Electronic Literature in Europe

Title: The Last Performance [dot org]
URL: http://www.thelastperformance.org

I. Project Description

The Last Performance [dot org] is a constraint-based collaborative writing, archiving and text-
visualization project responding to the theme of lastness in relation to architectural forms, acts of
building, a final performance, and the interruption (that becomes the promise) of community.
This project was conceived in response to the work of the seminal performance collective, Goat
Island (of which I am a part), and their decision, after 20 years of practice, to create a last
performance. Based upon the architecture of a Byzantine dome, The Last Performance is evolving
over the course of two years, alongside the creation and performance of the company's final work,
The Lastmaker. The writing project and the performance are being created in parallel and share
generative constraints. The result will be a "double work" of performance and electronic literature.
Upon completion of the final performance tour and this writing project, the company will end, will
complete the process of ending, in order, as they have put it,"to make room for the unknown that
will follow."

The visual architecture of The Last Performance is based on research into "double buildings," a
phrase used here to describe spaces that have housed multiple historical identities, with a specific
concern for the Hagia Sophia and the functions of churches, mosques, and museums. The central
structure of The Last Performance is a virtual dome, based upon the cupola of a particular double
building, the Dzamija (translated as 'mosque') in Zagreb, Croatia. The cupola of the Dzamija
consists of an arrangement of 4680 circular glass lenses. The cupola's lenses are here transposed
as writing spaces that will be populated over the course of two years. The total work is being
collaboratively authored by myself, Goat Island, invited writers and artists, and the public.
Source texts and media files submitted to The Last Performance are treated as raw material for
programmatic and performative visualization, re-arrangement, and re-composition according to
mechanisms and algorithms that are being developed alongside the writing.

The Last Performance is a project of the Andy Warhol Foundation / Creative Capital Arts'
Writers Grant Program.

II. Performative Reading

In the performance for the Bergen seminar, I will trace my own authorial pathway through the
The Last Performance while also reading and interacting with remixed and visualized texts that
are constantly being assembled from the project's growing body of submitted data. This iteration
of the piece will also include in-progress elements such as time-based texts responsive to a live-
writing interface and integration of video material from the Goat Island performance.
Another component of the performance is a live intervention from the last performance
community. In past performances, I have invited Goat Island performers or writers / artists local
to the venue to contribute to the project and provide this interruption. For Bergen, I will consider
the following options for this intervention: 1) a Goat Island member enacting live text/movement
sequences (dependent on finances for travel), 2) one or more artists / writers local to Bergen
reading / performing a contribution, 3) remote broadcast from Chicago-based contributor.
The performance will last 30 minutes including a 5 minute introduction. Program notes will be
distributed for those interested in a detailed blueprint of the project.

III. Technical Requirements:

internet, projection (preferably large), desk or podium with lamp and microphone, additional
standing microphone for intervening performer(s)

IV. Performance Space Diagram

V. Image from past reading (Links Hall Performance Space, Chicago)
For more images, see:
http://www.sissonphotography.com/gallery/4315112_239oH#P-2-15
(images begin on row three, and continue through row 4 on next page of gallery)
For project event history, see:
http://www.judisdaid.com/events.php

(See attached PDF for diagram and image)

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