Message: 1
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 10:37:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Stacia Yeapanis <stacialy@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] FW: introduction [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
Message-ID: <730082.27518.qm@web43138.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Jill,
I'm glad you brought up the point of the virtual as
fiction. The word has so many potential meanings. I
feel that it's useful to try and define it in a few
ways, for the sake of conversation and to clarify it
in my own head.
A quick Google search yielded this:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&defl=en&q=define:
virtual&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
I've recently been thinking of the "virtual" as head
space. as psychological space, creative space, fantasy
space, emotional space, intellectual space. This fits
with your idea about fiction.
This brings me to thinking about performance in
general, and in virtual spaces, in particular. I tend
to use the word "performative" when I talk about my
own work. I don't consider myself a performance artist
in the sense that a text or idea is conceived of and
then acted out for an audience. (Yes, this is a very
restrictive definition which we can happily blow
apart.) "Performative" for me connotes an exageration
of the truth for an audience. For example, I make work
about fandom and that uses the idea of fandom as a
tool to explore meaning-making. It's important to me
that the work I make springs out of my own fandom. So,
I am a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. That exists
outside of my work as an artist, but I also
consciously emphasize that fact in my artistic persona
so my work will be framed in a certain way. Coming out
of a period of time and an art school, when and where
irony is a given, I feel I need to ground my work in
sincereity in order to say what I want to say. So my
fandom is both authentic and performed. Similar to
what Jill says about writing down a story that "did
happen."
This brings up the idea of text as a virtual space.
Books have always done what games and tv and movies do
now. (Makes me think of what mez said about World of
Warcraft- games just seem to embrace their lack of
control over the narrative.) Books as virtual spaces.
I'm curious what you think, Barbara, about this,
considering your use of narratives in your
performance.