The Center Cannot Hold is a continuously evolving political film presented as a performance of audiovisual narratives in a live mixing event. Specific Electric performs this “Live Cinema” piece with an array of digital equipment that allows the real-time editing and remixing of scenes, sounds and samples. Created with a flexible open architecture, the project is designed with mobility and cultural interaction in mind, where each performance is considered an opportunity to integrateand reflect culture-specific narratives in the mix.
The group’s Live Cinema performances feature scripted narratives much like the beats of a film or set list of a band. This figurative and semi-structured flow merges with improvisation and abstraction techniques resembling those of jazz, montage, and mash-ups. The three members of Specific Electric re-combine their video and audio to create an immersive, provocative live event that critically addresses subjects as globalization, media saturation, consumerism and corporatization.
In order that the project narrative remains fresh and relevant to its audience, collaborations with local artists are sought out for each performance. As collaboration networks are built, music, animation, video, information designs re-combine to create a hybrid media language in flux.
Artists featured in the current mix include: Saul Williams, DJ Spooky, Shepard Fairey (Obey Giant), The Barnstormers, D-Fuse, Happy, [sic], PanOptic, and Daniel Perlin.
Past performance:
• July 19, 2005 PIRINEOS SUR World Music and Arts festival in the north of Spain.
• October 23, 2004. IX Festival Internacional Madrid Sur in Leganes.
The Center Cannot Hold features a continuing call to artists worldwide with an interest to have their work mixed into this broad cinematic narrative: Animation, Video, Film, Music, and Samples welcome.
Below are links to performance video samples, thumbnail screenshots, and press:
For booking, submissions or questions, email: thecenter[at]sic[dot]ph
