The performance is a commentary on how today we as people are so distracted and unable to focus on anything. This can be due to not having enough time to properly do one task at a time and as such people split their attention amongst a variety of devices. Never quite fully focusing on any of them in the vain attempt to make up for time they may not have. Or this can be interpreted as our attention spans decreasing to such a degree that we can't focus on one thing. In the past people were content to focus on one or maybe two things but now we have many sources of distraction that keep our attention split and unorganized. Lastly, it can show that today's world is extremely quick and busy, and as such people have to keep up with this by quickly moving from thing to thing never slowing down for the risk of missing out on something or missing some important news.
The performer at the beginning of the piece acknowledges the camera but quickly is diverted away and never makes eye contact with the camera. Even in their own performance, they are distracted by their devices. They don't even try to stay in the frame of the camera moving about as if they forget it was there. Only at the very end do they then look at the camera to finish the performance. If they were to just look at the camera then the performance would have ended sooner, or if they never looked then theoretically the performance would have gone on forever. The performer could have been indefinitely distracted by the devices around them,
The artist I was inspired by was Shaun Leonardo and most primarily his performance of a fake wrestling match with an unseen opponent. In this performance of mine, I embody the role of a distracted person busy with some form of work. This work is fictitious as nothing is really being done. Yet, I appear to be busy with something. 'That project is entitled “You Walk”: as guests pass through this hallway, they encounter different text prompts that invite them to slow down. In the poetics of the text, I’m asking an individual to not only create their own associations with their lived experience but also imagine that same movement embodied by a very different person. ' (Performance, Pedagogy, and Philosophy ). Anybody can relate to what the person in the performance is doing and many have 1:1 done these exact actions when doing some task. Some people may do it more or less than others but most anybody today has encountered or done this exact behavior before. "When we "see" a landscape, we situate ourselves in it. If we "saw’ the art of the past, we would situate ourselves in history." (John Berger, pg. 11).
Related Quote:
"The painting enters each viewer’s house. There it is surrounded by his wallpaper, his furniture, his mementos. It enters the atmosphere of his family. It becomes their talking point, it lends its meaning to their meaning. At the same time it enters a million other houses and, in each of them, is seen in a different context, Because of the camera, the painting now travels to the spectator rather than the spectator to the painting. In its travels, its meaning is diversified. (John Berger, pg 19-20).
Video Link https://youtu.be/OgLw78Cv__g
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