PED (2001-2006) by Millie Chen, Andrew Johnson, Paul Vanouse, - PED is simultaneously a pseudo service bureau and an info/excer-tainment outlet from which viewer/participants may embark on free, talking-bicycle lecture tours. Each site-specific instance of PED provides many different thematic tours, each with a specific route to follow. Each bicycle is outfitted with a pedal-activated audio system. As the viewers pedal they hear the lecture, and when they stop the lecture ceases. Each ‘lecture’ is heard via small speakers mounted to the handlebars of each bicycle. Each tour begins and returns to the PED service bureau. Each route is marked with either temporary chalk-based paint or, alternatively, signage.

PED service-bureau attendants ‘perform’ 8 hour days–encouraging participants, suggesting routes, maintaining bicycles and keeping records. PED expands the parameters of performance by both invisibly performing a service bureau and orchestrating viewers to unwittingly perform (as they conspicuously ride through the city or locale on the talking-bicycles, adorned with identifying helmets). Tours typically range in length from 5 to 20 minutes, and cover a correspondingly sized area of the city/locale.

Millie Chen wrote:

“[…] We propose that PED bicycles occupy utopian territory as a viable form of public communication and democratic address.

We’ve predominantly used the pedal-activated technique, albeit altered greatly from site to site. In the first PEDs in Buffalo, in Belfast, Hamilton, etc., we stayed with the individually-equipped bikes where participants would be riding out into the city as individuals. In Chongqing, China, we adapted this system to incorporate multiple riders, all pedaling (2 to move the unit, 1 to activate the audio and steer); we built a series of 3-bike machines, welded together to operate in unison and each machine pulling a thematically-designed float (this served as reference to the hand-pulled carts that are still highly visible and to the incredible collision of ancient and new technologies that co-exist, uneasily, on the streets of cities in China).

Recently, this past winter in Rio de Janeiro, we responded to the use of walkie-talkies as a form of security and crowd control and took advantage of its use to mix live broadcast (from the hidden surveillance/broadcast post, the PED broadcaster had visual access to riders for a portion of the route) with pre-recorded.

The Chongqing and Rio situations were challenging for PED - ’security’ issues, defined very differently in each place, threw up some interesting, and at times very frustrating, blocks.

In Rio, it was strongly impressed on us that we should worry about the security of our persons, as privileged riders (the borrowed bikes were spiffy) and as potential security reps (we were told we might be mistaken for police because of the harness outfits that our riders wore). The rides were therefore automatically a collective experience as no one was allowed to ride off on their own. We always had at least one other rider with us, a security officer hired by the organization, even when just testing the routes prior to running the tours.

In Chongqing, the ’security’ came in the form of an 11th hour censoring. The date of the performance event, a proposed parade of the bike-cart machines through the streets of Chongqing, coincidentally fell close to the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. We were working with 38 art school students, riding bicycles, broadcasting public address - you can do the math. Although we were hyper aware from the beginning about avoiding direct engagement of controversial / sensitive topics, the content of our broadcasts became moot as the visual representation we became was too loud for comfort.” [posted on -empyre-]

Mille wrote:

“[…] I gravitated to utilizng elements like sound and scent because of their inherent power to activate memory - specifically corporeal and spatial memory, that can trigger mighty powerful reactions, emotions, in the the telling and re-telling of our experiences. I’m fascinated by the relegation to the ‘minor’ senses of these underestimated paths to perception and understanding. I think that because of their potentially subversive capacity, they become interesting tools to undermine the dominancy of spectatorship, and of the prioritizing of visual intelligence.

My collaborators and I have had a range of viewer/participant reactions that run the gamut from suspicion, fear, anger, trust,
tranquility, euphoria, trance.

I’ll mention a few instances.

In the audio installation “call,” the space is stripped bare of everything except for a translucent saffron hued curtain at one end
and the sound of a strong female voice singing in Arabic. As the visitor approaches the source of the voice, seemingly behind the
curtain, the volume gradually diminishes until, at the point of reaching the curtain, the voice is barely audible. The intentional
frustrating of the goal, that of attaining sonic (and, absurdly, linguistic) clarity through physical proximity, is meant to disorient
the visitor, creating a simultaneously embracing and cautionary state. The interaction for this piece is always interesting to observe - visitors wait very patiently and quietly in line (only one body can go through at a time because of the interactive set-up) for their turn; occasionally, a visitor will drop out of the interactive area to try to trick the sensor and to listen more intensely to the voice.

In the performative installation “The Seven Scents,” which was stationed near bodies of water in public places, Evelyn Von
Michalofski and I created pairs of ‘custom’ perfumes and soundtracks to transport visitors, who we solicitously installed in comfortable deck lounge chairs, to other places. Instead of the romanticized scents and sounds of exotic destinations, our tour consisted of smells and noises from those spaces of limbo that tired travellers find themselves in for a great duration of their trip: airport and bus terminals, parking garages, highways, elevators, etc. Yet the mere suggestion of escape allowed participants to suspend disbelief and even the slight tinges of olfactorial and sonic unpleasantness; they found meditative tranquility and possibility and reverie in participating.

“Extreme Centre” is a recent installation made in collaboration with Warren Quigley for the Centre culturel canadien in Paris. A sonic maze was built inside the gallery, dimly lit and filled with a hushed cacophony of whispering. Visitors negotiated the narrow, twisting passages, pushed along by the different voices and startling words. The words are based on quotes extracted from a range of authors from vastly varied geographies and eras, all potentially and controversially definable as ‘extreme’ in some way. We heard that one visitor came out of the maze feeling debilitated - not our intention, but we accept it.

We haven’t had any upset participants with the PED audio to date, though the Rio and Chongqing rides had cultural affect that we
couldn’t predict, being outsiders. The relationship of the Brazilians and the Chinese to certain elements sparked (positive) emotional responses from them, in particular nationalistic responses!, that we originally predicted would be received tongue-in-cheek (there’s the culture gap for you).

I agree with you, James, that head-space audio (i.e. use of headphones) does seem to pose an ironic situation of being in a
certain space but definitely not in the immediate physical space of the moment. I’ve used headphones once (in 7 Scents) but we justified it by having participants remain stationary and by the underlying notion of the piece - escape. With PED, we were adamant about staying away from headphones not only for the way it would cut riders off from being fully in the environment but of course also because of safety issues.” [posted on -empyre-]