Inaugural ‘Liminal Collisions: Live at MOCA Jax’ to bring the noise

Liminal: [ˈlɪmɪn^əl] adj. Of or relating to a sensory threshold.

Collision: [kəˈlɪʒən] n. A violent impact of moving objects.

While the above definitions may be useful, they aren’t necessarily definitive.

When associate English professor Dr. Clark Lunberry and adjunct design professor Mark Creegan needed a name for their mixed media event – the successor to Lunberry’s LOUDsound:Live – they made it intentionally cryptic, so as to leave the interpretation up the audience, Lunberry said.

Recent gallery director Matthew Clay Robison told Creegan about LS:L and he approached Lunberry about performing, Creegan said. The two talked about collaborating on some work and eventually decided to team up and organize LS:L together, he said.

Lunberry created LS:L after seeing a mixed audio/visual event at the UNF Gallery in December 2007, he said.

“That night there was just this really huge crowd,” Lunberry said. “I thought, ‘Wow, this many people want to come to a wacky event like this.’ The school shows a lot of great movies and stuff, but with Netflix you can get those at home. I wanted to do something you can’t get at home.”

He began holding LS:L every two weeks in the same space, inviting anyone willing to perform. Acts ranged from Dadaist poetry to omni-tonal solo saxophone performance to writhing recitations of Beckett monologues.

No venue for this kind of performance spectacle existed in Jacksonville, Lunberry said.

When the UNF Gallery, placed under new direction this year, denied Lunberry’s request for the space, he and Creegan decided to take advantage of UNF’s newly acquired space within MOCA.

“I had a meeting with the director, Deborah Broder, and told her what we had been doing,” Lunberry said. “I didn’t think she was gonna go for it.”

She did, however, and with the move came a name change. the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville will host the first Liminal Collisions in its atrium during the Nov. 4 Art Walk, and the event will feature Jacksonville band After the Bomb Baby. In the past, LS:L saw 20-30 attendees but having a space in the MOCA during Art Walk will undoubtedly increase Collisions’s exposure.

“Art Walk will definitely be a big help,” said Jason Irvin, the drummer for After the Bomb Baby. “It’s hard to get people not from UNF to come and pay for parking to go to LOUDsound:Live.”

Since MOCA will hold Liminal Collisions, Lunberry said that the event may be toned down a little bit. One artist wanted to simulate an abortion, but Lunberry had to deny her proposal. He said it would have been possible in the UNF Gallery, but not MOCA.

“You know, there’s gonna be people there eating dinner,” Lunberry said.

Despite Liminal Collisions’ faintly formalized nature, LS:L veterans After the Bomb Baby will still bring the spectacle.

“We dress to the extremes of tactfulness,” Irvin said.

The band may play its unique brand of noise-rock in front of esoteric Chuck Norris movies or a work-out video called “Dancing Grannies,” Irvin said.

Liminal Collisions: Live at MOCA Jacksonville is scheduled for the Nov. 4 and Dec. 2 Art Walks, with more to come in the new year, Creegan and Lunberry said. Anyone interested in sampling After the Bomb Baby before then can check out their MySpace at myspace.com/afterthebombbaby. Check the Spinnaker’s Twitter for more up-to-the-minute info on this event.