[Extract]  "Editor's Note: In compliance with a recent court judgement (see HM CJ 188366-14/08/05) obtained by a subject of the book, this publication can exist only as a single edition that must remain in the possession of the editor Howard Hagen."

Others' Eyes (Extramission 1), 2009

Contents

Remission: Rufus Eisenbud
Lindsay Seers’ attempt to become a camera is linked to the curious life of Ted Serios, a psychic performer who claimed to be able to create photographic images solely by ‘projecting his thoughts’ onto film. The narrator is identified as Rufus Eisenbud, son of Dr Jule Eisenbud, the psychologist who investigated and documented the abilities of Ted Serios in the 1960s. We are told that Dr Eisenbud met Lindsay Seers in Amsterdam and was struck by the consonance between the odd distortions and imperfections of Serios’ so-called thou photographs and the mouth-photographs being created by the artist. Unravelling the reasons for Seers’ obsessive practices becomes an obsession for Dr Eisenbud.

Intermission: Steven Pearl
Theatre director and performance artist Steve Pearl recalls Seers' forays into ventriloquism and vaudeville performance in her search for communicative strategies. The appearance of Bill, her first dummy, is recounted "According to Seers, the first ever TV image was of a vent’s dummy called Stookie Bill. The chap who invented TV, Logie Baird, used the dummy because the lights he used were so intense they would incinerate a human being. Seers claimed that Baird carried out his first demonstration of television in this very Soho building where she was working… what are the odds? Whatever the truth, the dummy appeared on the scene and her life changed. They were inseparable and travelled everywhere together." Her phase as a 'human camera' is also discussed: particularly Seers' invention of 'mouth photographs', taken by holding photographic film at the back of the mouth and using the lips to hold a small aperture.

Projector: Guinevere Doy
Cultural critic Doy examines Seers childhood mutism and her efforts to communicate through becoming a human camera and, subsequently, a projector. "The development of Seers’ obsession with photography has been well-documented elsewhere. It suffices to recall that her identification with the camera later became total as she sought to ‘become a camera’ by taking photographs by exposing film held inside her own mouth. Interestingly, images made in this way are inevitably distorted and are shot through with echoes of the body: saliva streaks, blood-red colouration from light passing through the thin skin of the cheeks, etc. Seers was clearly happy to abandon verisimilitude in her desire to take on the functions of the camera. I believe the sub-text to this methodology was sincerity: the artist is exposing (literally) her innermost sensations."

With images and photographs by L Seers.