Between Saying and Doing
Above: Video documentation of the performance Between Saying and Doing.
Between Saying and Doing is an intervention performance initiated at Eva and Franco Mattes (http://www.0100101110101101.org) Synthetic Performances exhibition in Second Life on April 4th 2008 and is currently ongoing. The aims of the Synthetic Performances were to re-enact historical 20th century performances within virtual environments effectively questioning physicality and being by creating a conflict with performances traditionally perceived role.
Between Saying and Doing takes Eva and Franco Mattes work as its starting point and relates it to the artist’s ideas appropriated from Keith Arnatt in performances entitled Trouser – Word Piece. Questioning the role of the artist, identity and being, Between Saying and Doing considers in an ironic manner how new media as an environment reconfigures the artists practice, simultaneously expanding possibilities of expression and communication while undermining existing value systems.
The performance purposefully plays on ideas of layering; representations of identity and place within itself i.e. the use of my real life (RL) name in Second Life (SL) and the framing of the video documentation to include the computer desktop, a window from RL into a virtual ‘place’ which itself holds a window into SL; the layering of a narrative, a ‘text’, about the work within the work etc.
Above: Click image for a gallery of performance photos.
Above: Click image for a gallery of performance photos taken in front of various art works in Secondlife.