“We Machines” is a live audiovisual performance score written and performed by Benton C Bainbridge, Philip R. Bonner, Jonathan Giles, Andrew Koontz, and Chad Strohmayer at Experimental Television Center in 1990. The piece is also known as “3 Machines” – so named for the 3 sections which are mechanistically determined. Since all 5 visual performers appear on camera and run all the gear in the studio, it was necessary to intercut a malfunctioning vacuum cleaner to allow time for the group to switch positions.
- Section A (first part): Jones Sequencer audio triggered cuts between 8 live video sources
- Section B (repeated 6 times) begins and ends with the starting and stopping of a dying shop vac
- Section C (iterated 5 times – once each for the 5 artists) is an on-camera snack break
“We Machines” is collected on the ETC DVD box set, available from Electronic Arts Intermix
“We Machines” is in the “ETC: Experimental Television Center Archives” at Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell University Library.
