147 Devices for Integrated Principles

147 Devices for Integrated Principles, is a 60-minute multimedia, performative artwork; an immersive interdisciplinary theatrical experience.

The production is created by the artist team of Hillerbrand+Magsamen in collaboration with playwright and author Kirk Lynn (Rude Mechs, Austin, TX, and Professor of Theater at the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX) with music composed by Peter Stopschinski.

147 Devices for Integrated Principles unfolds on stage as Hillerbrand+Magsamen unpack a large “preparedness box” of items while the audience unpacks their own smaller box found under their seat, based on the artist’s instructions for how to use the items.

Applying a Fluxus sensibility to art historical tropes of still life painting, photography, and dramatic theater, Hillerbrand+Magsamen playfully engage audiences in the drama of survival.

Hillerbrand+Magsamen perform the explanation of these devices through photography, video, sculpture, and performance, punctuated with Lynn’s experimental and humorous scripted language and Stopshinski’s score.

Overlapping screens of varying sizes display a video, continuously panning to the right, that reveals the artists and their children interacting with Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions.

The images depict sublime survival, inviting audiences to play with ideas and expectations of “preparedness.”