"Elseenar"

The Elseenar article opens by defining electric performance. Electric performance art can be defined as the theatrical display of electrically manipulated human bodies. The historical development was greatly discussed in this specific genre. These innovations and experiments were rooted back to the early 18^th century.

There was a discovery that when objects were placed close together, the objects could transfer energy from one object to another. The experiment with the small electrically charged children hang attracting small pieces of metal leaf into the air.

This time period was in London, on the 8^th of April in 1730. This experiment was varied and transformed into another experiment, the connection circuit. The circuit employed two boys to hold hands to complete

After many experiments, it was proven that this electric charge that humans could receive could trigger stimulation in the muscle of a human body. This opened the door to what electricity could actually accomplish. Almost immediately, experiments were carried out to investigate this property of the electric current in a systematic way. Abbe Nollet noted that he believed the electric charge could be inversely proportional to weight of human to animal. As of course, a current that could cause a humans nose to bleed should and would have a greater affect on a squirrel if using the same current.  Nollet was eventually successful in killing a sparrow by means of a Leyden jar discharge.

These inventions are of course brought into the 19^th century with great modifications. “The world’s first power plant for the public was built in 1882 by the Edison Electric company.” As the country grew, so did electric industry. “The new electric power infrastructure was already claiming victims in the early 1880’s, as people sometimes made accidental contact with high-voltage lines. These deaths occurred and raised another questionable suit. The death penalty was looking for a means of a clean and quick death. Electricity soon became popular as a method for capital punishment in New York State, death by hanging, was increasingly experienced as undignified and barbaric.

“The first execution under the Electrical Execution Law took place on the 6^th of August in 1890, and it was indeed carried out by means of AC equipment. Although the execution was demanded, the electrocution was quite messy compared to the predictions. Kemmler’s skin burned and his blood vessels exploded.  I am sort of surprised that this means of execution continued to exist because at the beginning it ran into many problems.

Algorithmic control was very interesting to read about. The thought that simple numbers can cause a computer to trigger a shock or stimulation and can move the human body without consciously applying thought. This in turn brings the idea about the human cyborg in Natural Born Cyborgs. The thought that the human can be transformed into a systematic machine and can be controlled with a remote.