Blog #4: Review of Final Performances

At the "diaspora, displacement, dislocation and the creation of the new community`" performance festival, artist showed common interest in a variety of themes. However, this review will focus on how individual and cultural identities are expressed through the language of media. While this subject was pertinent to my own work, it was also explored within other performances.

http://ykonishi.wordpress.com/

In his performance "This is Why I Don't Go to Gym", Yota enacted the displacement of the physical body within the digital interface by using old computer parts as weights, and workout equipment. Yota states: "Being at an art school, I’ve spend too much time in front of a computer researching, reading and writing… etc. I’m tired of them all. I feel I need to do some exercise."

I similarly explored the the dislocation of the body within the digital in my performance"Interface". My performance additionally explored the interconnected nature of language and identity by creating a continuous loop between such elements. For 3 minutes I typed a stream of consciousness on my lap top. The words were simultaneously projected onto my face, which was wrapped in white cloth.

http://puetamilenio.wordpress.com/

Ruben also inquired about how identity is portrayed and displaced through the language of media in his video "yOUR dADdY". He states "The sequence shows the same young person mesmerize by the TV, playing drums and sitting in a contemplating state. It also shows the images display in the TV which are the images of the same young guy playing drums". Through this portrait of his friend as a musician / artists juxtaposed with static and incomprehensible television images, his video work both unravels and hypnotizes through repetition. The dislocation of personal identity in this piece and is support by Ruben's examination of "the mental dislocation we, the viewers, suffered by the media each time we sit down and watch TV".

http://deryafvim322.blogspot.com/

Derya explored how the "satanist's" have been represented culturally through images and documentary. He further participated in this process by creating his own zine, which was quite saturated with diverse representations of the satanist group. His work suggests that in media's attempt to document a cultural group, because the decentralized nature of the representations of groups on the internet, cultural identities become confused and inaccessible. This was further proven by the fact that although he held and advertise an online chat to further explore this phenomenon, no one participated.

Within the context of this assignment I will not be able to discuss all of the performance works. However, I will briefly mention that the other issues present within the festival include the reinvestigation of identity through the shedding of outer layers, cultural/gender/inter-species hybridity, and the creation of new structures and meaning with organic and reusable materials.