Digital Dirt
3 hours per day
27-04-2019 & 14-05-2019
Plan.d Produzentengalerie
Düsseldorf, Germany
This performance is dealing with the idea of ‘consent’ and how easily it can be manipulated and misinterpreted. In a society where everything is available and fed to us, we think everything is for free. We lose sight of the fact, that what we do may have repercussions which are affecting other people.
Description:
An arcade video game booth is placed in a box in one room room of the gallery. On the screen visitors can see what is going on in the a second room. The actions there are streamed over Facebook to the arcade game. When the audience chooses to press a button the apparatus activates a ventilator placed under the skirt of the performer in the second room. The performer’s skirt is lifted, who remains passive. Shortly after, an air pressure cannon shoots dirt into the performer’s face.
Description of the performance step by step:
1. The public enters the first room of the gallery, they are invited to enter the cabin.
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2. One by one, they enter the cabin and have the option the press a button on an arcade game that dictates the action of the performance. The public is able to see a live video streaming on the screen of the arcade game monitor of what is happening in a second room, where the live performance is. The whole performance is streamed via Facebook.
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3. After the button is being pressed, the action of the performance begins. The performer’s skirt is being lifted by a ventilator.
4. When the skirt is no longer lifted, a machine shoots dirt at the performer.
Idea:
This performative installation is about consent and how consent is one of the few things that cannot be blurred out or miss-interpreted. Ideally. Using the symbol of upskirting, this performative installation is representing what is happening behind an upskirt that has been done without consent.
The installation consists of two parts, happening in two separate rooms. The first room is where the arcade game is and also where the public can take the decision to press the button that starts the upskirting and thus dictating the performace’s action. The second room is where the performer is, and where the automated upskirt takes place. The performer’s skirt is lifted by a ventilator and shortly after the performer is shot in the face with dirt. The performer is passive all the way throughout the performance.
When an unconsented upskirt picture is taken, the one who takes it is active and the person being upskirted is passive. If the photos are uploaded on various websites they are viewed by many people, some of them would probably not do the upskirting themselves yet still they click on it. The convenience of upskirting or downblousing has reached a point where one can simply access it on their phone in an immediate state of intimacy.
This performance is also about how we decide to look at privacy, what privacy is and how much we need to be invaded before we start thinking about it. It is about what happens to us online, about how lighthearted we take everything just because we are behind a screen.
Objectifying of women has been there for a long time. Unfortunately, the mentality of objectifying women and not only women has not changed much over time.
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