Caleb Booker

5 videos in total - so far

I was told at one point that “they” were waiting for me to get in touch. Foolishly, I wrote an aloof “what the hell” email.

Clearly, that was the wrong attitude.

Robin Hely created a short film called “Who Is Robert Henley?”, detailing the peculiar character that would later reappear in many Neurocam references. Unfortunately the ‘net has been scrubbed clean of the movie from what I can tell, and Robin Hely’s website is down for the count.

The movie was odd and clever, although it revealed very little. Robin Hely made a bunch of other films, including one where he had a limo pull up, two men wearing ski-masks pop out, trash Hely’s art exhibit and then kidnap Hely himself.

In 2004, the billboard (pictured above) appeared in Melbourne, Australia. People going to the website were invited to volunteer as “Operatives”. Many were contacted anonymously, sent on missions, temporarily kidnapped, interrogated, and often (but not always) sworn to secrecy. Sometimes it was a package delivery mission. Other times photos. Many missions skirted the edge of the law.

It’s likely Hely ran things at this point, but after awhile things got rocky. Missions became sporadic. Operatives were culled en masse. Some operatives, thinking that the project was abandoned, tried to pick things up here and there but it never really worked out. Hely started working on his INNOCENCE art project, and that might have been that.

Lately, however, things are alive and kicking around Neurocam. The website itself isn’t telling you much, but follow the clues and eventually you’ll end up at the Yellow-1 website. There’s also the ultra-enigmatic Fiat Nox. From the feel of things there are two possibilities: either Hely found qualified artists to hand things off to, or somehow the beast is continuing to lumber around without a head.

There’s a possibility that nobody is running this thing, after all. It could be continuing on without any central guidance at all, having taken on a life of its own. Operatives could easily be sending each other on missions that make sense to them at the time. They may be unfolding a story that has not, in fact, been written.

Think I should re-apply?

Posted on December 11th, 2007 under art, new media. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.