Puzzling: Testing A Subject

Testing a Subject is populated by willing participants, domesticated animals, inert bodies, disobedient creations, robotic performers, and incidental actors. Through the revealing and often humorous process of testing these varied subjects, this program frames agency and control as central concerns. The social constructions of masculinity unravel in ways both amusing and revealing; the human and the artificial entwine in a curious and sensual blurring of authority. Confused, inarticulate, and debased, sometimes barely clearing the threshold of sentience, the subjects being tested also reveal themselves, in telling and poignant moments, to be stand-ins for their masters and creators.