This post was originally made on my other blog, before I started this one.
The blog you’re reading now will be the OFFICIAL blog for #EverybodyAllTheTime.
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I’m pretty thrilled to announce that I’ll be presenting work at the ideaXfactory in downtown Springfield for November First Friday Artwalk.
IdeaXfactory is a wonderful contemporary art space. It sponsors site-specific work and nontraditional art projects in S’field. I applied in August to develop and present my work at the ideaXfactory, located at 351 N Boonville near MSU’s Brick City. Check out their website for more information about this space and the work that happens here.
My project is a performance-based installation, a performance-art piece, an improvisational experiment, a collaboration between myself and many of my art-minded peers.
I’ll be presenting this piece as my senior project (instead of a BFA concert). It will also serve as the final project in my pursuit of departmental honors in dance.
The concept of the piece is the juxtaposition of our flesh-and-bone, real-life selves with the polished personas we create for ourselves on the Internet, primarily through social media. The performance will feature both live performance and video on computer screens in order to communicate this theme.
I am inspired by Andy Horwitz’s article on Culturebot, Territorial Pissing, in which he states that “the biggest challenge of the Internet-era DIY moment is re-learning the importance of being together in real life, in small groups of good friends; of remembering that the mediated world distorts and deludes, that it is valuable for distribution but not necessarily for depth.”
I find that I spend an exorbitant amount of time checking in with social media. I know a lot about the people in my life: who they hang out with, what they listen to, where they like to go, etc. I know the foods they eat and the topics that are important to them. I see when they use social media to make their lives look glamorous or when they use it to vent when their lives are lousy. And since I post/upload/update as well, many people know all of this about me, too. Social media has become a part of us; our singular identity has been divided between our real life persona and our online presence. This fascinates and terrifies me.
I will explore this subject in my project, and will strive to emphasize the importance of personal, real-life connections amid our hyper-connected lives.
Stay tuned to this blog, and come see the show at November artwalk.
#EverybodyAllTheTime 