Musicircus 2007
Chicago Cultural Center
The entryway of the cultural center has a cafe. This was my predetermined performance location, so I set up on a granite table and pulled out my cactus. I chose not to amplify the cactus, although I did record and listen to the sounds the cactus made through a contact microphone. I did this not to be elitist, but with the intent that people would wonder what cacti sound like themselves, see the world differently, start flicking objects with a fingernail, buy lots of sound equipment, and <snap> become investigative sound artists.
But you can hear what it sounded like here:
To explain the sounds a little bit, the cactus started off mounted on a steel pipe, but too much extraneous noise was occuring, prompting me to pick the cactus up and hold it in my hands instead. This cactus is dead, completely covered in spines, and is no longer potted. Basically it looks like a sea urchin. The performance was over when I accidentally dropped the damn thing after being horribly impaled one too many times.