“What are you doing?” That was the question posed to me by a young (Maybe 5 years old?) girl after I had just finished improvising a piece of music with pianist Hsin-Jung Tsai to accompany dancer Meg Brooker.

My instruments for that performance were the laptop computer running the very intuitive DJ-like software program Ableton Live and the Kaoss pad, which is a space-age looking device that allows you to make all kinds of strange yet musical sounds by pressing your fingers on its glowing LED lit pad. True to its name, the Kaoss pad is not a completely predictable piece of gear.

Here’s a brief excerpt from the performance:

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By way of an explanation, I happily demonstrated how the Kaoss pad worked for my new young fan by pressing my finger on the pad, creating a sound similar to a choir of broken robots screeching from the interior of a trash compactor. I invited her to give it a try!

But after one cursory squish of her forefinger on the pad (pfft), she wrinkled her nose, turned and walked away.

The experience is like dancing with a ghost in the machine.OK, so maybe she was just shy? Or the music critic for her kindergarten school paper? I wonder what she would think of the interactive sound and visual installation Input/Output now up through July 15th at The Joanna gallery space. The installation, created by the Houston artists Johnny DiBlasi, Stephen Kraig, Patrick Renner, Eric Todd and Sam Singh, known collectively as exurb, features similarly unpredictable sounds and visuals generated by what I would call the aggressive participation of its visitors.

Input/Output’s first room features two large imposing plexiglass “doorways” with interiors of wires, amplifiers and homemade theremins. The doorways play back sounds in response to the movement of those passing through or otherwise making motions within their frames. The initial sound one hears is really more of a roar — like the wind in your ears in an English countryside filled with standing stones. But this roar can be manipulated by body movement — the more physical the better.

And the more bodies, the better. I visited Input/Output on my own and quickly realized that this is an environment that demands group participation.

Below you can hear sounds in first room of Input/Output, followed by an exit out into Wednesday’s much appreciated rainstorm:

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Two additional rooms feature video screen projections that change according to the “input” received from the theremin-rigged doorways. Most dramatic is a real-time projected image of room number one that changes its color scheme according to the sounds generated by the actions of installation visitors. You hear the sound coming from the next room and see the visitors' actions in the video, and it’s a strangely disembodied experience.

There is no privacy in the space. You are constantly monitored by and compelled to interact with the technology.

And there’s is no way for one person to take it all in. Exurb’sStephen Kraig says he’d like Input/Output to be “the grey space between fully understanding something and not having a clue as to what is going on.” Everything is exposed in the installation. You see the guts of the gear — even diagrams drafted in the initial stages of the project are mounted on a wall.

And yet, it’s hard to discern your intentions from those of Input/Output’s theremins, monitors and projectors. The experience is like dancing with a ghost in the machine.

Speaking of dance, a dance company would have an absolute ball with Input/Output.

Coincidentally, through July 10, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is presenting The Culture Intercom, a retrospective of the late artist Stan VanDerBeek (1927-1984) whose pioneering work with film, live art and multimedia provides a historical context for Input/Output. CAMH director Bill Arning and curator João Ribas have created an engaging and exhaustive show. VanDerBeek’s work is as timely and relevant today as it was at the dawn of many technologies that in 21st century are taken for granted or have become antiquated.

The practical and artful arrangement of slide machines, DVD players and one overhead projector to realize VanDerBeek’s monumental Movie Mural (1968/2011) reminded me of exurb’s handmade meets cyberpunk aesthetic. The startlingly alive documentary video of the audio- visual performance Variations V(1965), featuring Merce Cunningham and dancers interacting with a set that includes projected images from VanDerBeek as well as theremins and a collection of electronics played by composers John Cage, David Tudor and Gordon Mumma, mirrors Input/Output not only with its concrete-like sounds but in how the dancers interact with space to create an unpredictable “loop” of artistic creation.

Looping and potentially unpredictable “feedback” generated VanDerBeek’s mural of 8 ½ x 11 collages faxed simultaneously to various locations at the time of their creation. Recipients were invited to add their own contributions to the project, the result being a work that “would never be completed.” A 2011 realization of this mural of faxes, which include powerful images of civil disobedience next to frighteningly absurd assemblages of pop culture, is on display as part of the retrospective.

Much of VanDerBeek’s work feels like a call to action, faxing, projecting and televising the Revolution. Input/Output requires action, physical action, in order to come into its own as a finished piece. The Culture Intercom can be experienced on your own whereas Input/Output is best enjoyed with at least a few if not several other people.

Both shows are provocative and provocatively timed.

Input/Output is at the The Joanna through July 15th. On view Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Stan VanDerBeek: The Culture Intercom runs through July 10th at CAMH.