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Hiatus

Ericka Beckman

1999 00:30:00 United StatesEnglishColorStereo4:3

Description

Madi plays an interactive on-line computer game in the privacy of her apartment. Wearing a computer corset that stores her programs in a "Garden Interface", she propels her go-go cowgirl construct WANDA through the game world, encountering an assortment of logged-on players and game identities who trick and confuse her. An aggressive male character WANG logs on, and inserts his cold architecture into her coordinates, draining the power in her corset. His expanding architecture threatens to overtake her Garden Reservoir. To confront this powerful take-over artist, she must rely on her organic memory and is forced to establish some psychological boundaries to protect her identity and preserve her freedom.

Support for Hiatus has come from the National Endowment for the Arts, and New York State Council on the Arts. The computer model was created with technical support from Advanced Visual Systems, Waltham, Massachusetts and DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), in Nashua, New Hampshire.

This title is only available on e-(d)entity.

About Ericka Beckman

 

Ericka Beckman’s experimental films include We Intimate (1978), We Break-Up (1978), The Broken Rule (1979), Out of Hand (1981), You the Better (1983), Cinderella (1986), and Switch Center (2001). Blind Country (1989), a collaborative video project made with Mike Kelley, has games and role playing at its core. Hiatus (1999), a video, is a game construct combining animation and in-camera effects with a contemporary “strung out on the ‘net’” story. She has shown extensively in museums and festivals worldwide.