This original, interdisciplinary work of action-based theater was performed over four weekends, from October 28 until November 21, 2004 at the Viaduct Theater in Chicago. It integrated video, light, electronic music and sound and was the result of a collaborative effort between Plasticene's actors, designers, and director. In part, an experiment in live performance of electronic music and sound in the context of theater through technology that was engineered and built by Robb Drinkwater, Robb Drinkwater, my fellow sound faculty member at the School of Art Institute of Chicago.
The Perimeter was an exploration of how central power exerts its influence at the geographical and human edges of authority. 
Its stories and images are based in part on recent events, such as the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal, and our research of diverse academic and literary resources, among them the Stanford Prison Experiment, and J.M. Coetzee's novel, Waiting For the Barbarians. 
The Perimeter was directed by Sharon Göpfert, and performed by Mark Comiskey, Luis Crespo, Tere Parkes, Brian Shaw, and Nana Shineflug, with lighting design by Carrie Kennedy, recorded and real-time video projections by Stephan Mazurek, costumes by Camilla Ha, assistant direction by Michael Macias, and stage management by Leigh Barrett. 
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Chicago Sun-Times theater critic, Hedy Wiess wrote, "No other theater company in this city approaches story-telling in the same way as Plasticene...no other ensemble draws its audience into the story telling with quite the same ferocity and strange sense of exhilaration.". 
Much of the music I created was loop based, performed on my laptop using samples derived from both acoustic "concrete" and electronic sources. The predominant concrete sounds are from the South American berimbau, feedback recorded through PVC pipes, and field recordings made in the Blackwell Forest Preserve at dusk. The sounds of wind were synthesized with Robb's "wind generator" Max/MSP patch. All of this was played through a five-channel surround playback system.
Two MP3 audio samples can be heard here on my "composer and performer" page.
The sensor technology was developed with a custom built USB controller (originally, a joystick controller), handmade sensors, and software built in Max/MSP. Max/MSP, developed by Cycling 74, is a graphical programming environment for computer combined control of MIDI and digital audio. It is available for both Mac and Windows platforms and is used by a diverse community of people working in interactive media and sound. 
Nina Metz wrote about the sensor technology, sound, and thematic development last month in the Chicago Tribune (632k download). The Perimeter received a critics' choice in the Chicago Reader and was reviewed on Chicagonoise.net
Plasticene was founded in 1995 and has produced eleven original works since then. Plasticene receives partial support from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, The Illinois Arts Council (a state agency), The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Alphawood Foundation, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, The Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelly Foundation, The Kaplan Family Foundation, our Board of Directors, as well as the support of many generous individuals.
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