10 Sept 2012

Intimate Space

15cm: Intimate Zone
"A scientific explanation of the despondent behaviour of commuters in peak hour traffic. With the inevitable instrusion of strangers into the 15cm radius around our body we react by limiting body movement, avoiding eye contact and stripping emotion from the face. There is a list of unwritten rules of how we behave in public pace. What happens if we do something out of the ordinary? What impact, if any, does this have on the space? In a way it's a social experiment; a physical examination that probes at the tension between physical closeness and emotional distance. How willing are we to engage with the unfamiliar" ?

-- Liesel Zink's fifteen program notes at 2012 Brisbane Festival


In daily life, ordinary life, we walk pass by a bunch of strangers and pedestrians; we travel from A to B, and we have our own missions to the destinations. We're connecting with physical attendance in space and social networking technology but we're not really connected. We carry our intimate space around by the blockage of emotion, eye contact. However, at the same time, we're quietly secretly syncing our action (movements and behaviours) with others so we're vaguely existed and therefore, we're able to fit in the majority of the society, and then we feel safe and secured....

I feel really honored that I used to be one of the dancers when fifteen was developing. Though I am changing my role to an audience this year, and though I feel slightly sad not being 'in the work', I still feel fortune to be able to stand outside and observe... I walked into the little set-up space and was given a pair of headphone with the music Mike has written and is writing.

Let's start with images and some stories...

I saw something's happening out of ordinary in the city. I stared at him strangely and wondered if he was alright? I am confused and couldn't adjust and decide because I have never seen this odd behaviour in the city before. I didn't stop walking but I turned my head back a few times at him and looked around... I wondered if there was someone else with him, doing the same thing? I wondered if it was kind of flash mobby, trying to fool me around? I was slightly frightened until I saw there was another person doing the similar abstract movement somewhere else. I understood they were together and the same. I felt much better now, then I walked away...

We Were Watched as We Were Watching, too
As we were observing the city with a pair of headphone with a soundtrack that brought us to a different zone within the same space, I noticed a few pedestrians looked at us strangely first, then looked around, recognising there were more people having the same headphones, sitting on the benches, looking at the same directions. Finally a hint of smile with relief on their faces; some did look around, looking for another connection with us. We were all looking for relationship connections in and out of the frame.

We were seen, watched, recognised, and grouped together, as one. Soon, we then disappear...

Oddness Become Acceptable
Some pedestrians were sensitive enough to spot and find another oddness happening in a tick of their passing-by time. Sometimes they spotted 'non-performers'; the pedestrians noticed other pedestrians at least.  The dancers appeared and disappeared in space as they traveled with others in the crowd or burst into a degree of movements that exaggerated actions and behaviour we see and we do on the street daily.

The man were stretching his legs in front of us... I didn't notice him until the dancers went pass him and somehow his movements were exactly in sync with the soundtrack we were listening. I wondered if some of the audience thought he was one of the hidden dancers. ( I have known fifteen well enough to know this particular man was not 'part of the plan') He jumped because he couldn't balanced when stretching in one leg stranding, he stopped, crossed his foot and looked for something. Then I noticed his relationship with another man across the street under the traffic light because they waved at each other. This man walked across the road, chatting with the other man a little and running back this side before the light turned red... Everything was syncing with music we were listening to.

We were finding the similarities and differences all the time. The dancers were just like magic wands, making all the other people and surroundings mattered and alive as they traveled in and out of the frame. And really, how do we distinguish the  size of the frame? It's universal, frameless.

Another Chapter has Begun
The little girl watched the little show that were guided by four talented dancers as well. She clapped to appreciate the dancers effort when she felt the show has come to the end. Then she continuously looked for more surprise, she started looking around....

We're appearing and disappearing in art and daily (ordinary). Art is within the ordinary as long as we see it. As artists, we shouldn't make "art" unapproachable or frightening; arts belong to everyone, and we're the messengers to highlight and remind the existence of the importance of arts. Extra-ordinary is extraordinary and powerful.

fifteen is everywhere, and different each time in different locations and cultures. fifteen is environmental, and alive...