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"Separate" |
a
screaMachine proposal |
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"Separate" is
a technology enhanced performance project created to
take place in the streets and parks in New York City.
"Separate" comprises two similar performers,
clad in white jumpsuits, each starting at one of two
city parks. Each has a video projector slung around his
neck, projecting an animated b/w video onto the path
ahead of him, as he walks. They each pull a weighted
milk crate, behind them, on a rope. The contents of the
crate are unknown, inside a black garbage bag. The animations
show a homeless character walking and crawling on the
streets of New York. The performers make slow progress,
pulling their burdens, constantly with their eyes on
the projection just ahead of their feet. They pass each
other en route, without acknowledgement, and continue
on to the park that the other had left. They remove the
projector from around their neck and hang it on an overhead
bracket, then remove newspapers from their milk crates
and lay them out in the pool of projected images from
the projectors overhead. They settle down for the night
on the newspapers, with the projections dancing on and
around them. The performance ends when the light of a
new day bleaches out the projections.
SEPARATE is a multimedia artwork that addresses issues
of homelessness, disenfranchisement and isolation. It
raises concern about the burden of trying to exist in
an increasingly technological society, where identity
is reliant on participation.
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Two performers carrying
projection rigs, travel the streets of New York City, dragging
their respective burdens. They are clad in simple white
overalls and move slowly, with heads lowered, following
the dancing light composed of projected moving images.
They pass each other, without acknowledgment, en route
to their resting spot for the night.
Once at their respective destinations (which was the location
the other performer had started from), they unpack newspapers
from their sacks and lay them out as bedding, filling the
area of the projections. They spend the night resting on
the newspapers till dawn, when the performance ends. |
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A camera crew tracks each
performer throughout. There is no fixed audience, just
on-lookers who may watch till the park closes. The camera
crew remains till the performance ends at dawn. Film permits
will be obtained.
Generators will be provided for electricity. Equipment
will be mounted on free standing rigs. |
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| Video
Projections: animated scenes of a homeless character
crawling, walking and laying in the same neighborhoods
that the performances will take place. The videos will
be looped, forming a continuum, not a narrative. The
videos for each performer are similar, but different
and the performers handle their tasks in a similar but
different manner. Samples shown are samples featuring
East Village backdrops. |
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"Separate" is
a performance series that mixes technology with live
action performance. The struggle of the performers, as
they follow their predestined paths, is enhanced by the
animated imagery projected onto the ground ahead of them.
Images of individual struggle are projected into this
live scene of a man pulling a weight. With the metaphorical
weight of the world in tow, each performer makes slow
progress in solitude, not noticing another in a similar
struggle. Upon reaching his destination, he rests, ironically
in the same spot recently vacated by the man he just
passed, who, in turn, currently inhabits the spot the
first just left. It implies a continuum of changing locations,
a migration from one point to another in an endless struggle
to take rest from the burdens of the world and of the
individual.
The projections continue through the night, saturating
each performer until dissipated by the advent of a new
day. While this might represent a new beginning, we also
must recognize the inevitable approach of another night.
The use of the newspapers as protection from the ground
and wind, indicate the character's complete absorption
in, and link to, the world outside of his isolation. The
movements of forces beyond his control which invisibly
affect his life, represented by the newspapers, become
a source of comfort, though provide scant protection against
the local troubles of his existence.
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By
repeating this performance at different location pairs,
the artist presents an image that persists through time
and location, that is more than just a freak occurrence,
that represents the possible for all times, all locations
and all people.
"Separate" provides a metaphor for struggles of mankind against the
world of their creation. To be human is to struggle with
the human condition, but it is also to struggle to exist physically within
the constructs of mankind... even the most far removed tribal communities are
effected by, and interconnected with, world affairs, the internet, cell phones
and other technological achievements. The trials of nature have all but been
replaced by human constructs, especially in the Western world, so the struggle
for survival becomes a struggle to fit in to society and to function as befits
a productive member of the community. While we all experience a degree of personal
isolation, those outside of society suffer an isolation uniquely extreme; the
struggle to survive within the system is doubled by the rejection inherent
in that system; personal isolation is compounded by physical, technological
and financial isolation.
Like a modern Sisyphus, or Beckett's iconic walkers, the performers are locked
into a pattern of endlessly moving a weight, a burden, while surrounded by reminders
of their status and the workings of the machine that provides their burdens.
With the presence of camera crews, issues of privacy and individual space, surveillance
and voyeurism veil the scene. |
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