21 August runthrough

Managed to do a full run through yesterday without crashing Isadora.

I spent the morning organizing some final bits of tech and writing my notes from Tuesday into an actual score sheet that I could reference during the run. The score has ended up being 6 sections with a reprise of the second one towards the end. I don't have the sheet with me here at home, so will have to wait to post it later.

The runthrough felt spotty but overall I think the score is going to work. Most of the sections run between 10-15 minutes, which is perfect timing for the 90 minutes I have allocated as "performance" times over the weekend. The run yesterday ran about 70 minutes including some hiccups.

Watching the video recordings of the performance continues to be really helpful for me to get perspective on what I'm doing. I will tend to fixate on the parts that weren't working and extrapolate that to the whole performance "not working". Reviewing video shows me that I was right about the parts that I thought weren't working, but also shows me all the parts that are working.

Plan for today: I'd really like to try and run through it TWICE. Will be exhausting but interesting.

Plan for weekend: Get documentation to at least 75% completion. I'm feeling the time crunch and know that this is the last serious chunk of time I have to concentrate on it while I'm locked out of rehearsal space for the bank holiday weekend.

Last week wrap up.

Finally got a chance to upload 2 more batches of videos from last week. The week ended with final tech setup and trying to work out what to do with two projectors. Having two dramatically changes the dynamic in the room, in a way that I like and want to work with.

Big thing that I noticed yesterday is that I feel there is now an even bigger "Stage" area to the room. I will be breaking that wall with my own movement, but I can't gauge how audiences will respond until I have an audience. The only thing I know from past experience is that most people respond to projectors by ducking out of the way of them or avoiding them altogether. This would cut off about half of the space once both projection areas are revealed and leave everyone squished into one corner. I'll probably end up being more explicit when I invite people to move as they wish around the space and tell them they can walk in front of the projector beams.

I haven't had many visitors to my space, so I'll do my best to anticipate and plan for it and then make adjustments once I have people in the space with me. That all said, time has not been wasted! The time alone(ish) in my space has allowed me to rehearse and rehearse and rehearse.
Which one needs to do as a performer! This week I have begun working up to a full run of the "performance" section of my work, which I have scheduled to be an hour and a half. So far I've made it to 40 minutes. The thing that seems to be ending the run throughs is that I crash the program! This only happens when I try to record something on a track that is already playing. An easy mistake, especially when you're in the throes of performing, but I hope that the continued rehearsals over the next 7 days *gulp* will smooth this out as I become more comfortable with the final structure of the show and the technology setup in its final configuration. And it'll happen during the shows. I have no doubt of that! I'll take it in stride. It's Isadora telling me that she's done with that performance. :)

So finally, the clips I uploaded yesterday are going to be the final video clips as the run throughs are getting too long to easily review, digitize and publish to the internet. I've got a bunch of other things I need to be pulling together for the final assessment outside of rehearsal time which take precedence over video clips. Will still update progress here on the blog though.

Here are some clips that contain my favorite pieces from the recent uploads. In both of them, I noticed that I interacted directly with the TVs that I have dotted around the space. I haven't been prone to do that much, thinking that they're mainly there for the audience to play with. But of course, I can use them too and really should do.



This second one starts off a little rough (with wacky iMovie jump cuts...), but I like how the video inspires the sound and how I was able to connect the recorded and live actions through echoing and complementary sound and movement.



Second half to above video:

Flipping, finalizing tech.

I have 3 new videos to upload to YouTube, but they take so long! Will try and post them soon.

Recap of what they illustrate from the last days work:

I've been fleshing out the 3 core phases of the score I developed. On Wednesday, while waiting for final approval of my tech setup, I started to think about how I might use the second projector. I ended up flipping the image horizontally and worked with reflections of simple movements. I think this works quite nicely. Not convinced that it will always be this way.

I then continued to practice building up sections using the three pieces in the score. I was happy with the progression that came out of it:
- simple movement with arm and feet captured on video
- sound sample of my feet stepping on the floor as base for sound, layered with residual sounds from the previous day's work
- live mirroring if movement on video, in front of the video screen, and then also moving through the space
- capture of a new video of my face in which I open my mouth really wide!
- this new video encouraging vocalization to complement it, live wandering around the space
- I then recorded a variation on the vocalization and looped that
- it didn't line up with the video track at all! This is fine by me.
- Then finally, live movement that related to either sound or visual cues, but couldn't possibly link to both since sound and video were asynchronous.

Videos to follow early next week. This post clearly more notes for me than a clear sharing for others!

Yesterday, we got our final tech allocation. I set up all 3 monitors for the first time and am happy with the way they mark the space in a subtle way. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I see the TV monitors as my "audience" in a very traditional way. They are all placed on chairs and are watching the events unfold in the passive way that an audience often does, and that a TV has no choice but to do. A friend visiting from the USA came by the studio and I was pleased to see him looking at the performance live, in relation to the video projection, AND through the 3 monitors. It reminded me of a goal I had for my audience: even though they are being filmed from different angles, I want the overall feeling to be one where they are free to move around and experience the performance in a way that is comfortable to them. I don't want to give them a prescription for how they can interact with the work (aside from obviously keeping them from wrecking the equipment.)

Jera also stopped in briefly and helped me make a simple statement. She said that video work is so often about the image, and I said that my performance was about foregrounding the body that created the image.

And today: wrestling with a signal splitter to see if I can get the two projectors running off my computer. and hopefully enough time to do another runthrough.

Settling the score, part 1.

Lots of videos posted to YouTube, only highlighting some here.

Ambient sounds and images when you're the only one in the room turned out to be quite fun. The door to my studio space has a sweet little jingle bell to it when it shuts, so I started walking in and out of the room and recorded the sound. I built up a soundtrack from this, often leaving the previous track running so that it bled into the next track and created quite a nice muddle as the tracks were layered further and further. The video ended up being signature "lena" I think. I am able to get 3 layers (2 recorded, 1 live) of me walking in and out of the door with decent quality when you are actually in the space. The poor quality of web based video means that you probably won't be able to make out the second recorded layer.

Here's a video clip from today which I think shows a good cross section of process and how it might all fit together. It's quite slow, but the camera was right next to one of the speakers, so the sound is fairly decent.



From watching these, I know that I need to spend more time repeating the action and figure out other ways or positions from which to watch the piece of video I have just created. Too much hovering near the laptop!

Interstitials and sound clips.

I created some interesting compositions while accidentally overlapping videos. I thought they might work nicely as stand alone loops which can play when I need a break or am not in the space. Something like that.

The first clip was created last week on a day when I had given my keys to my brother for the day and couldn't get to any cameras! I learned how to export directly from Isadora, which is a useful thing if I decide to use these interstitials.





I also learned that I can record audio in quicktime but I don't seem to be able to play them except in my iTunes. So! Hopefully I will sort this out soon and post them here.

When the mundane turns cinematic

I am struggling through a backlog of entries due to illness. And while I was pulling together slightly more involved entries, I found this piece of footage that I shot a few weeks ago for whatever reason and it interested me to post about it here.

A comment that keeps coming up is an interest in playing with scale between live and projected image. This ties in with the idea of telematic vs cinematic which comes up in just about every conversation I have with Doug.

Another thing that I want to play with over the coming week, and for the scratch (next week!) is my interest in the awkward or really mundane moments.

Therefore, the question that popped into my head is when I saw this was:
What happens when you turn a mundane action into something cinematic?

And the question I pose to all of you is:
What's going on in this clip?
I'm curious what difference it makes having sound on and off?

Daily weekly semi-regular performance sketches

After the David Gale workshop, we all realized how nice it is to just get some quick performances together and see what's going on.

Since I'm exploring interacting with myself on video and it's just so easy to post video to the web these days, I am going to endeavor to post some sketches to this blog. At the very least, it will be weekly. Hopefully, it will be much more frequent than that.

I constantly think that what I'm doing is pretty abstract, so I hope that involving some nebulous "net public" at this stage will help to open my practice up to folks and maybe take some of the mystery out of it - for me too!

I can't wait for all the really rude juvenile comments on YouTube...

These 3 videos are me interacting with different layers of video. I wanted to alternate between sound and movement, but it's all kinda static. However, I thought some neat stuff was starting to happen by the last one. Especially giving some context and purpose to what I felt was pretty random weird movement in the second one.

I also know you guys love hearing me singing like I've never had a singing lesson in my life! It's very liberating.

Video half of performance workshop w/ David Gale

Digitized and posted the video portion of the performance I did a couple weeks ago as part of the workshop with David Gale. It was a quick purging performance where I got a little goofy on the video, and was overly wooden with the live component. A sort of overstating what I've been feeling about my work.

Anyway, here is the video.

Nunning sketches.

Check out the "related video" links on my YouTube site for these! Ha!

Initial thoughts on Nunning.

Learned a bunch from the Nunnery show. The overarching impression I've walked away from my piece with is that I've thrown open too many doors and have to figure out which ones are the ones I'm interested in moving forward with. I may or may not get around to organizing them into themes before I post this. Just want to get things down while they're still quite fresh.


So what is the piece about? Let's start with what seems to be there based on observations and audience feedback:

• pretty singing
• minimal, often unconfident live performance
• slippage between live and recorded image. What is actually happening live and what is pre-recorded? (I even saw one woman taking the headphones off in the middle of watching it, which was fantastic)
• immersion of viewer through soundtrack
• alienation of viewer through trapping them in a corner behind a camera and forcing them to watch complicated video piece on a small screen
• a layered piece that was read on different levels by different people
• a vague sense that there was "alot there" but no one at the actual performance who could put a finger on it
• from feedback pre-performance "extremely rich" area to explore. Yes, I'm finding it overwhelmingly rich!
• putting the audience in my shoes behind the camera
• confusing the role of the viewer to those around them who think that the person behind the camera is actually filming. As a result, preventing many possible viewers from approaching the camera and watching the piece.

What I wanted it to be about, or things that I put in there on purpose:

• embodiment in space of both viewer and performer
• performer highlights interesting aspects of space through movement and vocalization
• video reinforces these
• performer ultimately becomes integrated into the different sensory layers of the space
• viewer becomes embodied simultaneously through immersion and alienation. When they walk away from the piece, they have a heightened awareness of the space.
• 3 phases to video that shifted mood, but also shifted weight of foreground/background between the video and the physical space
• mirroring 3 phases live

What seems to be ideal viewing moment for this piece?

• when the place has some people milling around, or walking from place to place
• when I appear live in the space as well, especially when singing. even if the singing isn't the same tune as the video piece.

If I did piece like this again, conditions I would insist upon:

• layered space: a place where there are people walking through, different points of entry and exit. I tried the piece in 5 different locations, both at WCA and at the Nunnery. The most interesting ones had people in different planes from the viewer walking through the frame. The 2 locations that were enclosed rooms were pretty boring.
• 2-3 days in the space before the performance to rehearse and plot out performance sound and movement. The performance side of things continued to be weak for the whole weekend. My performance skills are at a point where I still need to have a clear plan in place ahead of time. I can't wing it and hope for the best, even if I love improv. Sticking to a path and controlled movement on Sunday made me feel like I was starting to get there, and allowed me to find a good pitch to my performance over time. I was hoping that having all this time would do exactly that. However, in the future, I need to have this time BEFORE the actual performance!
• 2-3 full days of shooting with rough edits performed each evening or on the fly. Although I felt good about the work I did in the Nunnery. I ended up limiting my possibilities by only taking half a day there. Things that I thought would work together when reviewing the tape in the space ended up not working together at all. Editing is so easy with final cut these days!

But what exactly is the main point of interest or focal point of the piece?

• is it about the space?
• is it about the performer? in the foreground or the background?
• the viewer? alienated or immersed?
• the articulation of space through movement? sound? alienation? interruption? integration?
• my embodiment as a performer within my body? surroundings? in relation to the technology? the viewer?

Other things I felt or heard repeatedly:

• When I think back on this weekend, I feel like I'm playing a conceptual tennis match. Except no one's keeping score.
• live performance was chaos until Sunday. On Sunday, I had time to find something to do with myself that seemed to hold things together more. I created a walk for myself around the gallery walking backwards and forwards as if I were another person just looking at the art. However, once in a while I would stop and study something that wasn't the art, or start singing. If someone blocked my path, I reversed direction.It was interesting and seemed to make the piece hold together better.
• the whole piece "worked" on Sunday, but what do I mean by that?
• at what point do I give up and get someone who is a trained performer to do it for me? This question makes me really angry. I feel like there is some assumption that if you're not really good, you shouldn't put yourself in your work. How will I learn if I'm not in the work? And yet ultimately, when does my lack of performance skill get in the way of me communicating what I want to with the piece? I can't answer this right now. Still narrowing down what the piece is about?
• is it really important that people sit behind a camera? What would be other ways of doing this?
• soundtrack was fab.
• I realized that I was most interested in the sonic dimension of the space.
• I am also most interested in exploring the sonic dimension of video. I think. The one piece of this I can clarify right now is that I think the true power of video rests in its marriage of both sound and image.
• most people wanted to sit with the piece longer than one cycle. This is good. However, the underlying criticism of this is that I should have made the piece longer, chosen maybe 1 mood, or made each section longer.
• The discussion on Saturday kept coming back to the idea of audience expectations. This was most interesting because it made me think about all the unexpected, or extraneous things that audience members might focus on with my piece. For example, the whole thing about people spending ages in the space and not touching my piece because they didn't really it was a piece and the signifiers for a camera on a tripod are not to approach. This throws a whole new debate about my piece out there. And I need to be careful about such things because it can detract from what I am more interested in communicating with people.
• The other thing that comes to mind about being trapped behind the camera is that one of the interesting things about Janet Cardiff's video walks was that even though the viewer is behind the camera, their bodies are in motion, which seems like a freer way of experiencing the piece and perhaps enhances the viewer's embodiment of the piece. (I do believe Harriet made some comment along these lines when she viewed my test piece!)
  
• The piece was TOO hidden. I didn't want the performance to be in your face. But I wanted people to be aware of it. People were aware of my presence more than they were of the video. Sadly, my presence was nowhere near as interesting as the video.
• Do I need to be in the space to make the piece "work"? Are people walking away with what I intended when my presence in real time isn't there?
• Do I need to control when the viewers encounter me in the physical space?
• Is it interesting to have it unravel completely differently for every viewer?

Nunning.

Hi Blog! How are you? I have been neglecting you.
There have been things that I felt the urge to post, but wanted to elaborate on. I regret that this has led to nothing being posted in a month?! Good grief.

And now my performance at the Nunnery is imminent. I'm really curious to see how it goes. It's been very interested to be present during the curation of the show. I tried to throw in my two cents here and there, but of course I know nothing about these matters. Overall, I feel like my presence over the last couple of days was appreciated and there's been a great, casual collaboration amongst us as we run our thoughts and ideas past each other. I think it's also been invaluable to just be in the space so that I'm not walking in tomorrow night only having spent a couple of hours in there previously.

I'm terribly nervous about the private view tomorrow night. My main fear is that the whole place will become hushed when I start singing. Now that I'm typing it, I can see how it might actually be incredibly bizarre and powerful. But the assumption that I have about my audience is that they're expecting a Performance, a prepared song, something worth shutting up and listening to. I'd rather they just kept on talking. I like the disjunction that my piece is creating with this weird, out-of-time thing people and the space are just doing their thing in the present tense around it.

Other than that, I think it's going to be a fantastic experience and exhausting and that by Sunday I'll have a rhythm to it. I'm happy with the video, with the voiced and unspoken reactions my "test audience" has been having to it. Wish the private view was Sunday...must go in tomorrow early and just try some things out and continue to get to know the space.

I really want this to go well.

Loopy Logic

Doug sets up a scenario in a program called Isadora for the Group Show "family" portrait studio and says that it's a great program for live video manipulation, etc.
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I start researching Isadora and other object oriented programming
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My brain hurts, so I start researching artists
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I find out that Laurie Anderson worked with a video artist called Mark Coniglio on her current project (which I am seeing April 30! wee!)
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I think "hm, Mark Conigilio, that sounds familiar."
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Mark Coniglio wrote Isadora (see above)

Enough of this annoying format:
Conigilio is also one of the artistic directors of a multimedia/dance company called Troika Ranch. Their most recent piece is called "Loop Diver." I want to read the blog they have about it in more detail, but I have an initial reaction to some videos they've posted on YouTube. It seems like in their video BKLYN and in devising the choreography in Loop Diver, they are using the technology to drive what the human bodies are doing. In descriptions of other works on their website, the have developed tools that trigger sound, video and graphical images that respond to the shape and movement quality of the dancers, but aren't necessarily of the dancers. Particularly sound seems to be some pre-recorded composition that isn't based on the sounds coming from the performers.

Contrast to some of my interests:
- the body of the performer triggers the sound and video
- that sound and video content is the performers' body (movement, sound, speech), not just triggered by it.

here are some of Troika Ranch's video sketches (I also like the fact that they're posting sketches of their process):






This last one is a bit bausea inducing as it goes along and not recommended if you are seizure prone. Otherwise, very interesting experiment and the first bit before it gets all manic is so beautiful.

It's all Geek to me!

I'm researching tools that should help me realize my vision of a live melee comprised of body-based sounds and images (keep those fart jokes to yourself!)

Although there has been discussion previously, today is serious Day One on that journey. So much so that I'm unable to communicate what I've learned so far.

I will post links:

Object oriented programming software:
Isadora - http://www.troikatronix.com/isadora.html
Max/MSP - http://www.cycling74.com/products/maxmsp
PureData - http://puredata.info/

Microcontroller hubs, boards, something like that... (laugh now, but in a month I'll be looking at you as if you're a luddite because you don't know what I'm talking about):
Arduino - http://arduino.cc/
Eroktronix - http://www.eroktronix.com/

Here's my favorite quote of the day:
So if you yearn for an electromagnetic catapult that flings jelly at the audience every time you rattle your tambourine, or a USB incense burner which radiates progressively stronger smells as the temperature in the church hall rises, Pure Data can help you achieve this!

****YES!****



I just wrote, re-wrote, and deleted a paragraph of panicky apprehension about going down this route. I realize that I need to stave off the panic until I really invest the time to at least try to learn some of this because I can see that proficiency in this type of programming will lead to lots of interesting possibilities moving forward.

Next steps:
- try these things out
- understand enough to be able to ask the right questions to get the help from others that I need.

Assessment round 1 site

Uploaded the website I designed for this first round of assessments.

Click HERE to view!

The only thing missing from the site are the workshop outlines I created for the ones I conducted myself. I'm happy to share them with folks on the course if you're curious. Just email me or comment here and I'll send them to you.

From the archives: Learning Agreement

Before posting my Research Proposal, I thought I'd post the Learning Agreement and outline of research interests that J.M. asked us to submit to him before our first critical studies tutorial. Might as well let it all hang out, eh? I post these as is, without comment from the over-active peanut gallery in my head.

Aims (outline the purpose, scope, visions and ambition of your plan of work)

Research
1. Conduct a brief historical survey of avant garde performance

2. Select and begin analysis of 3-4 contemporary performance groups who work across disciplines, and who use improvisation to devise performances and/or incorporate improvisation into the final piece

3. Review the practices of a range of solo artists/performers who incorporate multiple disciplines into their work.

Practice
1. Explore an interdisciplinary solo performance practice

2. Begin to conduct improvisation-based workshops with artists from different backgrounds


2 Objectives (The expected objectives leading towards the learning outcomes of the unit)

Research
1. The historical survey will allow me to more clearly explain the lineage that my work is part of. I also hope to learn more specifics about techniques used throughout avant garde performance to give me a solid framework upon which to build new exercises that will translate well into a contemporary interdisciplinary performance.

2. Case studies of contemporary groups will give me some models currently in practice to help situate myself within contemporary practice, either aligning with or reacting against trends that come up. Focussing on a few groups instead of doing an overview survey will also give me insight into how companies present their work to the outside world and how it is critiqued.

3. Looking at solo performers will give me inspiration for exploring a solo performance practice that draws on my training in several disciplines, and ideas for engaging the audience when there is only one person to focus on.

Practice
1. Solo practice will give me another perspective on how the techniques I am developing for the workshops translate when applied to another performance mode. I will also be able to determine whether I would like to develop a solo performance practice in its own right or if it is simply a useful tool for a deeper understanding of exercises that I will be sharing with others.

2. The weekly workshops will give me experience in running workshops, explore modes of creative expression available in a performance context, test out exercises that come out of my research to see if they translate well to a group of artists from mixed backgrounds and/or are good at fostering a strong, collaborative group dynamic. At the end of this term, I would like to have a stronger sense of a good progression of exercises to use in workshops so that I can focus on devising a final performance with a group of artists who are serious about participating in this performance.

3 The Plan of Work describing the principal stages and timescale of the work

1) Historical survey 3-4 weeks

i. Determine initial bibliography and start reading (in progress)

ii. Locate any visual reference that could be useful in development of practice (ongoing)

iii. Develop outline highlighting key themes, moments, movements, artists that are particularly relevant to my practice (Dec)

2) Solo performance 6 weeks
i. Determine list of solo artists to explore further (in progress)

ii. Sketch ideas that spring from research, workshops & lectures (ongoing)

iii. Weekly dedicated practice time to try out ideas (ongoing)

iv. Outline themes and issues that have arisen from practice and research (Dec/Jan)

3) Group Workshops 7 weeks
i. Evaluate techniques from ongoing research (historical, contemporary & solo practice)

ii. Develop workshop plans for weekly workshops with an informal group of artists (weekly)

iii. Describe workshop plan and evaluate each workshop after its been conducted (weekly)

iv. Analyze themes in critique that has arisen from workshops at end of term (Dec/Jan)

4) Selection of contemporary practitioners for case studies 8 weeks
i. Review contemporary companies on VLP website (complete)

ii. Attend performances in London (ongoing)

iii. Select companies for deeper review (Dec)
• Access to information on group, documentation of performances

NY Times article on new video art.

Fantastic article about some video artists that are grabbing attention in the art world. Ryan Trecartin is a YouTube buddy of mine who somehow found me shortly after I joined. He had a video in the Whitney Biennial a few years ago that was one of the few pieces that held any interest for me. The piece was 40+ minutes long and I was actually compelled to stand and watch most of it. So glad to see he's getting more press!


Anyway, interesting article and am curious to learn more about the other artists listed.


Hope this link works!

The Visual Language of a sound artist.

This was a weekend of experimental music. Started on Friday with a trip to the ICA for the first night of the "Atlantic Waves" festival which was being put on as part of the Wire's 25th anniversary. Full house for 3 sets that took solo artists and put them together for live improvisations. Two of the sets had video. The last video set wasn't bad, (I got to meet the artist at a gig on Sunday, but for some reason was confused and thought he had performed on Saturday...). This photo below is of one of the artists he performed with, but I don't think the visuals are his. The image is more to illustrate the vibe at these things...



I thought the best set was the second one without any visuals. There wasn't anything inherently more gripping about the stage presence of this group. What was effective was that they chose to perform in near darkness. There was a little bit of blue light, a dull glow off the video screen, and the light from some of the laptops. This cut a beautiful silhouette of their shapes, which was nice to look at when you felt like opening your eyes, but otherwise clearly instructed the audience members to listen. Paul commented afterwards that his mind had wandered in and out of listening to the music, but when it wandered it ended up thinking the most creative thoughts. The same thing had happened to me!

On Sunday, we went to a church in Islington and heard more experimental music. Most of the musicians at this gig were playing accoustic instruments or home-made electronics (as opposed to laptop). They also seemed to have more presence as performers overall. Joao (the video artist from Friday) was playing a bell for one set and at a point, he decided it would be a good idea to wander around the church with the bell creating a nice visual and aural effect. There was also a double bass player who was incredible to watch. His body was intensely engaged in his playing and he had a manner to his movement that almost made it look like a dance duet between the double bass and himself. Particularly effective because the double bass is about the same size as a person. Musicians like this are what I think of when I hear the word "embodiment". He and his instrument were one entity and playing it was like breathing to him. I could've watched him play for hours. And he seemed like he could have played for days.

Don't have his name with me at the moment. Will update this when I do. Please kick me for not introducing myself and getting his contact info.

I'm need to briefly rant about boring visuals and lack of stage presence at these types of events. I often sense that reclusive musicians might think that video will allow them to get lost in the visuals or distract the audience from looking at them when in fact, the video is making the audience watch more intently. I've worked with alot of shy musicians and we usually end up figuring out how they could "hide" better, including putting a dancer in front of the screen so the focus will be on them. Now, of course, I'd like to work with musicians who want to find more interesting ways to deal with being on stage and work towards a sense that everything happening between performers, instruments, technology, etc is a coherent whole. Maybe it's improvised, but there's an intention to communicate a total experience to the audience. (Golly, what do I mean by that? Gonna leave it in anyway.)

Prying.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Been watching clips of work by several different artists on UbuWeb today.

I've been struck by several of the pieces, but wanted to write a bit about Vito Acconci's video Prying. It's described as a video of a performance that he did with Kathy Dillon at a "New York University." My assumption was that it would be a pretty distant, impersonal documentation of the performance. From the little slice of Acconci's work that I'm familiar with, I should have known better! The camera is right in close up on Dillon's face while Acconci tries to pry her eyes open. For 21 minutes. Acconci is this faceless, mostly bodiless pair of aggressive hands. It's all about the woman's struggle against him.

I think this video is a wonderful example of an artifact from a performance that stands alone after the fact. I even question whether the intensity would be parallel if you had actually been witnessing the performance. I want to assume that it was as intense because of the dynamic that I know can carry between audience and performer even if you are not as close up as this camera. Presuming that's the case, the only was to transpose that emotion into a filmed format is to do exactly what they did: get in close.

My heart is still racing after watching this. There's also a wonderful breaking of the 4th wall about 15-17 mins in where Dillon's movement trying to escape the prying fingers knocks the couple into the cameraman and suddenly, the audience has been acknowledged - a hallmark of Acconci's work, but somehow more impactful here through that unintentional act than when he's demanding that you pay attention to him.