Strobophobic!

>>The risk and reward of Kurt Hentschläger’s intense installation FEED

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Audio-visual artist Kurt Hentschläger first came to the notice of the Mirror when his installation piece FEED, a reprise of which opens the Elektra fest this year, sent a former colleague to the hospital with a seizure. The 15-minute piece blends 3D animation, strobe lights and fog machines with noisescapes that run into the sub-low frequencies. The overall effect is to play with the brain’s perception of spatial surroundings, with a final surrender to the piece resulting in abstract and defined imagery that will differ with each observer. The Mirror reached this New York-based Austrian by phone in Chicago as he took time out from finalizing an installation piece.

Mirror: You have made audiences sign a waiver, warning of the chance of incurring photosensitive epilepsy, and even include first-aid attendants in the audience. Have there been a lot of recorded cases of people having seizures at your shows?

Kurt Hentschläger: Well, there have only been four cases—that would represent well less than one per cent of the people that have viewed the piece. One of the cases was a 25-year-old woman who could not identify her sister and her boyfriend for three minutes directly after the show, and a young man in Poland who was frozen to his seat once the piece was over. Oddly, these four people were tested at the hospital for photosensitive epilepsy and were all released with a diagnosis that they were not photosensitive.

M: It kind of gives your piece that air of when ’50s B-movie director William Castle would fit cinema seats with shock buzzers for The Tingler, and would make audiences sign waivers that he could not be held accountable if people would die of fright when watching the film.

KH: (laughs) Well, unfortunately, I can’t really rule out people that come to the show wanting some sort of thrill. I now have to live with this parallel culture that I am not really appreciating, but I have come to embrace. I feel some responsibility to the show and these cases I mentioned earlier are something I don’t like to take lightly. Most people find the piece ends in a very peaceful and almost very meditative state, and most people who leave the show are usually in a very excited state, smiling and in a really good mood.

At Usine C from Wednesday,
May 7 to Saturday, May 10,
11 p.m. (11:59 p.m. on May 10),
$25, limited capacity