[ISEA97] Artist Statement: M.R. Petit — CD-ROM: The Mutant Gene and Tainted-Kool-Aid-Side-Show

Artist Statement

“The Mutant Gene & Tainted Kool-Aid Sideshow” originated in 1992 as multi-media performance extravaganza. It incorporated live and pre-recorded video (displayed through multiple monitors and projectors), animation, text, midi-sequenced and live instrumental music as well as dramatic artifacts and performance elements. The circus began with the psycho-dramatic confession of an extraterrestrial and journeyed into a series of multi-colored, entropic video and musical landscapes. It was staged at various NYC venues.

A complete written description of the performances was published in LEONARDO (The International Society for the Leonardo Arts, Sciences & Technology), The Special Virtual Reality Section, Volume 27, Issue 4.

The technical demands were pretty exhausting and after awhile I thought it would be very nice to take all the elements and bring them together into one teeny tiny transportable disk. So, I compiled everything into a cd-rom. It was released in 1995 and distributed through 1-800-WEIRDOS. [Source: mariannerpetit.com]
Images and animations: mariannerpetit.com/super-early-work/1994-1995-the-mutant-gene

  • Marianne R. Petit (USA) is an interactive multi-media artist and educator. Both her website The Grimm Tale, and her CD-ROM The Mutant Gene & Tainted Kool-Aid Sideshow) have been exhibited in international festivals and exhibits, including: Reinventing The Box at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Montreal International Festival of Cinema & New Media; Espace CD-ROM, DrancyberCulture, (France); New York Exposition of Short Film & Video & Interactive Media; ISEA96 (Netherlands); Thaw ’96, University of Ohio (First Prize) and Thaw ’97. She has been reviewed in a variety of publications, including: World Art Magazine (7/96), Wired Magazine (5/96) and by Donald Kuspit for the FuturelessFuture Exhibit (www.flf.org/FLF). Her collaboration with Jeremy Halpern in The Grimm Show will be presented at the Mixed Messages Festival in October 97, and as a DVD-ROM prototype/installation at Siggraph 97. mariannerpetit.com