"Pittsburgh City Paper" - november 15-22, 2000
"Local Vocals"
A Conversation with tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
Interviewer: Jo Reichenbacher
[Jo intervewed me & then sent me an e-mail copy of the article for me to make corrections to if I so desired. I made multiple corrected versions & Jo approved these. However, my final preferred interview didn't appear & one that I found awkward & garbled edited by someone unknown to me appeared instead. The unpublished version of the interview appears 1st here, followed by the published one.]
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE : Secret Shopper for Trickster Culture
(Toggle-case = reverse lower case and upper case; tENT is a tOGGLE nUT cASE)
After leaving Baltimore, his hometown of 40 years, tENT has brought a version of Trickster Culture to Pittsburgh. By day, he's disguised as a mild-mannered projectionist and exhibits technician in multiple cultural institutions such as the Warhol Museum. But tENT has numerous other projects from which he rarely, if ever, profits financially. Not wanting to only be the middleman for taking money from Institution A and handing it over to Institution B, tENT's primary purpose goes much deeper. He wishes to disrupt the ordinary way people think so they're inspired to break away from routines that're usually centered on practical survival and other banalities.
How did your name come to be tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE?
It's the answer to the question "what 's a name?," - it's tentatively, a convenience.
You have some interesting tattoos, tell us about the splotch ones?
The splotch ones are relevant to my being the president and founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Multi-Colored Peoples (NAAMCP). I have a splotch on my hand, a splotch on my back, my arm, a couple on my leg, and a splotch on my eyebrow. My splotches represent a gradual changing of skin color. I like the idea of having multi-colored skin because I think that the obsession of this society with so-called race is really a pain in the ass that's caused way more trouble than it can possibly be worth. I like the idea of people just changing their skin color with the technology available. Almost anyone who's a colorful character is an honorary member of the NAAMCP.
What other tattoos do you have?
On my leg I have a glow-in-the-dark tattoo of a dust mite enlarged 250 times which looks like a fine scar in normal lighting but, once it's charged and glowing, it's quite visible. It's an ecological joke. Dust mites live off of dead human skin. When people say, "Doesn't that glowing ink kill your skin?", I can explain that I'm interested in the idea of an image of something causing a situation that feeds what the image is of.
You've referred to yourself as a sprocket scientist, what exactly is that?
A sprocket scientist is a filmmaker who tries to use film as a medium for stimulating parts of the brain that don't get enough exercise. This is one way I encourage people to try to imaginatively escape from some traps they might find themselves in. I've lectured and shown films all over the world, from Chatham University to the National Art Gallery of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. One of my favorite films is Mike Film. Mike Film started when, in 1978, I made the transition from artist to mad scientist. I took the twenty art objects I'd made at the time and shot thirteen fifty-foot super 8 films of them and then gave away the art objects. I then cut the film into 46,800 individual frames and started to distribute those frames around the world, which I've been doing for 22 years. By doing this, it radically and experimentally creates a situation where the audience isn't going to perceive the film in any ordinary way. One friend of mine, a guy named John Berndt, went to Russia, & went to a prostitute's house that he thought was probably a KGB agent trying to get information from him. He left the Mike Film frames scattered around the apartment hoping that the KGB would pick them up and look at them and try to figure out what the fuck they meant. That's pretty much what sprocket science is all about. Trying to launch into the outer limits of the human mind. Finding ways to use ordinary mass media to get people into extraordinary states of mind.
Does anyone ever think you're insane?
Perhaps, but I prefer "criminally sane." In most societies, the idea of criminal insanity is accepted as a normal concept because being a criminal is considered to be bad and being insane is considered to be bad so the two words fit together comfortably to most people. I like to think of the law-abidingly insane - the robopath, a person who has no ability to question authority, a person who can only follow orders. For example, a person who would, in Nazi Germany, hand over a Jew to the authorities would be, in my opinion, law-abidingly insane. To accept that the suppression and genocide of people is O.K. because it's legal is insane. I prefer being criminally sane. People who're sane enough to recognize that laws aren't necessarily representative of moral systems that they can personally support, who are actually thinking about what they want their moral system to be. People willing to risk breaking laws in order to abide by their own moral system. It would be criminally sane, for example, if you were poor and you had no place to live, to squat a house. It might be illegal, but it's criminally sane. It's more sane than accepting that you have to live outside because you don't have the money to pay someone rent who may not need the money or may not've done anything to earn it in the first place.
I think the main thing people would like to know is why you do all these things?
It's secret shopping for Trickster Culture. It's a way of trying to create a society in which people can live by their imagination, in which people are thoughtful, and in which people are happy. That's not too much to ask, is it?
A Conversation with tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
Interviewer: Jo Reichenbacher
By day, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE is a mild-mannered projectionist and exhibits technician in cultural institutions such as The Andy Warhol Museum. But tENT has numerous other projects from which he rarely, if ever, profits financially - projects intended to disrupt the ordinary way people think.
How did your name come to be tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE?
It is the answer to the question "What is a name?" It's tentatively, a convenience.
Tell me about your tattoos.
I have a good number of splotch tattoos that are relevant to me being the president and founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Multi-Colored Peoples (NAAMCP). I have a splotch on my hand, my back, my arm, a couple on my leg, and a splotch on my eyebrow. My splotch tattoos represent a gradual changing of skin color. I like the idea of having multi-colored skin because I think the obsession of this society with so-called race is a pain in the ass.
What other tattoos do you have?
On my leg I have a glow-in-the-dark tattoo of a dust mite enlarged 250 times which looks like a fine scar in normal lighting but, once charged and glowing in the dark is quite visible. The idea is that dust mites live off of dead human skin. So people say to me, "Doesn't that glow-in-the-dark ink cause your skin to die?" I like the idea of an image of something causing a situation that feeds what the image is of. It's an ecological joke.
You have referred to yourself as a "sprocket scientist." What exactly is that?
In 1978, I made the transition from artist to mad scientist. I took the 20 art objects I had made at the time and shot 13 50-foot super 8 films of them and then gave away the art objects. I then cut the film into individual frames, totalling 46,800 frames of film and started to distribute those frames of film around the world, which I have been doing now for 22 years. By cutting the films and distributing them individually, it forces the creation of a situation where the audience is not going to perceive the film in any ordinary way.
One friend of mine went to Russia, to a prostitute's house that he thought was probably a KGB agent trying to get information out of him. He left the frames of film scattered around the apartment in the hopes that the KGB would pick up the film and try to figure what the fuck they were all about. That's pretty much what sprocket science is all about: Finding ways to use ordinary mass media to get people out of their ordinary states of mind. I would like to help create a society in which people can live by their imagination, in which people are thoughtful and in which people are happy.
Does anyone ever think you are insane?
In most societies, the idea of criminal insane is accepted because being a criminal is considered to be bad and being insane is considered to be bad, so these words fit together comfortably in most people's minds.
I pose the idea of being criminally sane. People willing to break laws in order to support their own moral system. It would be criminally sane, for example, if you were poor and had you no place to live, to squat a house. It might be illegal, but it's criminally sane. It's more sane than accepting that you have to live outside because you don't have the money to pay someone that doesn't, in my opinion, deserve it in the first place.
idioideo at verizon dot net
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE as Interviewer page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE as Interviewee page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE movie-making "Press: Criticism, Interviews, Reviews" home-page
to the "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - Sprocket Scientist" home-page
to the "FLICKER" home-page for the alternative cinematic experience
to find out more about why the S.P.C.S.M.E.F. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sea Monkeys by Experimental Filmmakers) is so important
for info on tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's tape/CD publishing label: WIdémoUTH
to see an underdeveloped site re the N.A.A.M.C.P. (National Association for the Advancement of Multi-Colored Peoples)