1. Motivation for time travel raids? All art should be creative. So my mind is always looking for something new. There are also many factors in play. One of them was to take the performance to the people. Another was that staged performances were not that much of an adventure. They are pretty predictable. A raid is extremely well planned but still totally unpredictable. Another was that I wanted to give the performers themselves the ability to be creative and not only me.
2. Process for each raid? I first have to consider the potential performers. Where would they be comfortable raiding? How great is the legal risk for them? Then I find a place or scout a place. These last three came after 911 so I was extra careful not to put the performers at legal risk. To do this we had an inside person. This person was me in two of them and Rob Avery in one of them. The inside man signs up to occupy a time slot during the open mic. In these three raids they had to be where 9:11 would be there for the raid. All the last three raids were made at 9:11. I then sent out queries to potential performers and those that are interested I tell where we are going to raid and when. We then gather at a pre- selected spot if we can. If not, it is a general place, as in the Troy raid. I had two watches that were exactly the same. I let one of the performers keep one and I kept the other. In the Oregon district raid Rob kept one. At 9:11 they entered. When they go in and to the back of the establishment and back out the raid is over. The inside man also leaves. I try to get a group picture of the raiders. I then go home and record my thoughts and analyze the video. I ask the other performers if they saw or heard anything strange and record that also. If you notice there is a lot of “time” involved in the raids.
3. What have I learned? We learned that there probably are time travelers among us. The raids themselves are extremely exhilarating. The raiders actually feel alive. Somehow like you injected yourself into civilization. A civilization that really does not appreciate creativity. I also do a lot of research and give the concept a lot of thought. Through the research and thought I have come up with many original ideas. Mostly just in my notes and not on the net.
4. What would I like to accomplish? First of all we did accomplish it all. We found indications that time travelers are among us. We injected ourselves into civilization. We had a brief few seconds of exhilaration. I know this is performance art but you have to realize that to us (the performers) it is real. It is life. However, as performance art we did take it to the people that probably would never come to a stage performance. We also keep performance art alive in the Ohio area.
The term "raid"? I originated the term “raid” because it best explains what we are doing. We are actually raiding the constancy of the space time continuum and injecting new into it. As far as the experience of a raid it is a new reality. We feel that we are human. We do not feel that we are just another ant in the colony. We feel that we can break away if we just try. The ramifications? If you think about what we are really doing and the time travelers are recreating the æther in the year 2422 then we are also recreated in the year 2422. It is like we live again starting in 2422.