Immersion: USCO, Fanflashtic (1968)

USCO, which also went by the name of the Company of Us or the Us Company, was a collective of artists, poets, filmmakers, engineers, and composers that was cofounded in 1963 by the engineer Michael Callahan, the painter Stephen Durkee, and the poet Gerd Stern. Bringing together recycled objects and new technologies, their immersive installations combined lights, moving images, and sound. The members of USCO sought to change the mental and physical experience of viewers, who were placed at the center of the piece, and by a synesthetic mix of visual and sound mediums, to achieve total stimulation. Fanflashtic, which was described by the press as a “sensory disorientation,” a “heightened awareness corresponding to an LSD experience,” or “fun art,” was part of the eleven installations and happenings (created by artists like Allan Kaprow and Nam June Paik) that were presented as part of “Intermedia ’68,” a festival celebrating experimental and multidisciplinary forms of art organized in February and March of 1968.

An installation presented as part of the exhibition
Immersion. The Origins: 1949-1969
Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 4.11.2023-3.3.2024