Brood-X
"Brood X", 2004 - video/sound performance
Steve Bradley & John Sturgeon
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Teatro ARKA, InterAzoni XVII, Assemini, Sardinia
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live simulcast – North Italian television
© 2004 Bradley/Sturgeon - sound mix, with video and spoken text


The performance featured live performance and sound creations, with projected video and sound recordings of an infestation of cicada that had been underground in dormant form for the last 17 years – the “17 Year Cicada”.
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The performed text (Sturgeon) was manipulated by (Bradley) live and mixed with our audio recordings of cicada. The text featured a list of events, things, phenomena that have come into being during these 17 years. Global situations that been wrought by events over this period - both good and bad (Chernobyl, The Berlin Wall coming down, Internet - global communication technologies, Iraq Wars, fall of the Soviet Union, etc.). Video images of the 17-year Cicada were projected onto Sturgeon's white lab coat, as he performs the 17-year text, while climbing a very tall ladder – step by step – one year at a time.
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These cicada (as insect pupa) are growing under the ground during this time period (17 years, or since 1987) and upon emergence - function within the piece as tangible evidence for - Memory, data storage, or as embodiment of global events, serving metaphorically as symbols for our latent "Conscience" - or, as nature’s "Witness" to some degree. The title, "Brood X", refers to the name given to this particular group witnessed in the Baltimore area during the early summer of 2004.
