brainstorming ideas of the performance.. shall i call it 'witnessing' (perhaps too convinient a word?)
main words
- witness
- ship - the middle passage
- pain
- outsiders insiders, divided by generations
- audience participation
- performance
- visual arts
- ritual
we are witnessing
how to let people witness
performing to remember, performing to witness
eyes... watching, ears... listening
how are we effected? -memory -trauma
hardship that leads to surviving and thriving
we are all witnesses of something in history.
storytelling.. what did you witness?
(quotes of people's testimony. what can i do with them?)
what are you to do after you've witnessed? what can you do?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
the clueless witness
two saturdays ago i blurted out in a class discussion that i have absolutely no feelings whatsoever over the abolishment of the slave trade 200 years ago. being a singaporean and chinese i felt like an absolute outsider of this political/social/historical bad blood between the white and black people. the issue has become so much more about the two races than any other equally important subjects like the european colonalization, oppression, eurocentricism, human rights etc.. that even if i could relate to any one or all of the other subjects, i couldn't break through the first wall of defence, that of the feud between the blacks and the whites.
and without the emotional drive i cannot bring myself to prepare a heartfelt performance to commemorate the historical event which the rest of my class have been so enthusiastic about for our assignment. it just doesn't seem to concern me and xiao (yes, this is a name), the other chinese girl in our class. we felt emotionally disconnected. of course everyone else in the class was either black or white (with the acception of the canadian indian guy ali),or from north america or the carribean and had lots to talk about and to get 'connected' with. me and xiao, we only felt connected to each other.
so prof honor wanted us to read this article about witnessing. after reading it i thought this would be my best bet to draw out some inspiration for the performance. after all it is addressing my position as a witness. this entry would be my exploration of that inspiration. gave myself a deadline by monday to draw out a proposal.
Julie Salverson's very ineresting article 'witnessing subjects' - main points
- witnessing is 'the notion of coming upon something unexpected and being impacted by the encounter such that one is comelled to respond to the address.
- to become a witness is to become exposed and vulterable.
- is to respond to a call of the other.- ethical (but what if there is no call?)
- the idea of a quick-fix mentality reduces the other to become a tragic victim. artists may eroticized the pain in their representation in mimesis- a very reducting way.
- witness should not restrict herself to perceive strength and resilience in survivor and the possible vulnerbility or damage in oneself as a lister to stories of violence.
-witnesses as being paralyzed
-how to include witness's own relationship to violence in the transaction of witnessing. for the victim sake to trust the witness and for the witness's sake to address his violence.
and without the emotional drive i cannot bring myself to prepare a heartfelt performance to commemorate the historical event which the rest of my class have been so enthusiastic about for our assignment. it just doesn't seem to concern me and xiao (yes, this is a name), the other chinese girl in our class. we felt emotionally disconnected. of course everyone else in the class was either black or white (with the acception of the canadian indian guy ali),or from north america or the carribean and had lots to talk about and to get 'connected' with. me and xiao, we only felt connected to each other.
so prof honor wanted us to read this article about witnessing. after reading it i thought this would be my best bet to draw out some inspiration for the performance. after all it is addressing my position as a witness. this entry would be my exploration of that inspiration. gave myself a deadline by monday to draw out a proposal.
Julie Salverson's very ineresting article 'witnessing subjects' - main points
- witnessing is 'the notion of coming upon something unexpected and being impacted by the encounter such that one is comelled to respond to the address.
- to become a witness is to become exposed and vulterable.
- is to respond to a call of the other.- ethical (but what if there is no call?)
- the idea of a quick-fix mentality reduces the other to become a tragic victim. artists may eroticized the pain in their representation in mimesis- a very reducting way.
- witness should not restrict herself to perceive strength and resilience in survivor and the possible vulnerbility or damage in oneself as a lister to stories of violence.
-witnesses as being paralyzed
-how to include witness's own relationship to violence in the transaction of witnessing. for the victim sake to trust the witness and for the witness's sake to address his violence.
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