I have always had a problem with appropriated 'zen' performance (my facetious term for performance where not much happens over quite a long period of time). I have no problem with the concept, just with the practice.
"When ... when will something happen?", I constantly ask myself. I like children's cartoons, I like things fast and loud. Artificial Thought showed me a new 'zen' - the fast, loud variety.

Artificial Thought is sound installation consisting of 8 individually tuned electric organs placed at the points of the compass: the Towers (N,S,E,W); and the Stations (NW,SW,SE,NE). The performance begins as Andrew Kettle places a weight on one of the organ keys. He then proceeds, at a brisk walk, in a counter-clockwise direction, placing a weight on the firstkey of each organ. As he completes a cycle he moves the weights one by one up the keyboards creating an ever changing ascending chord.

It is the power of that escalating chord that astounds me. Kettle states that drones "cleanse the area and purify the suspended audience in preparation to spiritual ascendency." I found it was the physical manifestation of my question "when...?" As he runs around the space, a video documenter in tow, another video documenter filming the documenter filming the performer, a wave of potential builds and builds, creating the sensation of an event always almost about to happen.

It is a work that requires the audience to actively engage with it. From afar, the visual impact of so many different electronic organs was very powerful, however the instruments were even more beautiful when viewed individually, especially the organ which had its intricate web of circuitry exposed offering us a glimpse of its electrical secrets. There was a scattering of people around the Zoo, drinking and playing pool, and I couldn't help thinking that their experience of it must have been quite impoverished. The work literally vibrates and you have to move around within the oscillating area. I found circling in the opposite direction to the performer to be most benefitial. Parts of the room were louder, the dominance of particular notes and timbres constantly shifting, no part of listening experience repeatable.

Time is my enemy, I move fast to beat it. It is only when I slow down that I noticeit passing. Artificial Thought not only kept me moving, it kept me ascending ... which is as close to 'zen' as I may ever get.