- Lucinda Childs in one of Andy Warhol’s screen tests
As part of the multimedia exhibition “Persistence of Motion,” which took place at the Nightingale on Saturday evening, video artist and ImprovOlympic performer Jared Larson spent about 15 minutes in front of the room, shooting the audience with a camera and projecting his results onto the screen behind him. Larson zoomed in on each spectator and held the shot for several seconds, making everyone the subject of an impromptu screen test. “Most people stare at the screen instead of the lens,” he said at one point, speculating we’d all grown accustomed to looking for our faces on surveillance-camera monitors. I hadn’t gotten my turn to be onscreen when he said this, so when Larson did point the camera at me, I made sure to return its gaze. This way, other people could study my portrait (for whatever that might be worth) without having to deal with my self-regard. Larson’s comment—not to mention memories of Andy Warhol’s screen tests—made me think a dead-ahead stare would be a more compelling image.
