In A Lamprey’s Mouth

IN A LAMPREY’S MOUTH was a work about technological “blood-sucking.” It was a prescient reflection on the invisible ways technology was beginning to interactively monitor and transform our lives. A lamprey is a bloodsucking parasitic fish with concentric teeth and at the time, as an invasive species was invading the Great Lakes habitat.

Together with Sound Engineer and Fellow Musician Andrew Lipnick, we used pre-recorded sound loops from the BELA LUGOSI cinematic version of DRACULA. When the viewer passed a passive infrared sensor, it would trigger an AMIGA computer to sequence sounds from the film including: “THEY SUCK THE BLOOD FROM THE LIVING!!!” Now, almost forty years later, technological interference in our lives is ubiquitous.