Background:
Conceptual underpinnings of this project began in 1995 when I first stayed in a capsule hotel while in Tokyo collaborating with a Japanese dance company. I became fascinated with these modular sci-fi like spaces, and began to incorporate this imagery into my work and installation proposals. Between 1996 and 1999, I traveled back to Tokyo to further develop this concept which became the basis of online web projects, theatrical prototypes and proposals.
At that time my goal was to stage a performance in the hotel site and stream all signals to a companion “fake” capsule hotel site in NYC. The key concept of this proposal was a parallel between the architecture of a capsule hotel and the virtual architecture of an internet chat room. “…the compartmental nature of the hotels’ physical structure can be seen as a parallel to the workings of an internet chat room. A camera and television in each capsule will enable every inhabitant to receive and/or transmit into any other capsule hooked up to the local system. In addition, internet connectivity will enable the linkage of the actual ‘Capsule Hotel’ in Tokyo to a ‘reflective’ installation in NYC…”
In late 1999, dotcom pioneer Josh Harris commissioned a NYC side only version of this project and it was incorporated into ‘Quiet’ the ‘happening . This version of the project though not linked thru internet to a live “doubled” capsule hotel in tokyo, was however quite successful
In 2000, directly following the 1999 ‘millenium capsule’ installation, I received a Japan foundation PAJ award to further develop the piece and traveled back to Tokyo to film new sequences. The work created during this period was shown at the Kitchen in 2001, and at Cooper Hewitt museum in 2002