The voice program that I used was the best I could find with some intonation in it. A Japanese friend had wanted to learn British English versus an American accent, so I had found this program to assist him in pronunciation.
For this project, I was inspired by my Internet friends to create this piece as many Japanese couples don't have children and only have each other to deal with. There were severals times in particular that my friends would begin arguing while talking to me on Skype or MSN Messenger and try to outdo each other in embarrassing one another. We saw this material as being appropriate for discussing relationships and married life in American culture.
My collaborator was also interested in this topic as we had created several other works together in the past. She was interested in the viral aspect of the Internet in relation to "life on the net." Socializing online becomes another life that is separate from our own. Our interests and behaviors can adapt and change to virtual space.
While researching another performer, Michael Smith, I was interested to find that his concept was about individuals trapped within a media-saturated society. At first, I related his idea to the Internet, but was a little surprise to find that he was talking about television. After seeing the timespan for which he had began creating works, I realized that the Internet was not widely accessible to the public during those times. I was inspired to see this connection between the influence of television and commercials to the power of the computer in our time.
Technology does tend to make things more difficult as our previous sessions had went more smoothly. The delay and length of the piece both need to be shorten. As I see, most performance artists who use deadpan humor, I think keeping the performance brief is key. With shortening the piece and adding a structured outline and punchline for the piece, I think it would become a funny commentary. Overall, I wasn't feeling very creative that week, so being able to break through and work with this performance was very inspiring.
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The subtext to this performance, (I mean about your Japanese friends who seem to squabble and drive eachother nuts) is fascinating. It helps me see where you are really trying to go with this performance.
Regarding your research on Michael Smith, and your update of his concept, bringing technology into the realms of hyper-speed, long-distance communication, I think your incorporation of the technological elements is right on.
what if your friend was present *live* but on a web-cam? Or perhaps you work with two people, one who is performing live on the webcam (thereby confusing the perceptions and timing of the dialogue further) and one carrying the compter at her face/heart/whereever, not saying anything but expressing with her/his face/body? Just an idea.
I think that shortened and structured a little more it could become a very funny piece about the way we relate or don't.
Your work is always intriguing and often fun, mostly because of your ability to transform into characters and literally shed ashell in going from one persona to the next. You have a tangible confort with performing and flowing with the variables that turn up during your pieces.
In another class, I wanted to use this material somehow. I tried this.. how do you think this compares with the live performance?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWfuk1HAR30