Bad Intelligence was an interactive performance that explored a fascination with the erotics of the forensic gaze.
As performed on crime shows such as CSI, this mode of looking combines high drama with a belief in the ability to deduce truth out of fragments of the past – and the narrative assumes that increased visual detail will offer greater accuracy in understanding the past. Bad Intelligence used this desire to find out what happened to allow viewers to search through narrative fragments related to anxiety about violence. Images of military, civil, and social preparations for self-defense become entangled with the perpetuation of violent acts against others.
Viewers used the provided probes to make connections on the body of the performer. When contact was made, video signal flowed to the video monitor. By compelling viewers to touch video connections on the performer’s body, I hoped to dislodge the primacy of the visual and reinsert the stakes raised by physical presence into the process of looking.
