The performers of DesktopBAM a live performance piece unveiled in 2010, are not the 2-man team exonemo. After the software was activated by the artists, they left the stage at which time the viewers became mesmerized by an automated performance displayed on the screen above them. When the performance came to an end, the artists re-emerged, complimented the computer with a ‘job well done,’ and thus the performance became a legend. After that performance, the work was developed as an installation piece. This time represents the second performance of the work as part of the first long-term exhibition.
In DesktopBAM, the computer plays the role of both performer and entertainer. As the cursor scrolls around the screen, it activates various sound and video files in a sequence. Not only files are activated, however. Basic elements such as the dock and pull-down menu are superimposed on the desktop in a box that appears in the same sequence as the desktop was hacked. The software is activated with the same program, but the information which appears is different each time with none being the same as that which came before it.
The desktop which bodies forth the computer interior, the massive amount of information stored metaphorically as icons in a layered interface displayed to make them easier tor humans to understand. The cursor represents an extension of human intent, eyes and hands as it moves by clicking on information, acting as a trigger to open another world at the top of the screen showing all the things that can be manipulated. At the same time, the cursor moves beyond the imagination of the viewers through the body, thus stimulating the senses.
In the performance deployed in this work, no humans intervene. Instead, the cursor, as if it has a will of its own, plays in an admirable way. The audience will delight in the cursor’s ‘adventure’ and the events which arise each moment.
