"Why can't the 1st Part of the 2nd Party Be the 2nd Part of the 1st Party?" 2014 At the Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, CA Made of Pine, maple, black rubber rope, video surveillance, dacron & nylon line and music wire. It measured 10' (h) x 60' x 36'. When I first arrived at the Intersection for the Arts, I was struck by the ceiling because it proudly displays the systems that make the building habitable-- the air, light, water, heat, power & communications we need. As I modified my "Party of the First Part" installation to monitor this ceiling, the piece transformed into an ever more paranoid system of ways for us to work together to eliminate progress. It still has a differential gear that calculates the difference in contributions from a bike and a treadmill but now it sends the result to several different outputs including a video cart on the bridge just below the ceiling to capture images of that ceiling. The piece is also monitoring this monitoring and altogether not much happens. This isn't something you can choose or not. It is in the nature of the system that we cancel each others' efforts. Still, it is fun competing, cooperating and vetoing each other. And there is a way to get something done -- not shown in the video -- maybe you can guess what it is. The title is a line from a scene from the 1935 Marx brothers movie "A Night at the Opera". Sorry, but there doesn't seem to be a way to skip the ad. HD version The Full Intersection Gallery Ceiling The Camera on the Cart moves one way for the Bike and the other for the Treadmill while the Differential Gear (left) continuously calculates the difference in contributions from the Bike and the Treadmill The camera sends it's image to a large monitor by the entry - shown here near the beginning and near the end of the show The shadow of the Indicator Wheel shows whether the bike or the treadmill is ahead An "Innocence Inquiry" was provided to complement this cynical installation See Results back to top Worm gear operates paper drive Sending Unit moves string that moves the pen Spare Parts Sitting on the bench opens the clutch stopping all outputs back to top