Behaviouristic Instruments (2010)
Figure 1: Three of five instruments in a portable kit
Behaviouristic Instruments transform people as physical, mental and emotional beings, into instruments that can be played by another individual, be it lover, mother or stranger. Behaviouristic Instruments is a series of objects, an instruction manual and a performance. In collaboration with Steffen Fiedler and Charlotte Jarvis.
Behaviouristic Instruments User’s Guide (PDF)
Figure 2: Live performance
We Play Bodies
We dream of an orchestra of people, each instrument paired with a musician who has carefully learnt to play them. We wonder which people will make the best instruments. Who will emerge as a shrill piccolo, a smooth bassoon, a crude drum, or a wailing cat? Who will make the best players? Will it be the manipulative or the most empathetic amongst us? What is the best technique to play a person? Tenderness, torture or titillation?
Figure 3: Set of Test Cycle 21
Test Cycle 21
This film shows the development process of “Behaviouristic Instruments”: a series of performative music instruments which pick up intrinsic body states such as anciety, happiness and laughter. The short exemplifies the fate of the 21st test subject who volunteered to play a guinea pig for the quality tests within the laboratories of “Behaviouristics Ltd.”.
An abstract dispute with the aesthetics and epistemology of science, laboratory and interface culture. In collaboration with Steffen Fiedler.
Direction: Steffen Fiedler & Ludwig Zeller
Scientist: Leslie Csuth
Test Subject: Kevin Grennan
Camera: Ludwig Zeller
Assistance: Laurentia Genske
Editing: Steffen Fiedler
Sound Recording: Jonas Loh
Sound Design: Ludwig Zeller
Test Cycle 21
Test Cycle 21
Test Cycle 21
Test Cycle 21
Presentations:
Interim Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London
Ron Arad Exhibition, The Barbican, London