FADO is pleased to present Tagny Duff's << Public Web >> project as part of the ongoing Public Spaces/Private Places Series.

<< Public Web >> is a performance provocation and interactive audio tour that places the audience in the role of performer and explorer. Wearing portable headphones and guided by the transmitted voice of the artist, participants will tour various destinations in the downtown core. A sculptural apparatus will connect a group of up to ten participants together for an intimate journey exploring various physical and virtual entry points into the space between the public and private.

<< Public Web > > is an interactive tour based on the model of constructive hypertext, offering the possibility for the audience/participant to create, change and recover particular encounters with the developing body of knowledge. Participants are given the opportunity to navigate through the city landscape while co-authoring a performance experience.

Wearing headsets with mics, individuals in the tour group communicate via a single channel radio transmitter. The tour group is held together by an apparatus consisting of nylon straps and plastic snaps allowing for participants to detach from the group at any moment, if they so choose. Performative gestures and conversations are undertaken by the group that in turn prompt the tour to navigate through one site to the next, resulting in a unique narrative/experience for every tour.

The artist's voice offers the participants a variety of destination points and actions to be selected by the tour group. The artist follows the group unseen, wearing camouflaged radio surveillance gear. Ultimately, the tension between the artist's ability to remote control the tour and the group's decision-making ability (or inability) exposes the subtle complexities and agencies of influence inherent in the notions of "navigation", "consensus" and "interactivity".

Images taken from video documentation of one of the Toronto tours on November 3, 2000.



Videographer: Paul Couillard.

ARTIST STATEMENT

<< Public Web >> is an interactive tour that navigates through downtown Toronto. The performance tour is designed as a constructive hypertext model, offering the possibility for the audience/participant to create, change and recover particular encounters with a developing body of knowledge. In << Public Web >> participantsare given the opportunity to navigate through the city landscape while co-authoring a performance experience.

Wearing headsets with mics, individuals in the tour group communicate via single channel radio transmitters. The tour group is held together by an apparatus consisting of nylon straps and plastic snaps. The artist's/designer's voice will offer a variety of destination points and actions to be selected by the tour group. Group consensus will determine which actions and directions are to be taken. Performative gestures and conversations will also be undertaken by the group that in turn prompt the tour to navigate through one site to the next, resulting in a unique narrative/experience for every tour.

This performance questions both the limitations and possibilities of "interactive" navigation in the physical realm. Some other questions rasied are: is consensus an effective model of decision making when groups are presented with multiple "options" for action, how is our experience and perception of the city and the body changed by utilizing a constructive model of navigation, and finally, how does the apparatus affect and transform the behaviour of the individual, the group and the incidental audience?

Thanks to Jen Small, Paul Couillard, FADO, Tim and Peter, The Scadding Community Cafe, 7a*11d, Samantha and Elyps, volunteers and participants.