Spatial Mimesis: Carnal Identity at Intercultural Spaces

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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)


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.


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


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.”


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

83

How to hide the battery

The complete mask

The masks in a couple

How to change the battery

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.”


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

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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


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


112

2009

Fragment of the Feature Film: FAUND FUTYDŽ (with Maja

Štefan íková), video, 17:17, Bratislava, Slovakiač


Play the Role (with Maja Štefan íková),č video installation, 3:28,

Bratislava, Slovakia


Working Title: Enjoy the River (with Maja Štefan íková, Paulínač

Ma áková), documentary č video, 7:24, Bratislava, Slovakia


FOUND FOOTAGE Site Specific Archive Theatre Performance

Art, video, 6:42, Bratislava, Slovakia


Beautiful is when at least two persons find it appealing,

1. version, video, 2:27, Bratislava, Slovakia


Beautiful is when at least two persons find it appealing,

2. version, video, 1:29, Bratislava, Slovakia


113

Spatial Mimesis: Carnal Identity at Intercultural Spaces

Documents

Transcript of Spatial Mimesis: Carnal Identity at Intercultural Spaces