Nelson’s Electric Chaircut is the original amplified haircut performance! It is an interactive, electro-sonic, haircut performance. Volunteers are taped to the chair, their eyes and mouth are also taped to symbolize the fetishism of appearance. The hair is then cut by Nelson, the original master of electro-sonic hair design. The various implements are amplified, scissors and clippers wired to effects pedals, slung round his waist, and blasted through an amplifier strapped to his back. The whacking haircutting sounds reverberates in a trance like cacophony of seemingly random patterns, as the true stylistic nature of the volunteer is released.
Originally conceived in San Francisco, Nelson Loskamp has been performing Electric Chaircut, amplified haircuts, worldwide since 1989.

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Nelson Loskamp

- Electric Chaircut

I am an artist, musician and hairdresser in 1989 I combined these all in the fist performance of Electric Chaircut. I have continued to paint and preform ever since. In my work I am alluding to our willingness to participate in what Michel Foucault called conditioning of the body. I am also exploring the dichotomy between image and emotion; how we look, as opposed to how we feel and what does that sound like. I was also interested in the post Cage notion of making musical compositions out of the ordinary everyday experiences. What could be better than the sound of hair falling? Well, it could be loud.

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