Still enlightening the populace, at least until August

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: Jamie Mereness <mereness-at-mindspring-dot-com> 

The Villager  Volume 73, Number 44 | March 3 - 9, 2004


"Gecko, mistress of the Lower East Side Tesla coils"


Gecko, inset, with the larger of Collective Unconsciousıs two Tesla coils.


By Lincoln Anderson

It was a recent show of the self-proclaimed Downtown Art Babes at Collective
Unconscious on Ludlow St. Anna Montana, a performance artist from Europe,
had done a strangely mesmerizing ³alternative burlesque² in the buff with a
mop as a partner. Faux Maux, another Babe, who has a condition that is
forcing her posterior backwards, held flash cards on said bum, which was as
naked as Montana ‹ the artist, that is, not the state. A dancer in burlap
writhed on the floor as if possessed, while another woman hummed into a
tape-loop device to create overlapping tone patterns.

But the highlight came after emcee Gecko announced it was time for a little
Tesla coil fun. The smaller of the theaterıs two Tesla coils was wheeled
out, along with a trunk-sized transformer ‹ manned by Jamie Mereness,
Collective Unconsciousıs technical director ‹ who is needed to operate the
Tesla.

Suddenly, it was as if an electrical storm had broken out in the darkened
room.

Shooting off the Tesla were bolts of electricity several feet long, complete
with sound effects ‹ staticky crackles, bursts and pops ‹ just like in the
laboratory in a Frankenstein movie. The electricity danced and whirled
around the top of the coil in a crazy pattern.

Dressed dominatrix style, in skin-tight black PVC, Gecko did Tesla tricks,
like standing a few feet away and making a fluorescent light bulb glow by
holding it out in the coilıs direction. She placed some anatomical objects,
not suitable for printing in a family newspaper, on the Tesla, channeling
its charge through them ‹ each time Mereness first cutting the power for her
to set up.

For those who stayed, Gecko treated them to a demonstration of the big Tesla
coil. This time the bolts were much larger and more powerful looking. It was
easy to imagine one flicking out and zapping an audience member. As with the
smaller coil, Gecko warned any performers or techies walking between
backstage and the audience to keep 10 ft. away, outside the ³Tesla zone of
death.²

Despite the lightning sizzling all around her, she showed no fear. At one
point, though, she thought of executing a move where she gets the
electricity to go directly from the coil to a fluorescent bulb in her hand,
then thought better of it. The last time she attempted it, she explained, a
bolt had jumped to the bulb and then ‹ attracted to the nearest metal ‹ went
straight to a piercing she has in an extremely sensitive spot.

Gecko, last name Saccomanno, who lives on the Lower East Side, has been a
fan of inventor Nikola Tesla since she was a kid. When she joined Collective
Unconscious six years ago, she was thrilled to find they had their own Tesla
coil, which Mereness had built. They subsequently bought another.

³Iıve always had a Tesla fixation,² Gecko said in an interview after the
show. ³And when I joined the group I was like, ŒHere I am with one of my
idols.ı ²

In grade school, ³I was kind of a geek and I just discovered him,² she said.
She wrote a paper on Tesla, but her teacher didnıt believe the inventor
existed.

³Thereıs Tesla technology in every TV ‹ it powers Niagara Falls,² continued
Gecko, who describes her onstage persona as ³sci-fi cyber chick.² ³Tesla
coils create ozone and are used to get the funk out of the air in sewage
plants.²

Her birthday is even the same as Teslaıs. Of course, sheıs already been to
Philadelphia to see the new opera on his life.

Collective Unconsciousıs Tesla coils are likely the only recreational ones
in Manhattan. As far as she knows, Gecko said itıs legal to operate them in
a theater, though, of course, with caution.

Also, ³it gets a little loud; it makes that firing sound,² Gecko added. Yet,
the only one who seems bothered by the noise, according to her, is a Ludlow
St. resident whom she declined to identify other than as ³the woman who
hates everything.²

Collective Unconsciousıs building will be demolished for new apartments and
the theater must vacate by July. They are looking for affordable space, with
help from Councilmember Alan Gerson, so far without luck. And while they
probably wonıt need a place that takes terriers, they will need one that
takes Tesla coils.