“The_City” Battery

2009
Erik Belgum

Belgum writes:"THE_CITY" Battery (a neurological evaluation of the City of "THE_CITY") is a dramatic radio series which employs radio broadcast as a tool to perform five neurological and psychological experiments and evaluations on the listening audience of your city. (NOTE: “THE_CITY” is a variable and is to be replaced with the name of the broadcast city. For example, a performance of the series in Topeka would be called “Topeka Battery (a neurological evaluation of the City of Topeka).

Each episode of "THE_CITY" Battery deploys a different neurological/psychological evaluation or experiment using a variety of radio formats and forces (call-in, live interview, in-studio sleight-of-hand, live sampling, etc.). The topics covered by the five episodes are: déjà vu, perseveration, hearing, memory, and infant language development. The HOST and EXAMINER appear in every episode and unite the presentation.

Anyone who has participated in a modern neurological or psychological evaluation or experiment can attest to the mysterious, theatrical quality of the experience. From the de-realized setting, to the unspoken motivations behind the uncanny requests, to the exhausting quality of the event, these supposedly objective and rational moments of modern medical science feel hermetic and confused."