Post on 08-Feb-2023
Universität für künstlerische und industrielle Gestaltung
Kunstuniversität Linz
Institut für Medien
Interface Cultures
SPATIAL MIMESIS
Carnal Identity at Intercultural Spaces
LENKA KLIMEŠOVÁ
Masterarbeit
Zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades
Master of Arts
Betreut von:
Univ. Prof. Dr. Christa Sommerer
Univ. Prof. Dr. Laurent Mignonneau
Univ. Prof. Dr. Karin Harrasser
Datum der Approbation: 2.6.2014
Unterschrift des Betreuers/der Betreuerin:
Linz, 2014
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people, places, and
institutions for their theoretical and technical wisdom, and
support in realizing both this thesis and the art projects that
shaped it:
First of all thank to my parents and sister for their faith,
insight and constant support.
I am indebted to my Czech and international friends-
artists, namely Isabel Yuri Shida (Japan), Ond ej Pokorný (Czechř
Republic), Maja Štefan íková (Slovakia) and Arwa Ahmedč
Ramadan (United Arab Emirates), for long debates about art,
different cultures, customs and life itself that helped me to see
the things from a different point of view and subsequently
resulted in collaboration on various artistic projects, some of
them mentioned in the thesis.
I am thankful I could study at Interface Cultures and meet
many great friends and artists and least but not last get the
opportunity to visit Japan and study at Institute of Advanced
Media Arts and Sciences. My research in Japan heavily
influenced my thesis.
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Many thanks go to my supervisors and professors for their
time, knowledge and support, especially Christa Sommerer for
inspiring suggestions and encouragement throughout the
development of the thesis.
Special thanks to Pippa Buchanan for English corrections,
proofreading and general feedback.
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ABSTRACT
The practical and theoretical part of the thesis deals with
the topic of mimesis. It focuses primarily on themes such as
mimicry, mask, masquerade and camouflage. The text is set in
the context of visual culture theory, gender and postcolonial
studies, sociology, semiology, epistemology and media art scene.
The practical part deals primarily with the concept of
performance including an interaction between spectator and
author based on the theory of gaze. The body is exposed like a
playful tangible disguise revealing social construct.
The thesis primarily concentrates on mimesis as mimicry –
pretending the example, instead of imitation - following the
example. Individual theories and artworks focus on different ways
of perceiving and identifying mimesis in five cases: mimesis in
society, in reality, in play, in art and in interaction. Mimesis
mostly appears in combination with the above mentioned cases
therefore I use the term spatial mimesis because it always exists
in combinations, such as carnal identity within intercultural
spaces.
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CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 7
2. MIMESIS IN THE ROLE MODELS................................................................... 12
2.1. CYBORGS AND THE CONCEPT OF ALTERITY......................21
2.1.1. ERROR STAGE IN FIVE LAYERS.......................................29
2.2. INFORMATION RHIZOME IN THE MEMESPACE.....................30
3. MIMESIS IN THE PERFORMATIVE................................................................... 34
3.1. THE POLITICS OF PERFORMANCE...............................................36
3.2. THE STRUCTURE OF PERFORMANCE........................................38
3.3. THE INTERCULTURAL PERFORMANCE .....................................40
3.3.1. THE TAKARAZUKA REVUE.................................................. 48
3.3.2. JAPANESE IDOLS...................................................................... 51
3.3.3. BUTOH............................................................................................ 53
3.4. MIMESIS.......................................................................................................... 56
4. MIMESIS IN PLAYFULNESS / PLAYILLNESS...........................................58
4.1. PLAY PRINCIPLES..................................................................................... 61
4.2. DEVICE ART................................................................................................. 62
4.3. IRONICAL PLAYFULNESS IN CZECH ART.................................65
4.3.1. KATE INA ŠEDÁŘ ........................................................................ 65
4.3.2. DAVID ERNÝČ .............................................................................. 67
5. MIMESIS IN THE ART............................................................................................ 69
5.1. LINK BETWEEN MY PROJECTS AND OTHER ARTWORKS72
5.1.1. FILAMENT....................................................................................... 72
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5.1.2. BEAUTIFUL IS.............................................................................. 75
6. MIMESIS IN THE INTERACTION...................................................................... 77
6.1. FUTURE KISS.............................................................................................. 80
6.1.1. CONCEPT....................................................................................... 80
6.1.2. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION...................................................81
6.1.3. EXHIBITION CONTEXT........................................................... 84
6.1.4. COMPARISON WITH OTHER ARTWORKS.................86
6.2. THE WILL .................................................................................................... 88
6.2.1. CONCEPT....................................................................................... 88
6.2.2. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION...................................................90
6.2.3. EXHIBITION CONDITIONS.................................................... 91
7. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................. 93
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................... 95
9. LINKS............................................................................................................................ 102
10. APPENDIX................................................................................................................ 104
10.1. CURATORIAL TEXTS......................................................................... 104
10.1.1. VIVIANA CHECCHIA, curator and critic...............104
10.1.2. EVA FILOVÁ, curator and artist...............................107
10.2. CATALOGS (selection):................................................................... 108
10.3. REVIEWS AND ARTICLES (selection):....................................109
10.4. VIDEOGRAPHY (selection):............................................................ 112
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1. INTRODUCTION
“At first glance, mimesis seems to be a stylizing of reality in which
the ordinary features of our world are brought into focus by a certain
exaggeration, the relationship of the imitation to the object it imitates being
something like the relationship of dancing to walking. Imitation always
involves selecting something from the continuum of experience, thus giving
boundaries to what really has no beginning or end. Mimêsis involves a
framing of reality that announces that what is contained within the frame is
not simply real. Thus the more "real" the imitation the more fraudulent it
becomes.”
Michael Davis (1992, p.3)
The diploma work deals with the topic of mimesis and its
aspects at different intercultural art works. It mentions artists
whose artworks are associated with the topic and show the
various concepts of mimesis. I analyse the works of
contemporary living artists from different intercultural
backgrounds. I try to compare them with the concept of mimesis
in my own artworks. I look at similar artworks which were
developed at the same time around the world. The term mimesis
is quite wide. I introduce the topic from many perspectives and
theories to be able to deconstruct the chosen artists and their
work.
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Mimesis produces a symbolic world both with practical and
theoretical elements. In comparison with mimicry, mimesis implies
not just the physical but also the mental. It always appears
within the network of at least two and more intertwined subjects
or objects. A symbolic world inevitably possesses a power
dimension. Mimesis in this sense is closely linked with the
constitution of the symbolic worlds that are in practice accepted
as a reality. The artists try to be in contradiction and indicate
the borders of reality or possibly create an alternate world.
That's because the reality doesn't mean naturally the best place
to live. When one notices there is something more behind the
reality the understanding immediately takes place. From birth we
learn by imitating the others. I focus on chosen psychoanalytic
theories to track a path from unconscious to conscious stage of
the imitation.
To begin, I would like to make clear that this work
focuses mainly on mimesis as it is presented in role models
from human-human to human-computer interaction. It is about
communication among people using artistic forms to deconstruct
ordinarily hidden structures of society. Art as a form of
humanism.
In each chapter I focuse on a mimesis in a different
context: mimesis in society, in reality, in play, in art and in
interaction. Mimesis mostly appears in combination with more
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mentioned cases therefore I use the term spatial mimesis
because it always exists in combinations hence as carnal identity
at intercultural spaces. We live in a globalized world. The mix of
cultures often causes a conflict.
In my artworks I want to express an idea in the best
possible way. The message is most important that is why I
always look for the best medium and technique to express my
ideas. Most of all I work with video or interactive projects. The
video has a strong visual language. Video art arises as a protest
against TV commercials. It uses persuasive visual power of
moving image to attract the public. On the other hand,
interactive art pull the public in the artwork immediately. Once
you are in, you can not escape. In interactive happening there is
no fake but video itself is a fake.
I like to work both with simulation in video and
manipulation / persuasion in interactive art. My projects are
divided into backstage and frontstage. My personal world lies in
the video art. The contemporary world events and problems I
want to share with a public in a form of artistic happening.
Personal video messages vs. political manifesto with an activistic
approach. The theories that I mention are related to my
artworks. Every theory is followed by examples of my projects.
The first chapter Mimesis in Society deals with the theories
of role models and memes. It poses questions about the origin
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and development of mimesis. It deals with the idea of networked
society in cyberspace.
The second chapter Mimesis in Reality introduces a
political structure of intercultural performance and the
performative as a source of mimesis. It is about what is
supposed to be a body construction, definition of body in reality
and its deconstruction. As Judith Butler said: “Within speech act
theory, a performative is that discursive practice that enacts or
produces that which it names.”1 In this chapter I explain three
examples of Japanese nomadic performance – The Takarazuka
Revue, Japanese Idols and Butoh.
The third chapter Mimesis in Play explores my own idea of
playillness. I mention the theory of play by Roger Caillois in
comparison with playful element in Japanese Device Art. How are
these theories implicated in production of artworks? What are
the consequences for artwork as well as for children's games?
At the end of the chapter I discuss two Czech artists to analyze
the elements of irony using the concept of playfulness.
The fourth chapter Mimesis in Art compares my two video
artworks FilaMENt and Beautiful is, when at least two persons
find it appealing with similar artworks produced by another
artists.
1 Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "sex", p. 13
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The fifth chapter Mimesis in Interaction introduces my
interactive art projects Future Kiss and The Will. I describe the
artistic concept and its development including technical
background, exposure conditions together with visual
documentation.
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2. MIMESIS IN THE ROLE MODELS
“Mimicry is about developing and participating in an imaginary
universe. Mimicry is about becoming another, to participate within this illusory
world. Mimicry is about becoming another character and behaving as that
character, temporarily shedding one’s actual identity. Mimicry is found in
animal behavior, but in animals (especially in insects), the alternate character
is integrated into the body, is essentially a mask that presents the creature
as something that it is not. Human mimicry is found in ritual and
performance, as well as in make-believe. The simulated nature of make believe
is the essence of spectacle, and lives on in the eyes of the witnesses in
addition to the players.“
Calvin Ashmore (2009, online)
The practical and theoretical part of the thesis deals with
the term mimesthesia. I develop this term which includes several
key concepts of my research interest. It combines a theory of
media memes and psychoanalytic term mimesis together with
carnal issues of somesthesia2. How do memes transmit
performative discourses of power across wired/less cyberspace?
How to deconstruct one's own meme using a tactic of mimesis
methodology? Thus how to express what we want or feel by
modifying a theory by its own strategy? I perceive individual
2 Somesthesia: Peripheral Mechanisms, online: http://michaeldmann.net/mann5.html
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identity as a playful tangible disguise revealing social construct.
Each of these carnal identities contain several layers of cultural
codes. To draw as complete and epistemological picture as
possible I apply diverse theories such as semiotics, feminist and
gender studies, visual culture and postcolonial studies.
The practical part of my research focuses especially on
selected artists who deal with mimesthesia in their works. At the
core of analysis is an aesthetic and conceptual visuality of
mimicry, disguise, masquerade and camouflage as presented in
photography, video performance, interactive and multimedia art.
A crucial aspect includes an interaction between spectator and
author based on the theory of gaze and messages
transmissions/absorptions.
The key part of deconstruction using the term
mimesthesia is to avoid differences, and as a counterpart,
search for similarities. It offers an artistic playful way of
misleading semiotic style against the language itself. One
strategy is not to name a specific gender in my own writing but
to apply a more humanistic term – role model.
Role model is a kind of exemplary example. Its main
content is imitation. A representational model often shows good
or bad examples. Thus providing a picture to which we have to
adapt. Role models confirm their own existence and build up
positions of definable characters. The common experience binds
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human groups and splits different ones up. Role models are
made of many values such as class, race, gender, religion,
location, language and these further constitute an identity.
Exchanging roles assumes information exchange and always
provides new experiences. Changing roles is seemingly very easy
until we face the consequences.
Max Weber defines a social situation in the way that
people focus their behaviour on others. Society acts as an
interactive system3.
Symbolic interactionism4 (Herbert Blumer) connects the
idea of role models with everyday situations in which supra-
individual cultural norms are distributed and applied. The social
roles operate in interaction like collective interpretation schemes
based on negotiation with each other. According to symbolic
interactionism a collective activity connects individuals. The
roles are taken up by individuals selectively. This leads to
personal integration and self-awareness. An ideal role may not
fulfill the current expectations in a social environment. Creation
or modification of the structure of roles is the result of mutual
interaction. Blumer's notion on the role represents a framework
for interpretation of the situation and mutual adjustment of
individuals during their formative transaction negotiations.
3 Peter L. Berger, Pozvání do sociologie : humanistická perspektiva. p.34, translated from Czech4 Berger, Ibid., p.36
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Social psychology works directly with the theory of roles5.
Roles can be understood only in the context of relationships
and can be identified just in the frame of network. They are
divided by assigned qualities (primarily biological - sex, race,
age, origin), obtained by their own efforts - education, popularity
and forced upon them (military service). Playing the role and
creating processes of identities are generally not reflected, it is
almost automatic. Identity is not something given but consists of
acts of social recognition. Role is socially created, maintained
and transformed. Human is the mask you have to wear to be
able to play these roles.
A social role is an expression of the institution. Ralph
Linton6 defined the social role as expected way of behavior tied
to a certain social status. Ralph Dahrendorf7 specifies that a
social role is a kind of mediator between practically based
individual work and its definition under supra-individual valid
cultural norms. Talcott Parsons8 considered that internalized
norms linked to specific social roles are crucial.
Charles H. Cooley9 understands the "I" as an image in the
mirror. At this point we inevitably deal with comparison of widely
cited "mirror stage" by Jacques Lacan. We can only imagine the
5 G. H. Mead (1934) a R. Ponton (1936) are considered as the founders of the theory of roles6 Jaroslav Faltýn, Multikulturní andragogika, p.47, translated from Czech7 Faltýn, Ibid., p.478 Faltýn, Ibid., p.479 Faltýn, Ibid., p.47
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extent to which Lacan was influenced by his older colleague, or
whether it was just a mere coincidence.
Lewis Coser10 emphasizes a distance in a relation to the
role thus an individual distance from the cultural product. The
complexity of the role excludes the possibility of complete
conformity with the role therefore can be regarded as an
inherent social basis of individual freedom.
Erving Goffman11 explains the role as a pattern of verbal
and nonverbal acts which express our opinion on the situation.
Present participants are evaluated, including especially our self-
representation. You must practically occupy the role, regardless
of whether you want to take part or not. The term face
represents a positive social value we effectively claim on our
own role taking over a certain contact.
Alain Touraine12 insists on the role as an agent for
individual and collective control in social areas of uncertainty.
Robert Ezra Park13 found a life in the role to enable a conflict
inside of individual itself. Robert K. Merton14 assumes each of
us does not act in only one role but in a variety of roles. He
introduces a term role-set containing likely expectations based
10 Faltýn, Ibid., p.4711 Kenneth Thompson. Klí ové citace v sociologii : hlavní myslitelé, pojmy a tématač . p.216, translated from Czech12 Faltýn, Ibid., p.4813 Faltýn, Ibid., p.4814 Joshua Meyrowitz, Všude a nikde : Vliv elektronických médií na sociální chování, p.32, translated from Czech
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on the specific social position. The holders of roles must match
the expectations of others. Otherwise a conflict arises. Merton
describes several types of role conflicts. Inter-role conflict occurs
when one performs multiple incompatible roles at the same time.
Intra-role conflict appears when different people have diverse
ideas about the same role. Role ambiguity happens at the
moment when the holder is not sure anymore about its content.
I-role conflict is a mismatch between the capacity of the holder's
role and competencies needed to perform the role.
The role theory offers no practical methods to solve the
role conflicts however it provides models with which we can
make comparisons. The role theory and the sociology of
knowledge are different directions of sociological thought but
both believe the reality is socially created. The structures of our
own consciousness and unconsciousness reflect the structures of
society. Our captivity in these structures is not entrenched by
violence but more by secret insight. Our own prison walls existed
before we appeared on the scene, nevertheless we re-make
them over again.
Reality determines us and we retrospectively determine
reality. As Lacan said, the ego is a social product. “We are only
one product, and one subject to considerable break down. On
the personal level, psychiatric therapy is a species of repair
work; on the social level, scientific policy dictates we use our
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skill to update our biology through social control. Our system of
production has transcended us; we need quality control.“15
Alan Turing16 compares the human brain to a computer.
Imagine a nervous system as the programmable software working
with a brain as a hardware. We can say “if“ you feel the pain,
move out, “if else“ stay calm. The process of learning is like a
process of copying and updating. We are able to modify our
brains a little and calling the brain a “computer“, says Daniel
Dennett17, is accurate, but insufficient. Compare to Goodman's
theory of ”worldmaking as we know it always starts from worlds
already in hand; the making is a remaking.“18 By going to an
extreme ”there are some who never would have loved if they
never had heard it spoken of.”19
Mimesis - an abandoning or a separation of the self from
itself - is effective as a lure for the spectator's gaze, only by
concealing the split by its product - a mask. One can act (attain
a goal) only by stepping into the light, into language; and it is
there that appearance - the self as other, as sign - is forced
into being. This is the realm of the gaze, and the only place
where interaction (through signifiers and code) can occur. The
reconstructed lure, through mimesis, effects a shift from one
15 Donna J. Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women, p.3516 Berger, Ibid., p.13017 Berger, Ibid., p.13818 Berger, Ibid., p.13919 La Rochefoucauld, Maxims, p.136
18
dependence to another. In the picture, says Lacan, you look at
me from the place from which I see you. By "situating [itself] in
the picture as a stain", by inscribing [itself] in it as absence",
the artist's eye controls the spectator's gaze. No longer is it
merely absent from a picture imposed upon it, it is also absent
from a picture it constructs as a lure for another's eye. The
artist invites the person to whom this picture is presented, to
lay down his gaze there as one lays down one's weapons.20
A neutral “look” includes all what we can see but we
don't think about it at the moment. An absent look doesn't
reflect what is happening around. The looking doesn't coincide
with the ideas. On the other hand “gaze” analyzes and
evaluates. It is easy subjected to persuasion. Gaze is able to
smooth the object of interest. The smoothed subject evokes
castration. The artwork seeks always gaze so it must contain an
image of castration in any form. The looking means that the
desire failed and creates a mask – metaphor for gap. This mask
constitutes a place for artists' work.
“Lacan cites Caillois in his description of mimesis as the
organism's defence and technique of camouflage. This
camouflage illustrates the defensive disguise of mimesis as
masquerade which in turn produces the sexual aim. Nature show
us that this sexual aim is produced by all kinds of effects that
20 Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts, p.101
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are essentially disguise, masquerade. So we have an
acknowledgement from Lacan that sexuality is actually produced
as a defensive mimesis. Lacan does not call this mimesis
hysterical, neither does he relate it to the bodily senses,
attributing it to a mental perception or imaginary which is
located of the level of the gaze and the eye.”21
21 Jan Campbell, Film and Cinema Spectatorship: melodrama and mimesis, p.55
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2.1. CYBORGS AND THE CONCEPT OF ALTERITY
“When we break through a fantasy, another takes its
place. So, normally, we live in the scene, and living in
cyberspace is living in the scene.”22
Cyberspace consists of spatial mimesis. It is exactly these
simultaneous layers of realities in which we are able to live at
once – watching a movie, talking with friends, surfing the net
and calling with mom at the same time while we are on a plane
flying abroad. Which reality is more real? The connections of our
communications channels are based on electricity. Even our
heart functions on an electrochemical mechanism. We wallow as
Hybronauts (Krzysztof Wodiczko) in a hybrid space (A. Souza e
Silva, 2006).
Roy Ascott calls this reality syncretic because it brings
together varied technologies (interactive and digital, psychoactive
and chemical), mobile and online communication, and forms of
community (social networking, chat): “Syncretism, historically seen
as an attempt to reconcile and analogise disparate religious
beliefs and cultural practices – seeking likeness within unlike
things – may now serve us in understanding the multi-layered
world views, both material and metaphysical, that are emerging
22 André Nusselder, Interface Fantasy: A Lacanian Cyborg Ontology, p.141
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from our engagement with pervasive computational technologies
and post-biological systems. Syncretism not only destabilises
orthodoxies and challenges language, it may also result in the
release of the self from the constraints of overweening rationality
and totalising dogma. Understanding contemporary reality as
syncretic may lead to changes in the way we regard our
identity, our relationship to others, and the phenomenology of
time and space.”23
Our essence of being, works as a computer using our
brain like a hardware and we appropriate the software by
learning, copying and scanning. The nerves serve here as cables.
Memes use programming language to make memefond. Love and
lust can be programmed. As with computers there are viruses as
well.
“As artists in search of new insights, images, systems and
structures, new intellectual, social and spiritual associations and
relations, we hold within our creative and critical world view five
contemporary truths: our planet is telematic, our media is moist,
our mind is technoetic, our body is transformable, our reality is
syncretic. We are living in a time of the transient hypothesis, the
infinitely mobile point of view, the flexible text, the permeable
image – a transformative art, where permissive paradox prevails
23 Roy Ascott. The Ambiguity of Self: living in a variable reality. In: Ascott, Bast, Fiel, Jahrmann,
Schnell (ed.) New Realities: Being Syncretic. p.23
22
and incompleteness is the form.”24
Open work is a game where next levels infinitely appear
one by one. “Open work does not proclaim the death of form;
rather, it proposes a new, more flexible version of it – form as a
field of possibilities.”25
Cyberspace introduces another way of being – cyborg, the
word coined by NASA scientist Manfred Clynes. “A cyborg is a
cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a
creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction (…) but
the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an
optical illusion.“26
A computer screen can be defined as a mirror reflecting
psychological space of fantasy as it is a theatre stage. The
space of the conceptualization or representation consists of
matrix (zeros and ones database), cyberspace (mental space)
and interface (gate into cyberspace). A digital world combines
symbolic (codes, signs), imaginary (audiovisuals), and real
information (affects, pulses). A computer interface pretends a
fantasmatic window into our unconscious dream mind where we
can call ourselves cyborgs, avatars, alter egos, etc. In this
fascination by virtual others or by an alienated self we try to
identify our desire in something what we are not. Since the real
24 Roy Ascott, Ibid. p.24-525 Umberto Eco, The Open Work, p.10326 Haraway, Ibid., p.149
23
is always mediated we can never get directly to the real.
The virtual mask doesn't need to show what is behind the
mask because the mask itself reveals being. “Only the human
subject – the subject of the desire that is the essence of men –
is not unlike the animal entirely caught up in this imaginary
capture. He maps himself in it. How? In so far as he isolates the
function of the screen and plays with it. Man, in effect, knows
how to play with the mask as that beyond which there is the
gaze. The screen is here the locus of mediation. That reiterates
the defining and the structuring role of the screen, while at the
same time implying that it might be possible for a subject who
knows his or her necessary specularity to exaggerate and/or
denaturalize the image/screen; to use it for protective coloration;
or to transform it into a weapon.”27
According to Irigaray, mimesis poses the human role
models into question. She believes that only by asking through
mimesis will it be possible to affect a paradigm shift in division
of the roles. A language is a form of unification and playful
strategy to keep the borders of power at their place. The most
aggressive models parasite on the others through the diverse
structures such as language, gender, territory, destiny and so
forth.
This human being which is not one plays on its own. Is it
27 Kaja Silverman, Male subjectivity at the margins, p.149
24
possible to be a slave without being aware of it? And what
happens even if we perceive it? “The problem is that they have
the law, still, on their side, and they don't hesitate, when the
occasion arises, to use force (...) to reducing the other to the
Other of the Same.”28 In fact the Other has no Other and just
serves to the Other's parity. The Other of the Same is kept in a
zone of silence – inside of the womb. A function of a role
model is to behave as a chameleon or a creature of multiple
personality to keep its niddering intentions in secret. A material
system works as a set of social relations among people, which
has a material base, and which, though hierarchy, establishes or
creates interdependence and solidarity among one group of
people enabling them to dominate other people.
We can assume a society constantly forces us, thus it
shapes our behaviours. Our significant actions help to keep a
social construction and might help to change it if a suitable
opportunity appears. The control systems still need a
confirmation from those who are controlled. The control can be
escaped in diverse ways – transformation, separation or
manipulation. Social situations can be transformed by negating
their earlier definition - charisma, sabotage. One can internally
dissociate from participation in the subculture. The third way to
escape from the society's tyranny is to manipulate the social
28 Luce Irigaray, This sex which is not one, p.99
25
structures in a different way than is officially expected and in
conformity with our own targets. Playing the role with hidden
goal, or more broadly, playing the role intentionally without
internal identification. “All these forms of escape can be
summarized under the term "ecstasy" – an act, when we secede
of the social routines taken for granted.”29 Liberation from social
roles takes place within the socially given boundaries. There is
always the possibility to get out of the role. Each role implies a
false belief. A false belief is, according to Sartre, when
something that appears optional is actually required: “Falsity is
thus an elusion from freedom.”30 The same social situation, which
may become a snare to false beliefs, may also be an
opportunity for freedom. Freedom presupposes a certain
liberation of consciousness. Sociology contributes to unmasking
the myth. Only when we cross the social routine taken for
granted, it is possible to face the human condition without
comforting mystification. Sociological understanding can not itself
be a school of sympathy but it can shed light on mystifications
which usually cover the heartlessness. “Unlike puppets we can
stop our movement, look back and understand the mechanism
that moves us. This act is the first step to freedom.”31
Most sociologists believe that social roles and their
29 Peter L. Berger, Pozvání do sociologie : humanistická perspektiva, p.146-7, transl. from Czech30 Berger, Ibid., p.15231 Berger, Ibid., p.176
26
subsequent realization depend on the place. Joshua Meyrowitz
sees the traditional link between the physical environment and
social situation as significantly affected by the presence of
electronic media. Media can include or exclude participants of
interactions in the same way as the physical environment does.
They may involve a feeling of affiliation and solidarity as well as
a feeling of exclusion and isolation. Increase or decrease the
principle ”we versus they”. “Mixing the situations changes not
just the behavior patterns of individual roles but also a social
structure itself.”32 Meyrowitz distinguishes three categories – the
role of affiliation ‘being’ (group identity), the role of transition
‘becoming’ (socialization) and the role of authority (hierarchy).
Media affects not only how people behave but also their
ideas about how they should behave. Marshall McLuhan33
compares electronic media to a nervous system with a potential
to cover the whole planet. Erving Goffman34 divides a human
behavior into the 'frontstage' and 'backstage'. Frontstage shows
a behavior that happens publicly. Backstage represents a hidden
private behavior. Frontstage behavior happens in front of public
audience. Frontstage means public. Backstage means private.
Each role model has its own features and explanatory
values. These are applied automatically onto the person which
32 Meyrowitz, Ibid., p.1833 See more Marshall McLuhan, lov k, média a elektronická kulturaČ ě34 Thompson, Ibid., p.217
27
has chosen a given model. The role models are like fashion,
always changing and masquerading, never personal. However, if
we accept depersonalized role models, they become political
role models. Political will is supported by visual culture. Since we
were born, visual culture puts on us image based stimulus. It
teaches us to see our role model, therefore, to understand the
meaning of these stimulus only to a certain extent.
28
Image 1: Error Stage in Five Layers, Lenka Klimešová & Maja Štefan íková,č
video installation, 2011, photo: Nina Bednáriková
2.1.1. ERROR STAGE IN FIVE LAYERS
The video installation Error Stage in Five Layers [Image 1
and 2] deals with the topics mentioned above. I made this
project in collaboration with Maja Štefan íková. The story takesč
place between two video artists, their subconscious and the
audience that creates the fifth layer. The subconscious mind has
the role of the curator who advises authors, what to do or not
to do. The project works with the notion of spectatorship. The
audience is not passive but it is also part of the stage - the art
scene. Artists need spectators otherwise they would not have
anybody to whom they can play.
29
Image 2: [video still] Error Stage in Five Layers, 2011, Lenka Klimešová &
Maja Štefan íkováč
2.2. INFORMATION RHIZOME IN THE MEMESPACE
“Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by
leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes
propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain
to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called
imitation. (...) Once the meme idea is fixed, it is possible to say
that it multiplies and spreads from brain to brain.”35
The meme is more important than the gene because it is
maintained in the cultural awareness. Information about our
existence survives in the brains of others. It attacks more memes
and can eventually become more stable than a gene and
provide its owner a certain immortality. Ideas may affect the
memes of other living people for a long time, if not forever,
even after their death. This is also the fundamental power of the
written word. The famous person is the one media writes about.
Who has better conditions is one who is going to use it. This is
true for both genes and memes. “Memes are passed in an
amended form. This is very different from the way genes transfer
- "all or nothing". It looks like the transmission of memes has
been under constant influence of mutation and mixture.”36 When
interpreting the text or images we involve our own memes
35 Richard Dawkins, Sobecký gen, p.175, translated from Czech36 Dawkins, Ibid., p.177
30
together with new memes arising from the given stimulus. So
memes are not only increasing but permanently evolving. “As in
the case of genes, the fertility itself is more important than the
life of individual copies.”37
A cultural meme fund can be compared to the collective
consciousness. Postmodern culture includes an incredible number
of smaller "meme subfunds". The concept includes various
sources of memes. Meme subfund therefore represents any
medium. Access to the media enables us to automatically
access the memes. Refusal of access is defined as a form of
discrimination. We don't need to worry about survival in the
developed world but instead we worry about participation in the
meme fund. “Selection favors memes that make use of their
cultural surroundings to their advantage. (...) Meme fund assumes
then characteristics of an evolutionarily stable set, in which new
memes can hard to get.”38 An example of such an evolutionarily
stable set can be memeplex (set of properties) of a person.
A meme does not guarantee continuous phenomenon but
contains gaps. It also means that a successful meme is one that
is constantly copied. During copying it is difficult to avoid a
certain selection, in case of escalation, nor genocide. The given
space has a lot to do with predation: “...genes and organisms
are candidates for different and complementary role in our story,
37 Dawkins, Ibid. p.17638 Dawkins, Ibid. p.180
31
the role of vehicle and the role of replicator. (...) Vehicles as we
know best, are the individual bodies, including our own. The
body is not replicator but only the vehicle. (...) Vehicles don't
replicate they only propagated their replicators."39 Replicators
improve vehicles too. The replicator is also a DNA molecule. A
meme itself is hardly subject to change. Change starts with the
arrival of a new meme that disrupts the existing experience of
the old meme. The behavior of the memes are strikingly
reminiscent of the behavior of rulers (vehicles) controlled by
these memes. War arises due to a disruption, “...the most
important fundamental determinant of the success and spread of
memes are the parameters of our psychological mechanisms.”40
The role is a summary of certain properties. It combines
symbolic, textual and visual information. The task of the role is
to be readable and recognizable to other people. We have
constructed identity to facilitate orientation. We have created a
role to describe the boundaries. Territory divided by borders is
easier to find and locate on the map. Our position has two
parts - internal and external role. The internal role plays within
the existential Self and supports our self-awareness. It
outperforms by the action even the ego itself: “It includes not
only conscious but also unconscious psyche, and therefore we
39 Dawkins, Ibid., p.22840 Chris Barker, Slovník kulturálních studií, p. 115, translated from Czech
32
can say this person is me myself.”41 Carl R. Rogers distinguishes
between who we want to be (the ideal "I") and who we really
are (the real "I").
According to Freud42, every individual is a mixture of the
properties of both feminine and masculine and clear manhood
or womanhood does not exist. Carl Gustav Jung uses the term
animus and anima. Animus represents the feminine principle and
anima the masculine. We may compare them with ying and yang
philosophy. Animus and Anima are part of the person: “A kind
of mask, formed on one side to provoke a perception, and on
the other hand in order to conceal the true nature of the
individual.”43
One perceives the body and its disposition as social
acknowledgment. Self-same body44 is the initiator of all
differences. We compare ourselves with others while looking for
our alter ego. During searching we condemn all those who don't
resemble us. We seek mirror images that constitute our own “I”.
Mirror images are images of power and instill us how to
constitute our selves. The gaze here interprets the narcissistic
desire to project our own image into others.
41 Victor J. Drapela, P ehled teorií osobnosti,ř p.37, translated from Czech42 Sigmund Freud. Spisy z let 1904-1905. p.109, translated from Czech43 Drapela, Ibid., p.3544 Kaja Silverman, Práh viditelného sv taě , p.368
33
3. MIMESIS IN THE PERFORMATIVE
„The solution how to escape fear is offered by the opportunity to
become someone else.“
Andrzej Stasiuk45
Artistic performance provides an ideal place to become
someone else. Artists can play existing roles and also create
new ones for original concepts. „We can't play the role for
which the scene is not constructed.“46 Artistic practice provides a
unique opportunity to create imaginary identities. Changing the
roles means changing the world's view. “All the reproductive
techniques of existing worlds and artificial production of new
worlds are, in a specific sense, time based media.”47 In other
words, unstable moving images. Video performance as an art
film form corresponds according to Walter Benjamin: “...with
increasing life-threatening. (...) The need to expose ourselves to
shock effects is a natural part of human's adaptation to the
unexpected dangers of all kinds.”
Sigmund Freud on the psychology of fear stated: “...it is
the work of a higher power of nature, the weakness of our own
45 In: Zygmunt Bauman: Tekuté asy : život ve v ku nejistoty.č ě p.27, translated from Czech46 Meyrowitz, Ibid., p.26947 Siegfried Zielinski, Š astný nález místo marného hledání, p.513, ť translated from Czech
34
bodies and inadequate rules governing the mutual relations of
people within the family, state and society.” Therefore we
subconsciously identify with existing role-models (such as
mother) that are accepted by society. By affiliating with these
models we feel more comfortable. At the same time being in a
role model trains us to control our fear and suppresses the
negative consequences of reality.
A selected model gives us the privileges that we are not
able to embrace in our common life. Alexander Kluge calls it
film in the mind of the spectator - experience horizon
concretized in the specific subject. In such case “...the ability of
film and spectator situation causes personal and collective
memories is certainly a measure of the film's quality as a public
sphere.”48 Furthermore “the film really can in certain important
moments act as a base for questioning social position, identity
and otherness, thus as a catalyst for new forms of community
and cohesion.”49
Roland Barthes claimed that the reality has been already
categorized: to be born means nothing else than to accept
already a made code and adapt to it. We often hear that the
task of art is to express the inexpressible but it should say just
the opposite (...) The main task of art is not to express
48 Miriam Hansen. Raná kinematografie, pozdní kinematografie : Transformace ve ejné sféry.ř In: SZCZEPANIK, Petr. (ed.) Nová filmová historie : Antologie sou asného myšlení o d jináchč ě kinematografie a audiovizuální kultury. p. 264, translated from Czech49 Hansen, Ibid., p.274
35
expressible but we must claim from the speech of the world that
is poor but powerful language of passion, the other exact
speech.
3.1. THE POLITICS OF PERFORMANCE
There is no unmarked place left. The unmarked, as Peggy
Phelan noticed is never blank or pure. Every part contains
counterpart. An action needs reaction.
I've realized during my research that I have similar
opinions to many of my colleagues and theorists. I cited very
similar thoughts, nearly the identical ones. They have the same
meaning just expressed by different words. It is basically still
repeating and turning inside of one circle. I am still looking for
a different perspective.
Maybe I have been exploring the wrong approaches. I am
still researching. But what if we take these binaries mentioned by
many theorists as Sadie Plant's Zero and Ones, Peggy Phelan's
Marked x Unmarked and others which try to mirror a relationship
among individuals, mostly on the example of heterosexual
women and men. The personalities mirror each other in
36
themselves. Every individual naturally wants to get advantages.
When we accept this sort of basic primitive need of life we can
easier argue how the things work.
Let's now ask ourselves. What do we expect from life?
What do we wish? What do we await? We can say in common -
I wish to get an education and a good job for good money.
Nothing special, just to live a good life. There are many possible
ways, but they become nonsense in a moment when you cross
the path of the power. When you want to be free or feel this
comfort that somebody / something takes care of you. What
does it mean to take care of someone? What does it bring to
the persons in a caring relationship? Who cares? Who is cared
for? You can see people every day helping each other. You can
also see people killing each other. Who needs help? Who must
help? Who wants help? Who doesn't care at all? Who pays for
caring and what's the real price of it?
We come to the other binary model - father and mother.
The division of labor and family, division as dysfunctional vision,
the division of power and money that altogether mediate a
comfort life. Who must care and for whom and how is the
caring done? Who stays in the so called mother's care, such a
comfortable womb and who is representing a womb? Does the
mother really care? Isn't this care a part of the contract. When
37
we don't get honest care back what happens to our psyche?
There is a border of giving and receiving. Again the duplicity.
What we most appreciate is what we never or hardly ever can
get. At the end I must accept I don't know why things are the
way they are. I just feel it is not right. I want a change. But I
can't still define the core source. Or maybe it is better to say I
can't catch it. Where's the best place to start searching? As
Peggy Phelan noted: ”I see my eye couldn't see”.50
3.2. THE STRUCTURE OF PERFORMANCE
We distinguish several ways to classify performance. We
can also define individual qualities that constitute each
performance. First according to technical structure and the place
where they happen. The most traditional one is a performance
at the theatre stage. Later it moves from theatre to the gallery
space. From gallery to public space, where it often assumes an
activistic element. Recently we can see a multimedia and
audiovisual performance often including different artistic
disciplines such as music, dance, VJ, interactivity and many
more. The latest form represents cyber performance that
happens online through internet. Secondly, every performance is
50 Peggy Phelan, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance
38
inherently based on a certain performer's body. Sylvie Crémézie51
categorizes the body aesthetics into several types:
the rebel body (Duncan)
the barbaric body (Nijinski)
the mystic body (St-Denis)
the dynamic body (Humphrey)
the chtonian body (Wigman)
the pulsional body (Graham)
the articulated body (Cunningham)
the tactile body (Paxton)
the fluid body (Brown)
As we can see, Crémézie also mentioned a dancer who
represents each body type. Even though definition of bodies is
originally designed for dancers we can see the considerable
connections to other artistic disciplines. The third quality of
performance is impression and influence on its audience. Are the
spectators passive or active during the performance? For whom
is the performance intended? Is it understandable to everyone in
audience?
51 Isabelle Choini`ere. Regarding the Orgiastic as a Strategic Means to Reinvest Perceptions of Realities: the influence of syncretic thought acting as a motor of evolution in actual dance. In: Ascott, Bast, Fiel, Jahrmann, Schnell (ed.) New Realities: Being Syncretic. p.74
39
3.3. THE INTERCULTURAL PERFORMANCE
What it means when we talk about intercultural
performance. We live in a post-everything era – postmodernism,
postfeminism, postcolonialism etc. The globalized world allows us
to create and live in the international network. Different cultures
meet and mutate each other. Hybrids of foreign and familiar
aspects makes new sources of ideas.
Phillip Zarrilli explains that “performance as a mode of
cultural action is not simple reflection of some essentialized,
fixed attributes of a static monolithic culture but an arena for
the constant process of renegotiating experiences and meaning
that constitute culture”.
The main culture is presented by Western countries and
as such serves for measuring the other “excluded” countries.
The term 'West' contains a pejorative meaning to simply
describe and delineate the wealthy and dominant societies from
the poorer societies thus those who are subjugated
economically, militarily, and otherwise, by deliberate restraints
placed on them by the wealthier ones. 'The West' can be
understood like: "Wealthy, Colonial (slave-holding), Europe-
descended (or allied) societies.”52 In other words, those who
control the world or those who seek to continue in domination
52 http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Western_society/, online: 1.4.2014
40
of others and their lands.
In western societies “theatre can be defined as that
practice which removes culture from its flow, isolates an aspect
of it, packages it, and sells it back to the community. Just as
theatre acts as a mechanism for making culture intelligible in
the west, each culture has a mechanism for making another
culture intelligible. This intelligibility is frequently achieved by
consuming the 'other' as an attempt to understand it, own it,
and/or control it.”53
Culture itself is “the way in which we understand our own
identities and means through which we encounter other
cultures.”54 Stuart Hall explains that identities are never
completed, never finished; they are always as subjectivity itself
is, in process.
The elements of non-European theatre or so called
primitive cultures often represent exotic devices for western
artists. Cultural difference serves as a form of 'exoticism' also
for western audiences. Marvin Carlson describes various kinds of
such hybridization in his SEVEN-STEP INTERCULTURAL MODEL:
1. The totally familiar tradition of regular performance.
2. Foreign elements assimilated into the tradition and absorbed
by it. The audience can be interested, entertained, stimulated,
53 Julie Holledge, Joanne Tompkins, Women's intercultural performance, p.354 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.4
41
but they are not challenged by the foreign material.
3. Entire foreign structures are made familiar instead of isolated
elements.
4. The foreign and familiar create a new blend, which then is
assimilated into the tradition, becoming familiar.
5. The foreign itself becomes assimilated as a whole, becoming
familiar. Examples would be commedia dell'arte in France or
Italian opera in England.
6. Foreign elements remain foreign, used within familiar
structures for Verfremdung, for shock value, or for exotic
quotation.
7. An entire performance from another culture is imported or
recreated, with no attempt to accommodate it with the familiar.
The questions of originality and persuasiveness are often
criticized. “The right of western artists to draw freely on the
signs and symbols circulating within their social worlds has
hardly been questioned. In contrast, many of the cultures they
were studying had rigid mechanisms for determining the right of
artists to practice performance techniques. For example, the
Japanese traditional forms of Kabuki, Noh, and Kyogen, which
have a magnetic attraction for western artists, are practised
through rights of inheritance by the natural or adopted male
42
heir.”55
Some critics go even farther and accuse western theatre
practitioners of building their international reputations by
bastardising 'oriental' performance techniques. “The use of the
modernist perception of the artist, free to borrow at from
various cultures to depict their artistic vision, has continued in
intercultural practice at the end of the century where
postmodernism appears to approve of cultural 'patchwork'
activities. What impressions and influences did artists have a
right to use? Could artists draw on cultural traditions and
symbolic forms that originated outside of their immediate
cultural context?”56 They can and they do. The challenge is for
the artists to stay neutral and inoffensive.
Una Chaudhuri calls it 'museum interculturalism' and sees
sometimes well-meaning intercultural projects can unwittingly
perpetuate a neo-colonialism in which the cultural clichés which
underwrote imperialism survive more or less intact.
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett argues that “[e]ven when
efforts are made to the contrary, live exhibits tend to make
people into artifacts because the ethnographic gaze objectifies”
whatever it sees. “Interculturalism requires a perception of the
subject-object or self-other duality.”57
55 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.1156 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.11-1257 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.13
43
Daryl Chin reads this type of interculturalism as 'a form of
connoisseurship, a new form of worldliness.'
Patrice Pavis tries to find a way to be sensible during a
production of multicultural project and how recognize the
borders of culture's misuse. She developed the HOURGLASS
MODEL that concentrates on reception in the target culture by
using:
A. Artistic modeling
B. Sociological and anthropological codification
C. Cultural modeling
The roots of performance can be traced to ritual. “There
are three major strands in current definitions of ritual. The first
and most narrow tends to analyse particular rituals as frozen,
unchanging moments associated with non-western cultures that
are frequently described by (problematic) words such as
'primitive'. The second situates ritual in the role of the ancient
ancestor of contemporary theatre, a location which also makes
links between ritual and primitive very easy, and which implicitly
justifies the use of ritual as theatre, regardless of context. The
third, more encompassing definition suggests that virtually every
activity in which humans regularly engage can be considered a
ritual act.”58
58 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.57
44
Barbara Myerhoff explains ritual as a form by which
culture presents itself to itself. “The major factor affecting the
rituals that we are about to consider is the translocation of the
ritual site. Removing a ritual from the location in which it
evolved, and from the community that gives it purpose, changes
not only the form and function of the performance, but also its
meaning. When ritual performances are imported into
postindustrial western societies, these new meanings are
frequently tied to the audiences' perceived lack of spirituality.”59
The body as the holder of cultural identity is divided
into the three parts in performance:
1. the subjective body of the performer
2. the artificial performing body
3. the body of the audience
Relations among bodies are following:
1. taxonomic (demarcate the boundaries between
cultures)
2. hybrid (two cultures somehow merge together)
3. nomadic (boundaries of identity are transgressed
through the audience)
59 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.58
45
According to Mikhail Bakhtin a hybridization is a mixture
of two social languages within the limits of a single utterance,
an encounter, within the arena of an utterance, between two
different linguistic consciousness, separated from one another by
an epoch, of social differentiation, or by some other factor. “The
construction of an artificial performing body can involve
immense rigour and discipline, but it can never escape the
corporeal reality of the body of the performer. Consequently, the
distinction between these two bodies is always blurred, and the
precise nature of the double act is never clear even when the
body is wrapped in the powerful signifiers of costume, make-up,
or mask. In intercultural performance these doublings find new
expressions.”60
Braidotti says, that the body is not an essence and
therefore not an anatomical destiny: it is one's primary location
in the world, one's primary situation in reality. “Nomadic
consciousness consists in not taking any kind of identity as
permanent. The nomad is only passing through; s/he makes
those necessarily situated connections that can help her/him
survive, but s/he never takes on fully the limits of one national,
fixed identity. The nomad has no passport – or has too many of
them.”61
Nomadic relations among bodies allow the performer to
60 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.11261 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.110
46
interact with spectators. Interactive art brings new methods of
interaction with audience by using technological, digital and
electronic tools. “Nomad performing bodies unsettle the fixed
boundaries of their audience through techniques of
transformation and metamorphosis. In a Deleuzian sense, they
establish desiring machines that connect the doubled
performer/performing body to the body of audience. In
describing their desiring machines, our nomad performers speak
of a single organism breathing, of touching and being touched
by the body of the audience, of connecting threads that link at
physic and physical levels. The construction of these machines
has been intercultural, and the machines have drawn on
performance and arts practices from across the world. They
share common objective to undermine the rigid boundaries that
define the body of the audience, and to open up a kinaesthetic
relationship that can challenge fixed corporeal boundaries.”62
There are three phenomenons of Japanese nomadic
performance that I want to underline – The Takarazuka Revue,
Idols and Butoh.
62 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.149
47
3.3.1. THE TAKARAZUKA REVUE
The Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical
theatre troupe based in Takarazuka, Japan. The troupe takes its
name from the Hankyu Takarazuka rail line in suburban Osaka.
An interesting fact is that the company was founded by Ichizo
Kobayashi, president of Hankyu Railways, in Takarazuka, Japan
in 1913. It was his idea because he wanted to bring a new
attraction to the region.
All the parts of Takarazuka [Image 3] are played by
women, based on the original model of Kabuki before 1629
48
Image 3: The Takarazuka Revue, source: internet
when women were banned from the theater in Japan. The
women who play male parts are referred to as otokoyaku (男役,
literally "male role") and those who play female parts are called
musumeyaku (娘役, literally "daughter's role").
Before becoming a member of the troupe, a young woman
from 15 to 18 must train for two years in the Takarazuka Music
School, one of the most competitive of its kind in the world.
The first year, all women train together before being divided by
the faculty and the current troupe members into otokoyaku and
musumeyaku at the end of the year. Those playing otokoyaku
cut their hair short, take on a more masculine role in the
classroom, and speak in the masculine form.
The Takarazuka seems to be a funny job but in fact it is
very rigid organization. Members can't get married or reveal their
real name and age, or even talk about their romances.
The company has five main troupes: Flower (花 hana),
Moon (月 tsuki), Snow (雪 yuki), Star (星 hoshi), and Cosmos (宙
sora). Flower and Moon are the original troupes, founded in
1921. Snow Troupe began in 1924. Star Troupe was founded in
1931, disbanded in 1939, and reestablished in 1948. Cosmos,
founded in 1998, is the newest troupe.
Ryosei and chusei are two Japanese terms used to refer
to androgyny, chusei meaning “neutral” or “in between,” neither
49
man nor woman, and ryosei referring to the combination of the
sexes or genders. The otokoyaku represents the perfect man
who can not be found in the real world. The otokoyaku provides
the female audience with a dream of what they desire in reality.
In Freudian principle the self-love attracts the love of the
others so that “Narcissism for the performer involves the active
display of the performing body, which invites scopophilia and the
ability to take conscious pleasure in exhibitionism. This body is
available to the gaze; it holds this gaze and indulges it at
moments of heightened dramatic tension, but at the same time
it remains active and dynamic as it shares emotions and
intimacies with the audience. In the Takarazuka Revue, this
narcissistic desiring performing body, masked in the kata and
costume of the otokoyaku, interacts with the audience: visually
in the display of its physical features, literally in direct address,
and empathetically through emotional states.”63
The example of The Takarazuka Revue shows the
controversy of reading the cultural codes. It seems as an
entertainment for everyone but 90% of visitors are just women
in the age of 40 to 50. Women actors perform for women
audience. Tatsuya Kusaba, a researcher of Takarazuka’s history,
says the biggest attraction is the sense of closeness that fans
have with the actresses: “Unlike other celebrities in the
63 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.129
50
entertainment business, fans can hand letters, shake hands with
actresses and watch them walk out of the theater every time
after a performance.” Japanese Idols also works on the same
principle. The cult of fans has in Japan a different face and it is
more intensive than in other Western countries.
3.3.2. JAPANESE IDOLS
I have personally experienced how addictive Idols can be
because I've attended a concert of Japanese Idols group called
DANCEROID [Image 4]. The interesting point is that the group
didn’t come from major show-business productions but they
became famous from their video which was broadcasted on the
video-sharing website 'Nico Nico Douga'. By the way this website
won the Honorary Mention of the Digital Communities category
at Prix Ars Electronica 2008! Thus DANCEROID is a so called
'Net Idol' group because they achieved celebrity status through
the internet. The girls most of all dance but also make a kind
of stand-up comedy show. Basically they don’t sing at all – the
songs are played from 'Vocaloid' and the girls just simulate
signing.
51
To be honest, I was not sure what to expect from the
concert. I just wanted to experience a crude contemporary
Japanese pop culture. I must say the videos on YouTube or TV
can not communicate an atmosphere of the performance as at
a live concert. I have never seen something that cute, innocent
and sexy at the same time! Moreover these girls are also smart
and very funny. I fell in love with all the members of the group.
They filled the concert hall with a contagious joy. A few minutes
after the concert was finished we were waiting for them to touch
them! It was an incredible event and I was leaving with an
indescribable feeling of absolute happiness. It seems the Idols
create a kind of present nomadic ritual.
52
Image 4: Danceroid, source: internet
3.3.3. BUTOH
“Tomiko Takai, one of nomad performers, describes the
relationship between the audience and the performer as a 'united
space' in which one breathes out, and the other breathes in.”64
Tomiko Takai is one of the earliest disciple of Kazuo
Ohno [Image 5] and Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of Butoh.
Butoh was born out of a post-war resistance to the enforced
'Americanisation' of Japan which affected every aspect of the
culture: industry and technology, popular culture, the political
system, even traditional art forms. “Hijikata believed that the
performing body was capable of transforming itself into any
organic or non-organic matter because 'there is a small universe
in the body' (cited in Takai, interview 1998). This did not mean
that the dancer only observed, imitated, or mimed animate or
inanimate objects; rather the dancer imagined the specific nature
of matter – its inner essence – and allowed this to permeate the
performing body.”65
64 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.13565 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.137-8
53
Hijikata was against the Western dance forms popular at
the time so he developed with his collective a vocabulary of
movements and ideas called the Ankoku Butoh movement. The
term means 'dance of darkness', and the form was built on a
vocabulary of crude physical gestures and uncouth habits, a
direct assault on refinement (miyabi) and understatement
(shibui). The most intriguing intercultural aspect of Ankoku Butoh
is its practice of metamorphosis. Ojima Ichiro explains: “You may
start by imitating, but imitation is not your final goal; when you
believe you are thinking completely like a chicken, you have
54
Image 5: Kazuo Ohno, source: internet
succeeded.”66
This search for the body of an 'other' which could express
his aesthetic ultimately led Hijikata to the female body and to
the feminine within himself. “He believed men were 'prisoners of
the logical world' whereas women were 'born with the ability to
experience the illogical part of reality and are consequently
capable of incarnating the illogical side of dance' (cited in Viala
and Masson-Sekine 1988: 84).”67
In the mid-1960 Hijikata began exploring the choreographic
limits of flexibility in the female body with a small group of
dancers including Yoko Ashikawa and Tomiko Takai. Together
they developed a series of kata, many of which are still present
in Takai's choreography: warau hana, the smiling flower;
kanzashi o sasu, placing an ornament in the hair; senkoh no
kemuri, the wafting smoke of incense; han-nya, the demon mask;
and hangan bishoh, the female demon's smile.
Hijikata was telling the dancers: “Forms exist so that we
can forget them... We should shed our skins like snakes, to
emerge from what we have learned. Everything should become
our own creation, not just a repetition of what we have been
taught.”68
66 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.19967 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.138-968 Holledge, Tompkins, Ibid., p.140
55
3.4. MIMESIS
During my stay in Japan I made a video called Mimesis69.
The project is inspired by my strong impressions grown from
experiencing Japanese culture. In the video [Image 6 and 7] I
create an intercultural hybrid performance that expresses my
dual identity space – Czech and Japanese. I play with the
symbols, metaphors and cultural codes contained in a Japanese
traditional disguise.
These codes can directly constitute and modify a body
69 Mimesis, Lenka Klimešová, 2012. Online: https://vimeo.com/48200115
56
Image 6: [video still] Mimesis, Lenka Klimešová, 04:30, 2012
identity. I try to understand a link between traditional and
contemporary cultural codes. I express a tension which I feel
between a decorum and a hidden site full of passions. The
video works with the terms mentioned above – namely nomadic
structure using patchwork strategy. It is up to the audience to
assess if I stayed culturally fair or not.
57
Image 7: [video still] Mimesis, Lenka Klimešová, 04:30, 2012
4. MIMESIS IN PLAYFULNESS / PLAYILLNESS
“Both plays and human-computer activities are mimetic in nature; that
is, they exhibit the characteristics of artistic representations. A mimesis is a
made thing, not an accidental or arbitrary one: using a pebble to represent a
man is not mimetic; making a doll to represent him is.”
Brenda Laurel (1993, p.45)
Playfulness seems to be playillness70. Main concepts of the
playillness theory are about playful elements which complicate
an interpretation of artwork in comparison with contemporary
new media fields in digital and visual arts culture. The essay
was awarded in a category of the Critical Writing in Memefest
festival in Nijmegen, Netherlands, 2011. Where is the border
between playing and art creativity? What is the difference
between a children's game and artistic game? Can a toy be an
artwork? Is device art71 trashy?
I focus on common playfulness similarities between a
game and art elements which lead to wrong interpretations of
70 Lenka Klimešová. Playfulness seems to be playillness. Online 13.4.2014: http://www.memefest.org/media/works/a9547155153a37b733a708669d4843e5/thumbnail/Klimesova_Playillness.pdf71 Machiko Kusahara. Device Art: a New Form of Media Art from Japanese Perspective.
58
both terms. Outline the artistic rules in comparison with game
rules. How can we combine them for getting our own goal? We
can use artistic rules for improving a commercial game, but it
will be still a commercial game. We can use game rules in
artwork and it will be still artwork. Playfulness is an integral part
of homo ludens and Ludic Society. We can apply it where and
how we want. This seems to be dangerously playillness.
Playillness raised from the extension of the playful thinking
in Euro-American culture during the 20th and 21st century.
Nature of playillness lies in its ubiquity. I am interested
especially in playillness elements in visual art field. It is very
difficult to use 'new' media and at the same time be critical and
able to resist the effects of the media. This attention should be
the condition for artists working for the first time with any
technology or paradigm. For example if we want to define
playfulness as first we choose the clearest element of playing –
game. Then when we see any playful element, we automatically
think about game. We can find playful element also in art. Now
there is no problem to see the art element as well as in a
game.
“Playfulness is made up of five component and
distinguishable dimensions of cognitive spontaneity, social
spontaneity, physical spontaneity, manifest joy, and sense of
59
humor.”72 These five components show some common qualities
in both art and game. They also make the most frequently
topics for discussion during interpretation. I would like to
describe interpretation rules to distinguish common game from
artwork with playfulness elements. Game supports a stereotypical
thinking. Art fights against it. The game is not narrative nor
interactive, it is pure simulation.73 Structure of game gaze is
nearer to film gaze instead of art gaze. The artist does not
tolerate a simulation. The artist seeks the truth. The best
examples of artistic playfulness process can be seen in various
workshops, labs and collaborative residencies.
A border of art definition is made by using any form in
artistic way. That means use the form to show its own borders,
not just use it in a common way. The concept of everywhere
creativity represents a new way of life.
Use your creativity, find the game principle in your
everyday life and enjoy the playillness ideology! The Czech idiom
Kdo si hraje, nezlobí implies that someone who is playing can't
be naughty.
Playfulness is the main part of homo ludens and ludic
culture. The term of new human kind homo ludens contains the
consequence of playillness. Playillness is no longer viewed as a
72 Lynn A. Barnett. The Adaptive Powers of Being Playful. In: AYCOCK, Alan, et al. (ed.), Diversions and Divergences in Fields of Play. p. 100-173 Espen Aarseth. Genre Trouble. In: HARRIGAN, Pat, et al (ed.), First Person. p. 52
60
problem but as a playful ecosystem. Finally the only possible
evidence of game is when we realize we are playing.
4.1. PLAY PRINCIPLES
Play processes described by Roger Caillois show various
personal characters. Agôn as a workaholic (have to still work on
own success), alea as an introvert (hope and wait for something
is gonna happen), mimicry as an extrovert (express yourself) and
ilinx as a melancholic (need to feel the adrenaline and have no
fear of possible consequences).
Then we have two counterparts here – ludus and paidia
that can transform all four principles mentioned above. Ludus
reminds us an intelligence and paidia a feeling. Nowadays a
special type of ludus is represented by a hobby. Hobbies allow
us to explore our own natural creativity. We want and need to
do our hobby without any coercive means and that's why it has
an undisputed impact on cultural creativity and innovation.
Ludus shows the limits of body and at the same time its almost
infinite possibilities. When you find out your body limits then you
start to use paidia.
The term game has various meanings. I perceive it more
from ludic interfaces and visual culture studies. I mostly make
61
performances which use a self-portrait as a mask and a body
as a disguise. “Mask (...) liberates the true personality.”74 My
creative process is directly related to mimicry, just as the term
performance is taken from the theatre.
Mimicry “...exhibits all the characteristics of play: liberty,
convention, suspension of reality, and delimination of space and
time.”75 Mimicry of female role models is always about the gaze,
using Laura Mulvey's theory about 'to-be-looked-at-ness'. During
mimicry it is easy to lose yourself and be alone with your own
obsession or dependence. Ilinx “...is a question of surrendering
to a kind of spasm, seizure, or shock which destroys reality with
sovereign brusqueness.”76
4.2. DEVICE ART
Is device art trashy? We can ask generally: Is the (art)work
trashy? Is the device trashy? We can modify our understanding
of trashy by using artistic thinking. To begin I would like to
specify what is and is not trashy. No trashy work includes a
strong personal concept or message. In this thesis I am trying to
show how can we recognize such a thing. There are the clear
74 Roger Caillois. Man, play and games. p.2175 Caillois. Ibid., p.2276 Caillois. Ibid., p.23
62
interpretation rules, but sometimes you just have to feel it.
A theory of Machiko Kusahara in one way tries to
transform artworks into the commercial products. From my point
of view it is questionable to apply device art theory to the Euro-
American art history background without cultural
misunderstanding. The main difference is in a social concept and
perception. What device art means in Japan is not the same in
Europe or America context at all. Machiko Kusahara compares
Duchamp in the context of Japanese culture. Duchamp provoked
people with the question what all is art. His objects are not
useful nor for personal use. Device art makes from art a
product. Duchamp criticized the products and commerce.
Kusahara introduces device art from Japan and analyzes
how some artists transformed their artworks into successful
commercial products, and what are key issues in it. Which artist
wants to do this? Especially in my cultural background is the
worst thing for artist to make from artwork such a product. That
would mean a certain death of artwork as well as artist.
When I watch the videos from Maywa Denki [Image 8]
I have to compare it with children shows [Image 9] in my
country (e.g. J a Hele show and children cabaret). Are theseů
shows also art? Should they be art? Definitely not in such a
final stage. Device art needs to be compared to and investigate
from more intercultural backgrounds.
63
64
Image 8: Jamboree, performance © 2002 Maywa Denki
Image 9: J a Hele,ů children program © 1985 eská televizeČ
From my 'Westernized' point of view, device art is more
toy than art at all. Most of device art seems to me pretty
trashy. Of course it is possible that some kind of device art has
more artistic concept than the other one.
In this case we are standing before the same problem
how to recognize common game from art game. You can call
art by many names and use various artistic forms.
4.3. IRONICAL PLAYFULNESS IN CZECH ART
4.3.1. KATE INA ŠEDÁŘ
The artist Kate ina Šedá was born in 1979 in Brno, Czechř
Republic. She lives and works in Praha and Lisen-Brno. Her
artworks are based on social interaction, which employ tens or
hundreds of people who have nothing to do with art. She works
in an environment which is completely inartistic. The experiments
with human relationships are intended to lead the stakeholders
of the established stereotypes or social isolation. The nature of
the project is of either a very personal or a local nature.
She worked with her sick grandmother who was able to
speak only about her work as a saleswoman. She remembered
65
all the instruments together with prices and drew them in total
number of 650 pieces. After the grandmother's death she made
another project, which was inspired by the grandmother's dog.
The dog was too sad and did not want to eat. All members of
family started to imitate grandmothers' customs to make a
simulation, that she is still alive. The dog then begins to eat.
For the project Over and Over [Image 10] Šedá challenged
40 of her neighbors to interact across the fences separating
their homes. She then invited them to Berlin Biennale, where
they produced scaled replicas of the fences, bringing people
together through an object that normally divides them, while
also addressing the history of Berlin.
66
Image 10: Over and Over, Kate ina Šedá, 2008ř
4.3.2. DAVID ERNÝČ
David erný, another Czech artist, born in 1967 in Praha.Č
Political activist and 'rebel'. His works are critical and mostly self
ironical. The concept of playfulness is the most visible in the
'Kit' cycle. The key work represents Entropa [Image 11] which
uses the same principle like in the 'Kit' cycle. Art project was
created on the occasion of the Czech Presidency of the Council
of Europe is trying to show the whole of Europe from the
perspective of twenty seven artists from EU Member States.
67
Image 11: Entropa, David erný, 2009Č
The project combines the analysis of national stereotypes
and the original characteristics of their own cultural identity. This
was awesome mystification. Because of financial and time
reasons the work was done just by David erný, Krištof KinteraČ
and Tomáš Pospiszyl with the help of a team of colleagues from
the Czech Republic and abroad. They decided to create
fictional artists, who will represent various nationals and
European artistic stereotypes. The EU puzzle is a metaphor for
the celebration of this diversity. It is the construction of political,
economic and cultural ties, with which you "play" us, but which
we pass on to our children. The challenge today is to create
building blocks with the best properties.
68
5. MIMESIS IN THE ART
“The work of art reveals the entire personality of the artist, not just
in its subject or its theme, but first and foremost in the unique and very
personal way in which it has been formed.”
Umberto Eco (1989, p.160)
The figure, charisma and energy of an artist constitute
the artwork. The more we forget our bodies and our physical
presence in cyberspace the more we spread ourself to the
universe of nothing. Nowadays it is exactly this paradox of being
simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. The more we
communicate with computers in human-computer interaction the
less we communicate with each other in the basic human-human
interaction. We don't have time to concentrate nor relax. We
burn our energy by sending it through space to another person.
What we actually get back is a noise of incoming alienated
picture, voice or message. We know quite well how to use the
newest technology and how it reacts. But we often get
surprised by how much our body can feel and how intensive
and enjoyable it is to transform and exchange our inner
energies through touch.
Marina Abramovi said during her lecture: ”ć Performance is
69
a mental and physical construction that the performer organizes
in a specific time and place in front of the audience. (...) It is a
dialogue of energy. In performance everything is real, not like in
the theatre or film. (...) It is something real, no pretending, no
fake.”77
Her project The Life and Death of Marina Abramović
enables other creative people to direct and produce a play
inspired by her life. She provides all her diaries, projects and
other materials from which the directors make their own vision
and version of her biography. This is an accurate example of 77 Marina Abramovi , online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abk44swuaroć
70
Image 12: The Life and Death of Marina Abramovi , ć Robert Wilson, 2011
the open mimesis. “The content of a work is its creator, who at
the same time is also its form, since the artist gives his creation
its style – this being at once the way the artist forms himself in
his work and the way the work manifests itself as such. Thus,
the very subject of a work is none other than one of the
elements in which the artist has expressed himself by giving
himself form.”78
But what happens when one artist makes an interpretation
of the life of another living artist. The hybrid of mimesis is
created. Marina said about the collaboration with Robert Wilson
[Image 10] that it was very difficult to work with him. She could
not say when she does not like something. It was literally her
life in his hands. “The interpreter,” in this case Robert Wilson,
“becomes a means of access to the work and by revealing the
nature of the work also expresses himself; that is, he becomes
at once the work and his way of seeing it.”79
The case of Marina Abramovi and Robert Wilson showsć
how the diverse personalities function in collaboration. But what
if we find our art soulmate and discover huge similarities
between our ideas. Mostly it naturally leads to an artistic
collaboration or at least sympathy.
78 Umberto Eco, Ibid., p.16079 Umberto Eco, Ibid., p.166
71
5.1. LINK BETWEEN MY PROJECTS AND OTHER
ARTWORKS
5.1.1. FILAMENT
Artist Maria Hassabi in her dance performance SoloShow
goes through the art history of the female poses. She puts
herself into the different historical but also contemporary
images. “Staging the movement between sensation and its
display, the performer moves beyond rhythm, ideal postures, and
coherence as hundreds of images are seamlessly, physically
collaged.”80
Before I found the SoloShow project [Image 13] I had
made together with Ond ej Pokorný a video called ř FilaMENt
[Image 14]. The main idea is to react to the fact that from the
art history till now the preferred (mostly nude) model (through
various images, paintings, sculptures to today's media) is the
female one. The lack of male models and their poses brought
me to the idea to think about the posing itself. Who is attractive
to whom? Who is attracted to whom? Who has power to
attract? Who is permitted to attract? Why can one be more
attractive than the others? We are already naturally attracted to
80 Maria Hassabi, SoloShow. Online: http://mariahassabi.com/?work=soloshownovember-2009
72
each other. Why do we need an artificial attraction? This
question leads us straight to the consumer world.
I found the posing as the artificial performance, in other
words, a kind of code serves as a fetish.81 Now what would
happen if we apply this artificial female code onto the male? We
are facing the perfect contrast. That exactly what you can see
in the FilaMENt project. Man is acting and posing himself and
just underlines the paradox of one's artificiality.
Guillaume Désanges with Frédéric Cherboeuf made a
project A History of Performance in 20 Minutes where he
declares: “The history of performance, or of body art, is not
then a history of the representation of the body but exclusively
a history of gesture.”82
81 Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, On Sourcery, or Code as Fetish. In: GRAU, Oliver. (ed.) Imagery in the 21st Century. p.17782 Guillaume Désanges, Frédéric Cherboeuf. A History of Performance in 20 Minutes. Online: http://www.guillaumedesanges.com/spip.php?article4
73
74
Image 13: SoloShow, Maria Hassabi, 2009
Image 14: [video still] FilaMENt, Lenka
Klimešová & Ond ej Pokorný, 11:33,ř
2014
5.1.2. BEAUTIFUL IS...
A concept of gesture leads me to the next of my video
projects Beautiful is, when at least two persons find it appealing
[Image 18] where I try to analyze the idea of 'beauty' – as an
artificial phenomenon. The face in the video is divided into two
halves. Each half is different. The dialogue between them is
about which half is more beautiful? Each half gives its own
argument of beauty. It is a kind of game. The gestures play an
important role in the video. The face is then divided not just
visually (make-up, clothes) but most of all by motions. It is a
live performance. There is no Photoshop or Aftereffects – no
fake. That's also the main difference in comparison with other,
mostly photographic artworks that I found.
Project Half by photographer Roman Sakovich83 uses the
same aesthetics as me however he sends another message. He
composes portraits of drug abuse before and after [Image 17].
Photographer Del LaGrace Volcano [Image 16] has used also the
identical method but his topic is a queer performance. He
occupies with the meaning of masculinity and femininity and
puts together the traditional male and female halves on one
face. In those cases, both Roman Sakovic and Del LaGrace
Volcano made photographs, so the spectator can not be sure
how much it is corrected in the postproduction.83 Roman Sakovich, Half. Online: http://www.romansakovich.co.uk/border_portfolio/half/
75
76
Image 16: Del LaGrace Volcano, Half&Half, NYC,1998
Image 17: Half, Roman Sakovich, 2012
Image 18: [video still] Beautiful is...,
Lenka Klimešová, 01:34, 2009
6. MIMESIS IN THE INTERACTION
“There will no longer be any need to speak of a “beautiful” or “ugly”
work, since the success of the work will have to do solely with whether or
not the artist has been able to express the problem of poetics he wanted to
resolve.”
Umberto Eco (1989, p.170)
The artwork should have a message. It does not matter
what sort of form or aesthetic is used to express it. “Every
successful form rests on the conscious translation of amorphous
matter into a human dimension. In order to dominate matter,
the artist must first understand it; if he has understood it, he
cannot be its prisoner, no matter how severely he has judged
it.”84 The term interaction (Wechselwirkung) was first pointed out
by Georg Simmel85 describes interpersonal relationships. Later the
term has expanded into the human-computer interaction. We live
nowadays among large amount of machines – a vacuum cleaner,
an iron, a hairdryer, a microwave, a cooker, a kettle, a mixer, a
TV, a computer, a car, a cell phone, etc. Perforce we create a
relationship to things and find the machines making our life
84 Umberto Eco, Ibid., p.155-685 Katja Kwastek, Interactivity – A Word in Process. In: JAIN, MIGNONNEAU, SOMMERER (eds.) The Art and Science of Interface and Interaction Design. p.16
77
more pleasant and happier. However “the only way we can
humanize a machine is by mechanizing ourselves.”86 Thus the
industrial power “makes us forget that in fact we remain
slaves.”87 I personally prefer an interactivity between at least two
or even more persons and machines - something like human-
machine-human interaction. I feel the more machines we have
the more alone we become. And more alone we are, the more
we want new machines. Sure it is a logical consequence – I
don't need help from other people because I have my machine
to do it. I try to expand a human being by using art forms,
through the individual can receive an experience, rising from
personal interaction with another human being and/or machine.
One of my artistic interests is to create an interaction
among people by using various technical or technological forms
to present these interactions as artistic experience. It is like a
ritual expressed in a form of interactive happening. The main
impact of my interactive artworks on the audience is to feel
again a human proximity and to realize the importance of a
human contact in todays virtualized world. It has also a lot to
do with empathy. “In empathy one substitutes oneself for the
other person; in sympathy one substitutes others for oneself. To
know what something would be like for the other person is
empathy. To know what it would be like to be that person is
86 Umberto Eco, Ibid., p.13287 Umberto Eco, Ibid., p.128
78
sympathy. In empathy one acts “as if” one were the other
person (...). The object of sympathy is the other person's well-
being. In sum, empathy is a way of knowing; sympathy is a way
of relating.” (Wispé, 1991)88
A lack of contact or someone's presence leads to an
alienation among people and most of all from you yourself. The
person then becomes egoistic and at the same time frustrated.
The next important contact is a contact with the rest of the
world. What is happening somewhere else? What problems do
have different countries? The artist should be politically engaged.
I have chosen two of my interactive artworks which I want to
mention here. Both works react on the current events in the
world.
The first project Future Kiss is inspired by a bird flu and
uses mask as an aesthetic and at the same time helpful tool in
a case of epidemic or other pollution. The second artwork The
Will occupies with the political conflict between US and Iraq.
Mimesis is in each project expressed by using the props – the
mask in case of Future Kiss and the shoes in The Will. Moreover
the role of vibration in both cases is to transform a simulation
of emotion. The masks provide a mimesis of the kiss. The shoes
provide a mimesis of the will.
88 Jennifer Kanary, Roomforthoughts: Creating and using installation art in order to provide a better understanding of the subjective experience of psychosis. In: Ascott, Bast, Fiel, Jahrmann, Schnell (ed.) New Realities: Being Syncretic. p.162
79
6.1. FUTURE KISS
6.1.1. CONCEPT
Future Kiss (2008) is a happening that involves interaction
among participants wearing masks, equipped with a vibration
chip and a kiss detector. The participants try to find each
other's ‘half’ by kissing. The work imagines interaction between
humans in the technology-mediated environment of the future,
cleansed of all ‘unhygienic’ bodily ingredients, including the
immediacy of different skins touching. The mask here serves as
a mediator in the sensual, but also emotional exchange: on
‘detecting’ a kiss, the sensor activates a gentle vibration that is
also an emotion in abstracted form or a simulation of emotion.
The mask is capable of vibration only if participants find 'truth
love'. The project was awarded the Prix Ars Electronica 2009,
Honorary Mention in the Interactive Art category and
Streberprämie in ARTE Creative TV 2012 and was widely
exhibited in various events such as Ars Electronica89 festival in
Linz, Touch me90 festival in Zagreb, Amber91 festival in Istanbul
and TEA Super Connect92 at the NTMoFA in Taichung.
89 Ars Electronica: Human Nature. Linz, 2009: Online: http://www.aec.at/humannature/events-concerts/ok-night-290 Touch Me festival. Zagreb, 2008. Online: http://www.kontejner.org/kiss-future-english91 Amber festival. Istanbul, 2009. Online: http://09.amberfestival.org/shhtml/lenkaK_en.html92 TEA Super Connect, Taichung, 2013. Online: http://tea.ntmofa.gov.tw/en/
80
6.1.2. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
The project consists of the Spirotek SH2100P1 disposable
respirators, vibration motors, 3V coin batteries, battery holders,
wires, electric tape, paper, foam sheet, adhesive material, metal.
The tools used for production are mainly adhesive and soldering
gun. The technical procedure for its production is documented in
the images below:
81
Photo of the preparation for the project Future Kiss
82
Metal lips - a circuit
Metal lips on the mask
Detail Future Kiss
The batteries and the vibration motors
6.1.3. EXHIBITION CONTEXT
Gallery space
I or authorized gallery staff give the masks to people /
participants of happening at specified time and designated place
and afterwords I or staff collect them back. The dimensions of
the place vary depending on the number of masks (participants)
that are needed. This set-up was used during the exhibition TEA
Super Connect at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in
Taichung together with the Exhibition set-up mentioned below.
84
Future Kiss at TEA Super Connect, NTMoFA Taichung, 2013
Festival93
I sell / donate / give away the masks to people at some
exhibitions. I used this set-up during Ars Electronica festival.
Exhibition94
Normally there is an installation of at least two masks
with video projection or poster presentation throughout the
exhibition. This set-up is usually combined together with live
presentation of the happening at least once during the specific
event.
93 Lenka Klimešová. Future Kiss Linz_Zagreb_Bratislava. Online: https://vimeo.com/1287972494 True Love part 1-9. TEA Super Connect. Online: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.579761462060753.1073741842.435036083199959&type=3
85
Future Kiss, interactive happening, poster, 2008
6.1.4. COMPARISON WITH OTHER ARTWORKS
During my research I have discovered a couple of
artworks using a kiss as a main issue. The project Kiss
Controller (2011) by Hye Yeon Nam and Sam Mendenhall uses a
kiss as a game controller. “Kissing is an intimate behavior that
can be developed into a game device. It has not yet been
proposed in the game industry. Kiss Controller shows how the
human tongue can be used to control a game and how people
can become creatively involved in a game.”95
95 Kiss Controller, Hye Yeon Nam and Sam Mendenhall. Online 18.4.2014: http://www.hynam.org/HY/kis.html
86
Kiss Controller, Hye Yeon Nam and Sam Mendenhall, 2011
The Kiss Transmission Device (2011) allows to send the
kiss through the internet. "If you take one device in your mouth
and turn it with your tongue, the other device turns in the same
way. If you turn it back the other way, then your partner's turns
back the same way, so your partner's device turns whichever
way your own device turns."96
It is interesting that both projects are from Asia and
represents a kind of device art that I have already mention
before.
96 Kiss Transmission Device, The Kajimoto Laboratory at the University of Electro-Communications. Online 20.4.2014: http://www.diginfo.tv/v/11-0090-r-en.php
87
6.2. THE WILL
6.2.1. CONCEPT
On the floor there is an Islamic symbol of Allah (God)
square kufi made from conductive carpet. Near the carpet there
are three pairs of slippers with mini vibration motors inside.
When the spectators put the slippers on and walk on the
symbol they feel the vibrations. Slippers have the tricolor of the
US flag. That means there are pairs of red, blue and white
slippers. The art piece comments on the military conflict between
the US and Iraq and the ensuing terrorist attacks. It is not
allowed to walk on the symbol of Allah. In my installation
everybody has a choice including those who make a suicide
attack.
The conceptual part of the project was developed with the
help and collaboration of Arwa Ahmed Ramadan who I have met
during Memefest conference 2011 in Netherlands. She explains
the conflict from her point of view as follows:
“Politics and Religion... these words are almost inseparable
where I come form. In fact, most of the Arabian law was set
1400 years ago, when God sent us the prophet Mohamed with
his Islamic teaching. I met Lenka in Nijmegen, Netherlands about
88
3 month ago, we were partners in a design project when she
showed me her piece. I was in total shock of what she showed
me... God's name, written in Arabic calligraphy, as a carpet for
people to step on!!!! "That is unacceptable and disrespectful" I
said. She said, "I know" and she told me her initial concept,
which is that if people recognize the word, they would choose to
step on it or not, using plastic slippers of the American flag.
Her idea was the Iraqi-American conflict. I told her that
it's true that Iraq is an Arab, muslim country, but there were
three problems with her approach; first was that Arabs don't
represent Islam, as 80% of the muslim population are not Arabs.
Second, in Iraq itself, there is a minor percentage of Christians,
making it unfair to assume that Iraq=Islam=Allah.
The third problem, which most foreigners don't understand
fully, is that the Iraqi-American conflict is purely political, fighting
for natural resources and nuclear energy, and has nothing to do
with religion. So, I suggested a more fitting representation of the
conflict, which is to create the word "Iraq" in arabic with the
carpet, and with that, she avoided insulting 1.97 billion muslims
because a pure misunderstanding, and accurately represented the
hopeless conflict between Iraq and America.”
She asked me to change the sign from god to Iraq. My
argument was that actually it is good to show the outcome of
89
my total misunderstanding. Because it describes exactly the
problem and effect of simulacrum on the reality. My
(mis)understanding is the exemplary result of a political
massage/message.
6.2.2. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
The project consists of a black carpet, 3 pairs (different
sizes) of slippers in red, white and blue color, electronic parts,
vibration motors, wires, electric tape, adhesive material, AAA
batteries, battery holders. The tools used for production are
mainly adhesive and soldering gun. The technical procedure is
briefly documented in the images below:
90
Testing breadboard
6.2.3. EXHIBITION CONDITIONS
The size of the carpet is 3,5x3,5m and the work requires
at least 5x5m space. It is an object made from carpet on the
floor. It is necessary to fix the carpet to the floor using carpet
tape. The floor should be light colored because the special
electronic slippers will react to the color change – light floor /
black carpet. The carpet is ideally bounded by 12 stanchion
ropes which represent border and safety area at the same time.
The work is independent and can be exhibited everywhere with a
flat floor.
91
Implementing the system into the shoe
The project was exhibited at the Ars Electronica97 festival
2011 and Speculum Artium98 2012.
97 Unuselessness: The Useful Useless. Interface Culture at Ars Electronica, 2011. Online: https://www.flickr.com/photos/arselectronica/6052226495/98 Speculum Artium, Trbovlje, Slovenia, 2012. Online:http://speculumartium.si/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/SA-katalog12.pdf
92
The Will, Speculum Artium, Delavski Dom, Trbovlje, 2012
7. CONCLUSION
“Every real artist constantly violates the laws of the system within
which he works, in order to create new formal possibilities and stimulate
aesthetic desire.”
Umberto Eco (1989, p.79)
The theory of mimesthesia can serve as a tool for
deconstruction of artworks as well as visual cyber culture reality
based on the politic performative. I introduced the term spatial
mimesis and its implication from many diverse points of view. It
is about how we perceive the world and how can we deal with
it. All the speculations that I mentioned here somehow inspired
me or gave me a new impulse – a new way of seeing. I wanted
to share this experience with the readers and gave them a
guide through the universe of mimesis.
The conceptual and aesthetic part of my projects has the
same importance. Visual project narrates the message that I
want to share with the participants. Mimesis works here as a
place to exchange an experience among carnal identities.
The connecting element between the chosen topic and my
practical works is that sensibility towards the conditions in which
93
we are living. Since the topic is still present my next steps lead
to a deeper research in the future. I am interested to find more
intercultural examples and produce socially sensible and
responsible artworks.
94
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9. LINKS
Abramovi , Marina. Lecture at the Smithsonian's Hirshhornć
Museum and Sculpture Garden. Video online 4.4.2014:
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games
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Hassabi, Maria. SoloShow, dance performance. Online
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102
Sakovich, Roman. Half, photography. Online 12.4.2014:
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Takahara, Kanako. Takarazuka Revue: Fans make troupe
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troupe-phenomenon-it-is/#.UzrSsMf1t6w
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Western Society, term. Online: 1.4.2014:
http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Western_society/
103
10. APPENDIX
10.1. CURATORIAL TEXTS
10.1.1. VIVIANA CHECCHIA, curator and critic
LENKA KLIMEŠOVÁ: FUTURE KISS
Published in: ARS ELECTRONICA. CyberArts 2009: International
Compendium Prix Electronica, Ostfildern : Hatje Cantz Verlag,
2009.
Back in 1952 in Italy, in order to launch a new “science
fiction” editorial on the market a new word was generated-
“fantascienza” (science fiction), composed of “fantasia” (or
fantasy) and “science”. This new term conveyed the idea of
narration (or, at times, a representation) of fantastical events
apparently, or partially, based on scientific elements.
The structure of the masks that Lenka Klimešová puts on
display for the visitors at this exhibition derives from
“fantascienza”. For their capacity to vibrate (symbolizing the
104
genuine reciprocity of sentiments in the act of kissing) there is a
chip, a scientific product. It is obvious, however, that the artist
focuses more on the “fantasy” element when she speculates on
the mask’s use and observes the reactions in the users’
behavior.
Of course the playful component is a part of it, but the
main accent is on the individual willingness to accept this type
of tool for a hypothetical control of our emotions. (Everyone in
this event plays along and no one seems to focus on the
functional credibility of the gadget). One tends to believe in it
almost in the same manner with which, in the past, one believed
in the gypsy’s crystal ball, but with something extra - a blind
willingness to accept that almost anything is possible with
science.
We are nowadays accustomed to the use of mechanical
and electronic tools in almost every daily activity: from the
minimal pressure on the gas pedal to a finger on a button
capable of unleashing a maximum energetic force. One hopes
that at least in love relationships humans could manage on their
own with a certain jealousy of their inner experiences, but Lenka
Klimešová, with a playful tone, tells us pessimistically to expect
the worst.
The use of the masks has already found its application
and it’s seen in the three videos that Lenka Klimesova created
105
in the event of many other happenings. It is also puzzling to
observe how the participants, even in the apparent euphoric
atmosphere, are quite uneasy. It seems easy at first to kiss with
a mask on, but when one actually does, even while smiling,
he/she notices the sadness and the difference of the mediated
perception. This is possibly the worse that we can expect.
Nevertheless, maybe it all should be interpreted in a
simpler way. Maybe it only has to do with a simple freeing act
from a taboo that considers the sentimental effusion to be
inconvenient in a public setting. In this case, the use of the
mask would be a way to reconnect with its traditional roots in
Carnevale. Lenka Klimešová’s representation, however, does not
limit itself to simply hide the identity of the user, but it goes
beyond to actually overturn the way to judge behavior, because
it would obviously be unattractive to abstain from kissing with a
mask on in this event!
The use of masks spreads around the world and its uses
are not only to protect one while working but also against the
harmful polluting emissions on the streets. People nowadays
even use them as a sign of protest, covering their mouths with
written words or symbols of disapproval. Lenka Klimešová invites
us to play with this technological mask but, at the same time,
to reflect on what it evokes in us.
106
10.1.2. EVA FILOVÁ, curator and artist
LENKA KLIMEŠOVÁ, MAJA ŠTEFAN ÍKOVÁ: Č
ERROR STAGE IN FIVE LAYERS
Published in Bratislava, Hotdock Gallery, 2011
The project consists of four interconnected videos which
surround the visitors and communicate with them. The videos
evoke a sense of theatrical scene in which the spectator found
himself as a part of the cross-point communication.
The authors have chosen a theatrical environment as a
metaphor of art scene – looking for a place at the scene in
terms of authorship constitution, casting the roles – including the
role of spectator to whom the masterpiece is dedicated, the role
of director / author as well as the role of critic / curator; the
main principle of play is based on five-act dramatic structure of
Aristotelian tragedy. Visitor's catharsis – if any – is the final
effect of the artwork, the spectator's ability to perceive, enjoy
and reflect the artwork.
The main protagonists are the authors themselves. They
comment the way of creation, the process of forming the work
and at the same time they confront the voices of
superconsciousness which insecure their status, self-confidence
107
and the meaning of creativity.
The authors distinguish the mutual confrontation between
ego and superego by two types of shots – long and close up;
for superego – representing self-criticism, self-censorship and at
the same time parodies a curatorship institution – artists made
a form of variable identity: masquerades and cross-dressing.
10.2. CATALOGS (selection):
TEA International Techno Art Exhibition. Super Connect.
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan, 2013,
128 p., ISBN 978-986-03-7608-1.
GOOD HUNT. Nitra gallery. Slovakia, 2011, 60 p., ISBN
978-80-85746-54-9.
ARS ELECTRONICA. Origin : wie alles beginnt, Ostfildern :
Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2011, 319 p. ISBN 978-3-7757-3180-5.
ARS ELECTRONICA. CyberArts : International Compendium
Prix Electronica, Ostfildern : Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2009, 319 p.
ISBN 978-3-7757-2499-9.
ARTEFATTO. Luminessenze : Youth Art Exhibition. Trieste :
Graphart Srl, 2009, 142 p.
BRNO ART OPEN '09. D m um ní m sta Brna, 2009, 78 p.,ů ě ě
ISBN 978-80-7009-156-8.
108
10.3. REVIEWS AND ARTICLES (selection):
Lenka Klimešová: ELEKTRO KISS, interview by Michal Murin,
ENTER / No.14+15: Creative Manual for Contemporary Japanese
Media Arts, compiled by Richard Kitta & Michal Murin, Dive Buki,
2013, p. 130, online: www.divebuki.sk
ART RADAR ASIA. Science, Technology and Visual Art:
Artists in a Hybrid World. Kate Nicholson. 1.11.2013 online:
http://artradarjournal.com/2013/11/01/science-technology-and-
visual-art-artists-in-a-hybrid-world/
ERROR STAGE v 5 vrstvách / Majolenka. Jana Kapelová.
ARTY OK, 20.12.2011, 04:20, online: http://artycok.tv/lang/cs-Č
cz/9549/error-stage-v-5-vrstvach
ERROR STAGE. Zuzana Tká iková. Radio Devín, Rannéč
Ladenie, 25.11.2011, 8:30-8:45, online:
http://213.215.116.181:8001/devin/2011-11-25/129-
Ranne_ladenie-07-00.mp3
LOVU ZDAR! Ivan Svoboda. ARTY OK, 19.11.2011, online:Č
http://artycok.tv/lang/cs-cz/8741/good-hunt
INTERFACE CULTURES @ Ars Electronica Festival 2011.
Martin Kaltenbrunner, 9.9.2011, 57:20, online:
http://www.dorftv.at/videos/dorf-tv-open-house/2444
109
Ars Electronica: Feine Ausstellung. Irene Gunnesch. OÖ
Nachrichten, Linz 1.9.2011, p. 13, Clip Nr: 6389092
Wunderbare beiträge der Kunstuni Linz zur Ars Electronica:
Kunst im ganz normale Alltag. KRONE, rubrika Kultur, Linz
1.9.2011, p. 42, Clip Nr: 6389533
DVOJICE “MAJOLENKA” VYSTAVUJE V GALERII VŠUP. Linda
Petáková. Ro3 Vltava, Mozaika / Výtvarné um ní, 14.9.2010,Č ě
délka 04:14, online:
http://www.rozhlas.cz/mozaika/vytvarne/_zprava/783518
MAJOLENKA V GALERII VŠUP. Barbora Sedlá ková. Roč Č
Radio Wave, Wave culture. 9.9.2010, délka 03:06, online:
http://www.rozhlas.cz/radiowave/waveculture/_zprava/781056
DIPLOMOVÉ PRÁCE ŠTUDENTOV VŠVU/AFAD. Peter Bárenyi.
ARTY OK, 6.8.2010, online: http://artycok.tv/lang/cs-Č
cz/diplomove-prace-diploma-works-vsvu/4575
MAJOLENKA. Simona Krovinová. Flash Art CZ/SK, rubrika
Reviews, Vol. V No.15 January-May 2010, May 2010, s. 68, ISSN
1336-9644
Inštaláciami zo zbúraného amfiteátra kritizujú biznis. Jana
ernáková. Petit Press, 7.3.2010, online:Č
http://nitra.sme.sk/c/5272897/instalaciami-zo-zburaneho-
amfiteatra-kritizuju-biznis.html#
MAJOLENKA – Zmes rôznych nápadov. REGION
videoreportáž (region100305.flv), redaktorka: Michaela Kertészová,
110
kamera a st ih: Matúš Ková , CEmedia s.r.o., 5.3.2010, online:ř č
http://www.cetv.sk/arch%C3%8Dv/region/region/video15.html
MAJOLENKA v Bunkri. Simona Krovinová. Magazine Studio
Stillsoft, 2.3.2010, dostupné online:
http://magazine.studiostillsoft.com/section/2/has-
happened/176/Majolenka-v-bunkri/
ARS ELECTRONICA / lovek, príroda a to ostatné.Č
Katarína Gatialová. Flash Art CZ/SK, rubrika Spotlight, Vol. IV
No.14 October-December 2009, January 2010, s. 57, ISSN 1336-
9644
2VIDEO. Lýdia Pribišová. Flash Art CZ/SK, rubrika News,
Vol. IV No.14 October-December 2009, January 2010, s. 9, ISSN
1336-9644
Lenka Klimešová: Future Kiss. Text by curator Viviana
Checchia in: ARS ELECTRONICA. CyberArts 2009: International
Compendium Prix Electronica, Ostfildern : Hatje Cantz Verlag,
2009, s.166-7 ISBN 978-3-7757-2499-9
111
10.4. VIDEOGRAPHY (selection):
2014
I am a man, 2-channel video installation, 03:09, Linz, Austria
FilaMENt (with Ond ej Pokorný), video, 11:05, Linz, Austriař
2013
Fortress, video, 07:11, Linz, Austria
online: https://vimeo.com/80752422
2012
Mimesis, video, 04:30, Ogaki, Japan
online: https://vimeo.com/48200115
2011
Error Stage in Five Layers (with Maja Štefan íková),č video
installation, 7:20, Bratislava, Slovakia
2010
Excursion to Foreign Territory, video installation, 8:48,
Bratislava, Slovakia
online: https://vimeo.com/16406897
112
2009
Fragment of the Feature Film: FAUND FUTYDŽ (with Maja
Štefan íková), video, 17:17, Bratislava, Slovakiač
online: https://vimeo.com/5680300
Play the Role (with Maja Štefan íková),č video installation, 3:28,
Bratislava, Slovakia
online: https://vimeo.com/5679091
Working Title: Enjoy the River (with Maja Štefan íková, Paulínač
Ma áková), documentary č video, 7:24, Bratislava, Slovakia
online: https://vimeo.com/5682974
FOUND FOOTAGE Site Specific Archive Theatre Performance
Art, video, 6:42, Bratislava, Slovakia
online: https://vimeo.com/3136087
Beautiful is when at least two persons find it appealing,
1. version, video, 2:27, Bratislava, Slovakia
online: https://vimeo.com/2943720
Beautiful is when at least two persons find it appealing,
2. version, video, 1:29, Bratislava, Slovakia
online: https://vimeo.com/5768600
113