Brood-X
"Brood X", 2004 - video/sound performance
Steve Bradley & John Sturgeon
Teatro ARKA, InterAzoni XVII, Assemini, Sardinia
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”.
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.
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.


Esperanto
a conveyance
a collaborative performance in three (3) Acts:
© 2004 Bradley, Payens, Sturgeon
“ESPERANTO”
I. Bradley / Sturgeon 17 years, “Before…”
II. Payens
III. “Esperanto” Bradley / Payens / Sturgeon “
STAGE: remains the same for all three Acts but used for different functions in each. Center Stage – a Box or “house” shaped box made of a scrim or folio for projecting video images onto, with a lightweight frame (easy to set up and break apart).
Bradley - sound mixing station
Sturgeon has video digitizing station and performance (decoding) area
Payens has Box-house, plus Act II
