The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 88

"'r Pr" 1 By Patti Hartigan The performance lab Mobius. on the fifth floor of a dusty old manufacturing building in Fort Point Channel, is accessible via a rickety elevator that cranks and creaks as It ascends. Look skyward, and you notice that a section of the ceiling is missing, exposing the workings of the vehicle. The sight of the cable laboring to lift the elevator is enough to give acrophobics a pause. Some of us prefer to take the stairs.

The elevator serves as a metaphor for the goals of this 1 1-year-old artist's collaborative and others like It. Mobius aims to lift the ceiling off traditional boundaries of performance and to expose audiences to the innards of the artistic process. "Experimentation by its very nature means trying to do work that hasn't been done before," said Marilyn Arsem, director and founder of Mobius. "It's not perfect. It's not tried and true.

If you're coming for entertainment or a slick production, you don't want to come to Mobius. If you want to see the process of artists working, then you should come here." Mobius lies at the center of Boston's experimental art community, which includes a circle of galleries and theaters. Sometimes you have to dig deep, because funky little loci of subculture have a way of popping up and spurring excitement, only to give way to mainstream programming or disappear back into the void. There is only one time to see up-to-the-minute experimental work Now. No one is saying you're going to like everything you see.

You may consider some of It balderdash: some of it may stimulate thought. The point is, if you have an appetite for the offbeat, you have to take risks. Of course, you can see Internationally renowned innovators like Robert Wilson at the American Repertory Theater In Cambridge or catch the latest performance artists from New York at the Institute of Contemporary Art in the Back Bay. Local universities showcase experimental artists from here and afar. Watch for the NuArts series at Northeastern University, Event Works at Mass.

College of Art and the Women-In-Theatcr Festival at Northeastern and Suffolk universities. Some work takes place at Impromptu gatherings In private homes or underground clubs. You'll have lo discover the salon scene for yourself or create your own happening spot. We can tell you about established places. The first Is Mobius, the gallery and performance space run by a In our society.

It is on view in the gallery through Oct. 10. Newcomers can get an introduction to Mobius and the cluster of galleries in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood during Open Studios Weekend. Oct. 17-18, noon-5 p.m.

That weekend, Mobius features "Science Projects," works by nine New England performance artists focusing on science themes. Performances are Oct. 15-17 at 8 p.m. On Oct. 13 at 7 p.m., Mobius will host a panel discussion called "Not Defining Performance Art: Aesthetics Without Answers." The title says a lot about the nature of a cooperative: no rules, no traditional genres, no boundaries.

The artists are generally defensive about labels and attempts to categorize their work, but they encourage speculation that does not pigeonhole the artist. "When looking at experimental work in any medium, you can talk about art, you can talk about science, but to understand it, you probably have to have some experience in the art form," Arsem said. Mobius aims to involve the audience in the artistic process and publishes a free newsletter which you can get by writing to to Mobius at 354 Congress Boston 022 1 0 or telephone 542-74 1 6. Surprisingly enough, some of the most whimsical and innovative underground work can be found, well, underground. The MBTA Is sponsoring a temporary arts program called "Arts on the Line" (telephone 864-5150) to ease discomfort on the Red and Orange lines during station modernization, which wraps up next spring.

Last year, it mounted 40 juried projects, covering everything from popular entertainment to avant-garde and off-the-wall. Program administrator Linda Woolford said 19 events are planned for this year. Judging from its record, this underground culture is worth cultivating. Last year. Christopher Janney's Installation at Park Street station included photoelectric cells on one side of the platform and reflectors on the other side.

An invisible ultraviolet beam ran between the platforms. Commuters created a musical montage by reaching up and breaking the beam, which triggered a sound from a computerized sound synthesizer. Another outrageous exhibit was a four-month-long amiable twist on "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," designed by Kathleen PIctchcr at the Orange Line's Washington Street station. She set up an evolving fictional situation about aliens discovered during MBTA construction. The cocoon-like shapes grew over time and eventually cracked open, culminating In a performance at which the "aliens" came to life and aped the actions of commuters.

"It had a tremendous bcllcvablllly," Woolford said. "We had lots of calls from people asking: 'Why aren't the cocoons In a sterile and 'Is MIT Involved In this?" MIT was Indeed Involved In some of the MBTA Installations. Sound artist Janney was affiliated with the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, a group of artists exploring new media with an emphasis on environmental art. The group Is not public, but sxmsors mmmmzm I of artists called the Mobius Performing Group. II takes its name from a geometric figure with a continuous surface formed by twisting a flat rectangle and Joining the two ends.

The monicker Is apt, since Mobius presents an ever-evolving agenda of experimentation in all media. "Mobius never Institutionalizes anything," bristled Arsem when asked If last spring's RoundArt Festival, which showed out-of-state artists, will l)c repeated. "Our first commitment Is to Boston artists." The current exhibit "Social Terrorism' features works by artists who aim to uhc their work to penetrate and tear down negative cultural factors ul i 2 CO ui t- a UJ.