WEBVTT - It's Performance Art: Challenging Human Nature 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.680 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.919 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Julie Decklas. Here, Julie, 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.000 I take the Marta train here to the office. That's 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.560 a public transportation here in Atlanta. UM, it's kind of 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.720 limited looks. We just go north and south and east 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.720 and west and that's it. But it's public transportation. It's 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:34.080 the train. It's uh a melting pot of humanity, especially 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.600 when it's hot and uh. And I'm always saying, just 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:40.800 kind of crazy stuff happening on the train, and occasionally 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:43.120 it'll be crazy enough that there was a moment where 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:48.200 I have to question, and it's what I'm seeing legitimate 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.639 human activity. Is this Is this somebody that is adduled, 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.240 that is in danger, that is unhinged, or is this 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.880 performance art This is somebody trying to make a state 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:04.639 it about human nature right here on the train. Because 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.080 that is the thing about performance artists, right like, they 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.920 completely disenter you. They make you stop and say, is 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.040 this person truly um sort of out of their wits 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:16.520 or do they have something to say? And that is 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:19.640 the goal of the performance artists. Right, and as as 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.479 we'll discussed in this episode two, at times it may 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:25.480 seem that there is a gray line between madness and 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:29.040 performance art. So absolutely with some definitely some of the 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:31.760 people were going to cover, like to what extent are 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:36.160 they going to explore these ideas of our own humanness, 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:41.039 our frailties are power by doing these these acts that 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.240 sometimes they actually um will do to their bodies. We'll 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.640 talk about that. They are arguably no same person would 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.680 do no, no, But they are interrogating what it is 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.280 to be human, how we feel, how we think, how 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.880 we act, what is morality? This is, you know, a 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.680 question that we're always grappling with as humans. UM. And 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.440 I really think the artists are are these nice um, 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.960 these nice additions to the scientific mind, to scientific researchers 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:10.359 out there, because I think that they're doing the same 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.800 thing that scientists arts to some extent they are. They're 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:17.680 going through the process of UM, Okay, here's this, here's 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:19.960 the situation, and how can I examine it, and how 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:21.840 can I peel away the layers to come to some 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.120 sort of truth? What works and what doesn't? Um, you know, 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.920 into what extent do we even have free will? This 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:30.120 is a question that comes up a life with neuroscientists. 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.320 And I think this is something that performance artists do 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.919 really well, is exploring this topic. Like you said, they 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:42.600 drop truth bombs. They do to quote Tracy Jordan's there 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.520 what strikes me about the performance artists. With a traditional artist, 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.760 the the art they create is kind of like kind 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:56.920 of serves as a proxy by which they deliver truth. Two. Like, 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.080 there's truth in the art the artist creates, and that 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.160 is the means by which he or she gets the 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:08.520 truth into your brain. Um. But the performance artist, there's 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.880 no proxy like they they are they are becoming a 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:15.680 vessel for that idea. They are becoming an idea, and 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:19.320 they're forcing you to confront this idea in the flesh. 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.240 Um Often, I mean, there are a lot of new 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.919 performance artists out there, and nudity is often plays into 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.200 I mean, because that is uh, I mean, that's the 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:32.600 thing itself. There's a line in Shakespeare's King lear Um 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.720 where lear is um. You know, it's a one of 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:37.400 these seats out in the in the middle of the storm. 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.880 Lear is is mad. There's a there's a fool that's 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:46.480 pretending to be mad. Uh. And and lear says, is 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.960 man no more than this? Consider him well, thou owest, 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:52.600 the worm no silk, the beasts no hide, the sheep 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.400 no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha, here's three uns 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:01.160 are sophisticated, thou art the thing itself accommodated. Man is 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:04.360 no more but such a poor bear forked animal as 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.080 thou art. Okay, that's that's really interesting because it's about 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.560 stripping away right that the thing. And that's what I 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:13.560 think is interesting about performance art is it does peel 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:17.400 away our particular constructs of realities, some of them built 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:19.880 on how we as a society work right, all these 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:23.800 sort of rules that are either spoken or unspoken. UM. 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.440 And I wanted to talk about how performance art is 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:30.159 actually an offshoot of data is M and even UM 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:34.520 and futurists um. And it has a pretty good Uh, 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:37.800 it has a pretty good run here UM, particularly from 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:42.120 the seventies on. Lori Anderson is someone who is associated 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.599 with performance art. And I just wanted to mention this 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:46.960 because this is a good example of the type of 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.960 performance art that began to be performed. She did duets 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.320 on ice, which she conducted in New York and other 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:55.800 cities around the World, and it involved her playing the 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.360 violin along with recording while wearing ice skates with blades 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.880 frozen and to a block of ice. Now Lorie Anderson, 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:13.080 her husband, Uh yes, um yes, because Anderson was also 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.120 NASA's Artist in Residence for a short period of time. 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.560 She is an amazing artist, um and she has I 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.160 believe that she's even if I've got this read, I 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.000 believe she's even invented a couple of instruments as well. 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.440 She's an amazing finger. And so that's what I think 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.000 is really interesting about performance artists is that they're bringing 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.400 all those critical thinking skills to the table and like scientists, 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:38.159 trying to figure out, like, you know, these causal relationships 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:40.440 and what happens when you, you know, push the needle 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.400 here and there. Her performance, you know, they're no newdating, 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.719 nothing too crazy, nothing blowing up. But her performance ended 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:51.279 when the ice had melted away. Another artist that people 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.600 might be familiar with this Karen Finley. And I actually 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.440 saw her in American Chestnut here in Atlanta, and that 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.480 was very interesting. That was this interrogation of the missticity 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:05.080 and a woman's role. And this was after she had 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.840 a child and she was actually using breast milk quite 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:12.000 a bit too, um express herself, I guess you could say. 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:15.640 But one of the things that hallmarks of performance art 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.960 to me at least is this lack of documentation. Um. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.599 This this symbol of the ephemeral nature of life, that 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:27.280 everything is fleeting. And uh, I wanted to bring this 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:29.920 little quote out from a book called The Family Fang, 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.240 and this was one of yours in your summer reading 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.880 when my summer picks. It's really good. It's there. In 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.560 some ways it's it didn't quite live up to what 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:39.800 I what I thought it might be, but other ways 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.960 it really surprised me. Is about a family of performance artists, 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.240 the parents in particular, and um, here's a quote from 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:50.719 the father talking to child. Be I believe that's his son, um, 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:52.240 he says, And I'm gonna have to believe this out 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:55.840 a little bit. Art happens when things effing move around, 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.039 he told them, not when you freeze them in a 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:02.040 gall durn block of ice. He would then take whatever 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:05.040 item was closest to him, a glass or a tape recorder, 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.080 and smash it against the wall. That was art, he said, 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:09.880 And then he would pick up the pieces of the 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:13.280 shattered object and hold them out for his children to inspect. This, 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:15.760 he said, offering the remains of the broken thing is 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.559 not so Again, it's this moment that's eliciting these certain 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:24.320 emotions that I think are most central to performance art. Yeah, 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:26.640 and you know, another thing that comes to mind is 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.120 if we were researching this and as we're discussing now, um, 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.800 there's there's also this line between performance art and just 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:38.120 someone being a provocateur, you know, or you know that 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:40.560 someone that's just doing something shocking for the sake of 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:44.680 shocking and shocking you. Um. And certainly there are some 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.920 individuals out there who just do that and call it 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.520 performance art. But but but when when you're dealing with 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.160 real performance are like performance art of a high caliber, 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.920 um that there's there's that nugget of message in there somewhere, well, 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.600 something that resonates a long time afterwards, Like for instance, 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:04.040 you could see was it the naked cowboy in New 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:06.000 York who plays on the side of the street with 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:11.880 the guitar? Oh yeah, yeah, And I wouldn't call it 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.760 performance art. But I'm just I'm kind of picking on 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:16.360 him a little bit because I don't think he builds 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:19.120 himself as a performance artist. But some people might go 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.080 by and say, oh, that's so crazy. There's a you know, 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:24.520 six ft five dude, he's pretty much naked and the 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:29.240 cowboy hat. Yeah, various individuals in Atlanta that have become 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.240 famous for like baton Man, the baton guy that would 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:36.400 march around with the baton. Oh yeah, like like that 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:38.600 was I mean, he wasn't pretending to be a performance artist. 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:40.319 He was just doing it because it made him happy. 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:43.400 But I've seen him in a long time. Yeah, I 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.600 haven't seen him recently either, I have uh you know, 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.800 maybe he uh, maybe he's good now, he didn't need it. Yeah, 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.520 maybe got that baton thing out, um, that baton demon 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:57.720 that we all have. Um. And then there's the flatuless 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:00.520 that you you hit me to the other day. Oh 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.160 yeah yeah, um, which I didn't even know it was 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.520 a real thing. I was. I was reading a book 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.000 Mary Anne is Sleeping. I believe it's the name of it. Um. 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.000 It was look for a big book prize about a 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:17.360 decade back, and there was a fart farting artist in 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.280 the book. But the whole book is like cloaked in 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.360 dreams and dreams within dreams so I just assumed it 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:28.000 was made up, but we discovered yesterday that it is 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:30.480 not there. There this is a there's a grand tradition 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:40.440 of individuals using their their their their musical their Actually 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:44.160 there's Mr. Mythlen Is the name of one of the Flatuless. Yeah, 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.199 that was on like what Britain's got talent the proud 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.920 moment for the Empire. But but that so that is 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:55.600 another example something that is not quite performance art. Um. 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:57.520 But but let's get into start getting into some of 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.160 the examples that we're gonna cover in this this episod 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:01.800 because we want to we want to hit some high 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.480 points or performance art well. And in some cases you 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:06.920 could call them it's in the eye of the beholder. 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.400 Some of these may be considered low points that performance art, 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.520 depending on where you're coming from. But but the idea 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.439 is that the message is received, there's a there's something 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:17.840 worth talking about with all of the pieces we're going 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.520 to discuss today. So one of these gold standard UH 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:27.160 performance artists is Maria Abramovich and she has been doing 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:31.079 performance up for forties something years. Um. One of her 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:35.559 most provocative pieces that was called rhythm Oh and UH, 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:37.120 I just want to mention too. She's a New York 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:40.720 based Serbian performance artists and she had a very interesting 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.040 upbringing to and believe her parents were in the army, 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.640 both of them very rigid. Um. There's a documentary out 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.440 about her. Yeah, it's gotten a lot of media attention 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:53.199 playing on HBO. I believe yes it is, and we'll 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:55.079 talk about that in a moment too. Um. That is 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.319 called the Artist is Present. But Rhythmo was performed in 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:03.560 nineteen four in studio Amora and Naples and Maria Ramovich 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.720 adopted a really passive role with audience as an active 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:12.080 taking on an active role, and she put seventy two 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.280 objects around her on a table, anywhere from flowers and 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:19.160 perfume to nails, a knife, a hammer, and a loaded gun, 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:24.319 and she just she just laid down, was very docile. 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:26.920 She was naked, and then the members of the audience 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:29.839 were allowed to use any of those objects on her 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.600 in any way that they wished. And what she saw 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.760 over this six hour period is that people at first 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.959 were pretty modest um, you know, they might pick up 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.040 some perfume and put her on it. By the end 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.440 they were actually attacking her with some of these objects 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.559 like that didn't like one individual point of the guy 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:51.480 that her head, yes, and another individual took it away. 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.440 So what you're seeing here is the the audience became 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:59.120 the show essentially, and she, like the artist, as the 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:04.280 piece becomes this, this mirror in which we perceive ourselves. Yeah, 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:06.120 she said, what I learned was that if you leave 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:07.720 it up to the audience, they can kill you. I 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:11.040 felt really violated. They cut up my clothes, stuck Rose 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.480 Thorne's in my stomach. One person aimed the gun at 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.439 my head, as you say, and another it took it away. 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:19.640 It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly six hours, as planned, 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.800 I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.800 ran away to escape an actual confrontation. So it was 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:28.800 interesting because she had said, here are the rules. I'm 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:32.720 gonna sit here. But after six hours I get up. Um, 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.920 So it's interesting that people ran away, uh, sort of 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.880 knowing that whatever this, this false contract was now broken. 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:45.640 And it made me think about objectification, which is something 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:47.360 we do on a daily basis, whether or not we 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:49.679 know it all the time, right for for a variety 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.320 of reasons, into a variety of things and people. And 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:56.520 this is from the Atlantic that there's a study that 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.880 came out said study proof that we sexually objectify women, 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:07.800 and the question of the study everything around. It's interesting 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.079 and it definitely relates back to I think what Abrabam 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:14.480 which was doing, because there's this idea that especially if 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:17.800 the artist tells you, well, she didn't you know, explicitly 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:20.439 tell them, hey, I'm in an object but she did 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:22.800 set the scene for that to happen to a certain extent, 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:27.680 to test the limits um of what human behavior was 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.080 like in that instance. But anyway, there is this idea 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:35.640 of like, straight up, um objectification, can we quantify it? 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:39.640 And um, do we really look at women differently than 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.199 we do them when it comes to this. So what 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.520 they said is is they okay, They said, We're going 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.720 to give everybody men and women um in our study 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:52.440 images of average, fully clothed individuals, So no supermodels in bikinis, 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.280 men or women, and these are going to quickly flash 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:57.720 before the eyes of the participants and then they'll be 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:01.240 shown two side by side images that zoomed in on 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.240 one what they call sexual aspect. This could be like 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.040 the mid drift of a man or a woman. And 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.880 they asked them to identify the version that hadn't been modified, 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.440 and then experience was also reversed so that participants participants 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.200 first looked at a specific part and then had to 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:19.720 identify the context of the entire body. So the test 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.320 was actually designed to clue researchers in whether or not 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:26.200 participants were using what they call global or local cognitive 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.520 processing while leaking at the images, In other words, whether 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:34.080 or not they perceived individuals as a whole or in parts, 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:40.480 which is fascinating to me. So the results, regardless of gender, 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:44.440 participants consistently recognized women's sexual body parts more easily when 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.760 presented in isolation, and men's sexual body parts, on the 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.120 other hand, were more memorable is part of their entire bodies. 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.040 So what they're saying is that the cognitive process behind 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.880 our perception of objects is the same that we have 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:59.720 been looking at women and both genders. Both genders here 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.080 are sualty of taking in the parts instead of the whole, 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.720 but when we look at men we globally process them 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:09.360 more fully as people. This is really interesting that we're 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:13.480 talking about this during the Olympics, because, um, the summer 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:17.440 Olympics startup and you inevitably start seeing all these pictures 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:22.160 from women's beach volleyball. Um, and there's there's a great 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:24.360 little piece. I think it was a blog post that 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.040 was um it was a great idea. I didn't think 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.160 that the execution was was perfect, but um, it brought 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.200 up the idea, what if all sports were photographed the 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.480 way women's beach volleyball is photographed, Because we've all seen 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.640 these like it's the only Olympic sport where it's okay 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:42.520 for the photo spread of it to be women's hinders 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:46.040 and uh in mid drifts, you know, without seeing their 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:49.880 faces or or or necessarily even any sports action like 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.840 you don't see you don't see people shooting Greco Roman 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.720 wrestling like that or or you know, or or various 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:03.240 Winter Olympic sports. It's uh, it's like sexual objectification theater. Well, 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:05.520 and this has been talked about a lot um, you know, 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:09.280 over the years, particularly in terms of um and if 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.640 they never even go swimminghy are they wearing swimsuits? Right? 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.200 I know, I know particularly in gender theory though, because 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:17.600 that that's what they call the male gaze, right, Like 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:21.960 this idea that you know, these body parts are being isolated. Um. 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:24.160 And I was thinking about it in terms of like, well, 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:27.320 this type, these different medias in which women have been 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:30.640 represented have been in existence for thousands of years, right, 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:32.800 but more recently in the ways that we know them, 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:37.120 um through television or through our computer screens. And I thought, well, 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:40.520 if if we know, if we have evidence that a 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.320 search engine like Google can change the way in which 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:47.040 our memory works, then is it possible that the way 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.480 that women are portrayed in these different types of media 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.760 could change the way that we think about men and 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:58.520 women um as they say, like the cognitive processing of 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:00.960 what a woman is or what a man this. And 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:02.800 so that's why I think it's interesting when you look 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:07.560 at Maria Abramovich's work that that she is considering, or 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:09.199 it seems to me and some of the work that 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.840 she's doing, she's considering this idea of objectifying herself or 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:17.520 being objectified UM. And I think that in her her 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:20.440 most recent work, which is a retrospective of all of 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.560 her work called The Artist Is Present, she really kind 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:27.879 of comes full circle with this idea of well, let's 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:34.600 let's do let's focus more on um acceptance rather than 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.840 in this this holistic putting together of the human form 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:42.560 as opposed to the objectification. And if you look at 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.800 this documentary called The Artist is Present, you'll see that 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.200 she takes this retrospect of her work, which is fascinating. 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.879 Forty years worth. People go through the exhibit and I 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.679 believe this was at moment right um, And this was 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:59.960 earlier in this year between March. It for for three 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:04.160 months with retrospective rand. So you go through this when 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.800 you were in Yeah it was unfortunately, uh, but you 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:11.680 go through and at the very end, the artist herself, 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:13.960 as she says, is present. She is sitting at first 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:16.600 at a table for a couple of months, and you, 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.240 as a participant, are allowed to come and sit across 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:22.080 from her. And I don't know for how long, um 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:25.040 you can, but that's really a very simple idea, right 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:26.720 for the Artist is Present, I'm gonna go and sit 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:28.600 in front of her. But what we're talking about here 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:30.640 and this is that when we say people are dedicated 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:33.480 to their arts, um or to performance art and to 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:37.359 really seeing this through this concept, we're talking about a 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.520 three month period in which every single day she sat 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:42.680 at that table and did not get up, and did 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:47.639 not eat and was absolutely silent. All told, seven hundred 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:51.240 and thirty six hour and thirty minutes static silent piece 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:53.320 that is part of her performance. Art is just sitting 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.200 there in and of itself, like the the endurance involved there, 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:58.320 Like it's not just somebody getting up and on a 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:00.680 on a stage and being like, oh oh I'm naked. 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.000 It's art now. This is somebody that's sitting there at 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:05.520 a table for a grueling amount of time. I mean, 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.479 I can't say it's still for fifteen minutes at a stretch. 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:13.200 Most days, I can't can't even imagine that seven hours, 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.840 seven hours and individuals coming and sitting in front of you. Um. 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:20.080 People were waiting for hours every day, by the way, 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.280 just to do this. The reason is is because she 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.480 would For every single person, she would um but like 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:27.879 before they sat down, she would look at her lap 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:30.320 and then look up at them, and she said she 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.840 wanted to give them the recognition they deserved as humans, 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:35.760 as a whole human sitting in front of her, and 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.040 she would say nothing and just stare in her eyes. Okay, 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:41.040 have you ever stared into someone's eyes for for fifteen 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:46.720 minutes straight before? UM, Well, my wife, I guess, I 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:59.359 mean not saying anything, not saying anything, mm hmm. Fifteen minutes, 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:05.080 no no break in eye contact, no breaking eye contact. 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:10.159 And it's also a stranger, right, mm hmm, yeah, I 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:12.359 don't know. That's I may not have, you know, because 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.159 I mean generally, if if it's somebody I really know, 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:19.520 there's gonna be some discussion. And uh, I generally can't. 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:23.320 I have trouble maintaining eye contact with most people who 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.399 are not my wife. So well, it's such a simple idea, 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.080 but when she did this in front of people, everybody, 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:31.560 and now I have to look away from your eyes 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:35.000 just because it's just the way like mine, because they're 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:38.040 piercing ye with their grace. Still, I started, like, I 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:39.560 look into someone's eyes and it's like and then I 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.919 start uncomfortuences to look around. But yeah, I mean, so 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.160 we're not really used to doing that, right, We use 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:47.320 our eyes to connect with other people, but certainly not 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:51.480 for fifteen minutes with a stranger. The that the sort 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:55.480 of reactions were so incredible and powerful. People started crying. 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:57.679 And the reason is because they're projecting all of their 0:20:57.720 --> 0:20:59.920 feelings onto her. She allowed herself to be a blink 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.440 slate and so a lot of people felt absolutely like 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:05.320 that they fell in love with her some people were 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:11.080 angry with her or like they just they're there, they're 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:16.119 imagining the way that Yeah and um, and then this 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:20.240 documentary is fascinating to watch this happen. And people were 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:22.440 they just went nuts. And that's why she had people 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:24.600 waiting for hours. Sometimes they would get there in the 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:26.800 wee hours of the morning before the museum opened to 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:29.080 stand in line to do this. Um. There was a 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:33.680 website called Maria Abravich made me cry. Uh that popped up. 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.560 There are people who just started doing really disruptive things 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:38.879 in the museum to get her attention. There were there 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:40.760 was one woman who sent in front of her and 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:43.159 took her top off because she wanted to try to 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:47.640 be as raw and as vulnerable as Maria was. So again, 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:50.159 it's such a simple concept, but here's this woman who 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:53.879 was really forty years done these incredible things, not with 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:56.520 her own not just with her body, but really with 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:59.280 interacting with people. And to me, this really was a 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:03.720 culmination of ultimate connection with someone I want to like. 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.600 The people who did disruptive things, I mean, I wonder 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:09.400 if they, I mean, were they familiar with their work 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:12.680 enough to to realize this is a lady who once uh, 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:15.680 you know, set there and had a loaded gun next 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:18.439 to her and allowed members of the audience to to 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:21.280 point it at her. I'm not going to really disrupt 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:23.760 her by taking my top off. I think it was 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:26.320 the way allowed noise is probably not going to cut it. 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:28.920 I think someone had I can't remember what they wrote 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:30.800