Stories from the Nerve Bible(85-86).

[99] There are, of course, too many Michael Jackson web sites, including several which reference "Black and White." Most can be accessed through:
http://fred.net/mjj/

[100] Link to Judith Butler web sites at:
http://bubblemouth.pathfinder.com/altculture/aentries/j/juxbitler.html
http://www.aad.berkeley.edu/95journal/VincentCheng.html

[101] Birringer, in a book on postmodernism and contemporary performance (chapter 11), notes the role of the body within performance shifted simultaneously with the global commodification of electronic media.



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Référence: http://www.unc.edu/sycamore/97.3/electron-notes.html