Vexata Quasetico was two hour, audience-driven, internet performance on Tuesday, 3 June 1997. The performance was at the Aronoff Center for Design and Architecture and <http://www.daap.uc.edu/vexed/>, incorporated Nam June Paik's video wall and was viewed by aproximately 100 people at the center and 160 people over the internet. The performance took place in a 30' by 40' maze made from eight-foot tall pannels. The artists, Dave Solko and Patrick Mills, navigated thorugh the maze based only on the input received from the internet audience. The artists received commands from a webpage whose contents were determined by input from buttons on the performance's site.

Vexata Quasetica was a performance that both took advantage of the internet as a medium and parodied it. We found an unusual fixation with "live" images of everything form someone's aquarium, to street corners. We also found a large number of sites that allowed you to control robotic arms and throw digital snowballs. It was, in part, our intention to parody these sites.

Moreover, Vexata Quasetica was an attempt to explore the possibilities of the medium, the issues of control and the loss of indivuality. While it may have appeared to the audience that we were the objects of their control, they were also objects being controled. In one sense, the artists were 'mice in a maze' -- for lack of a better term. While this is true from the point of view of the audience, if one were to more closely examine the issue, the artists were also automotons or robots. If the performance is looked at from this point of view, the artists have no ability to make decisions, but only move on command, and the audience who is controling us are the 'mice in a maze.' They are the ones who are making the decisions and navigating the maze in search of the elusive piece of cheese. This element of 'mice in a maze' was echoed in the website itself. The internet audience had to follow a path of dots to find the one that was a hyperlink to pages further in the site and the performance itself.

We also explored the loss of indivuality. Both Patrick and Dave were dressed in identicle environmental suits, similar to those used by hi-tech firms in dust-free environments. We had essentially lost all identity and individuality. When we met in the maze (this occured five times) we ignored each other and passed by as if the other didn't exist. We were navigating the maze alone, despite the inclusion of others in the maze. Similarly, one navigates the internet in isolation, despite the thousands of others simultaneously navigating.

We found it interesting that the audience often tried to run us into the walls of the maze. This could be assesed to two possibilities: The direction commands were based on our previous position, or the audience, realizing that they were acting in ananonymity, felt justified in trying to cause as much chaos as they could. Since the artists only moved once a minute, I doubt the former is the reason for this behaviour, but rather, the latter. It is possible to draw interesting, albeit limited, parallels between this performance and the research done by Stanley Milgram in his 'Obedience to Authority Studies.' While his participants were under the pressure of an authority figure to inflict painful shocks to an anonymous person who could be heard screeming, only one refused. Obviously, the situation in our performance was very different, but had a similarity in that the people in control were completely anonymous. The audience was free to act as they wished, but apperently, couldn't resist the temptation to see if they could be run the actors into a wall and possible inflict damage to the environment. It did seem that the audience quickly bored of this when they discovered the actors would just stand in front of a wall if their forward movement was impeeded.

Overall, I would consider the performance a success. There were a few technical glitches that affected the experience of the secondary audience, those physically present (The performence was located in a way that there were no computers available that would allow an audience member to simultaneously see the maze in its physical environment and command the actors digitally.) I feel the turnout was near what was anticipated. We knew that UC's internet communications would be overloaded by our performance, thus limiting the audience size. I found it

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