conflicting perception

conflicting perception

It is possible for anyone to experience hallucinations or dreams whether it be from lack of sleep, chemical imbalance, or glucose deficiency. Through performance, a persona of Cam caused the unconscious (an internal perception) to confront the conscious audience. The audience’s reaction became an experiment; whose results were left to chance. Can people disconnect themselves from verbal command? How great is the affect on their conscious state of mind when they realize the subject spoken to is not within their field of perception? “Fundamentally an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism—something it is like for the organism” (Thomas Negal, 1974, What Is It Like To Be a Bat? The Philosophical Review, Vol. 83, No. 4, pp. 435 ).

My intention was to test reaction of the audience and address this aspect of the perception of reality and unreality.  Most of the performance was led by audience reaction, so minimal planning was involved. 

In the future, I plan to work with this similar idea and expand conflicting perception by performing a longer piece with a larger audience.  More regulations will be created as such “audience comments” or specific words will trigger the character’s performance.  I will practice and experiment with other unintentional audiences so that my speech and performance can become even more natural or professional.  I’m also thinking of adding additional characters whether through myself or another actor.  

Picture 1 from Performance, Conflicting Perception, 2010.

Picture 2 from Performance, Conflicting Perception, 2010.