Lifeboat proposed multimedia performance as a complex living system. The performative stratosphere included a fully operational biological laboratory and psychological profiling station (contained within an off-shore platform lifeboat), visa and passport processing terminus, web presence and audiovisual broadcast across the Oslo Fjord, and then on Silja Liner “Opera” for ISEA2004 and the ‘Touch Me’ Intelligent Abuse festival, Zagreb Croatia 2005.

The Lifeboat Crew employed protocols both for, and as of a point of departure to “culture” living, semi-living, non-living and the partially living on board the vessel. They devised multi-layered systems as ubiquitous ‘processing operations’, which guided visitors through the real and transformative terms of participation and consequence. The production re-contextualized existing bodies of knowledge of living systems to perform tactical manoeuvres between modes of data, operation and discourse. The complex network of artistic, biological, technological, bureaucratic and political productions discussed the interrelatedness of life on an unprecedented level. The audience examination traces the accumulative Meta culture of socio-biomaterial sustained by Lifeboat to critique the un-locatable and complex nature of ideas and presences of performance across all living systems.

The performance utilized biological, ecological, societal and technological strategies to cultivate a lifeboat state. Crew issued health warnings about DVT: Deep Vein Thinking and the effects of Cell Disassociation as audiences lined up to be ‘processed’. Without question, visitors ‘gave’ their name, address, signature, data-of-birth, occupation, passport photo, and fingerprint, completed a 73 part psychological profiling questionnaire and donated DNA samples in full view of a quad-video surveillance system. The unique ‘profile’ they generated affected a life form assigned to them. Crew assured audiences that they ‘were with them every step of the way’ and their ‘privacy is important to us’. Post performance, visitors were left to ponder their level of engagement – was it symbolic? Was it metaphoric, virtual or worse, an actual system? Lifeboat proposed a new type of live(d) art terrain for all of us.

“When a person is part of a system, he cannot easily see what his role accomplishes…. Unless he understands the system thoroughly, he will not have any inkling of the networks of controls that may or may not exist to keep the flow(s) continuous, adapted to inputs, adapted to outside demands, and stabilized in the face of fluctuations. Odum, 1971

Reviews and Media

• Big Brother (2005) Croatian TV Appearance
• Majda Juric, p., (2005) Vampires, butterflies, sheep, golden girls, semi-living entities and other miraculous encounters, Touch Me festival OutInOpen 08 – 17.09.2005 stara tvornica Badel/ old factory Badel, Zagreb K-021 Catalogue: M12 & Kontenjner, Croatia, pg 19
• Touch Me – artists, Melville, St. Jacques & Jona Touch Me festival OutInOpen 08 – 17.09.2005 (2005) stara tvornica Badel/ old factory Badel, Zagreb K-021 Catalogue: M12 & Kontenjner, Croatia, pg 70 - 73
• Fitzgerald, M., (2004) Giving (Real) Life to Art, TIME Magazine, August 23, pp. 66-67
• Gjerstad, I., (2004) Biologisk kunst pa Oslofjorden, Aftenpoften Idag, (Norway) July 26, pp. 1, 6-7
• Norro, N., (2004) Lifeboat, Cultivating Living Cells & Critical Biological Art, M-Cult (Finland) ISEA 2004 Mag p.7
• McDonald Crowley, A., (2005) New Media Art investment in Australia, ARSIS 3-04 New Media Art and Multi-Media, University Helsinki Press, pp. 26-28
• Pierce, J., (2005) Beyond the Borders of Turing-Land, Experimenta- MESH 17: New Media Art in Australia and Asia, Jan 9 http://www.experimenta.org/mesh/mesh17/pierce_print.htm
• Roudavski, S., (2005) ISEA2004 Layers of Performance, NY Arts Magazine, (US) January/ February 2005 http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/articles.php?aid=886
• Roudavski, S., (2005) International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA) 2004 Layers of Performance, Art Fairs International http://www.artfairsinternational.com/articles/isea_article.html