Geert nest

Is Geert cheating? #mask Is the role you played  different person or more a 'super self?' If you would be a super hero, what would be your superpower skill? What would be your weakness?

    1. Can masks be used as tools of awareness briding the gap between me and you. Is there a gap? What’s the place of ‘love’ in this?

      RIDDLE 3:

      Power. Who/what decides perception. Your perceptions are your limitations. You experience what you expect.

      RIDDLE (replacing PROBLEM):

      Problem: etymology
      ate 14c., “a difficult question proposed for solution,” from Old French problème (14c.) and directly from Latin problema, from Greek problema “a task, that which is proposed, a question;” also “anything projecting, headland, promontory; fence, barrier;” also “a problem in geometry,” literally “thing put forward,” from proballein “propose,” from pro “forward” (from PIE root *per- (1) “forward”) + ballein “to throw” (from PIE root *gwele- “to throw, reach”).

      I prefer the word riddles. Riddles are more open-ended, riddles are less demanding than problems. Problems assume something needs to and can be solved.

      RIDDLE1:

      ‘Identity is given, not created’ (Field Theory: Bourdieu, Hegemony: Antonio Gramsci, Stuart Hall’s Representation, Edward Said, ‘Orientalism’).
      How performing another identity produces new meanings in you and about you. How you morfing changes the way you think and speak and think about yourself. How what you call you is just a conditioned construction. How it is important to watch and be aware of our beliefs, identifications, conceptualizations, assumptions, projections.
      example:

      What are the views/assumptions/beliefs behind the concept of ‘problems and solutions’.
      ‘Problem and solution’ sounds like a remnant from the 18th century. Can’t a research also be based on associating and linking?
      What are other ways of knowing?

      1. relieved, amused, entertained, riddled during the act
        I was impressed by Walter’s performance! It was the first time I saw him perform live and it was strong, questioning and entertaining at the same time – really nice.
        first confused, intrigued, on curious tension during the selection and introduction

      2. 3. pocket-cri

        – in groups
        – pretend to be the other person/ the other person’s nationality
        – maybe each can give a c.r.i. about pretending to be ‘nationality’

    2. I find the use of the mask as a succesfull or effective or affective way of speaking about what you are intereseted in. maybe you know, the word person etimologicly comes from persona, so the word we use to difine ourselves as individuals, human beiings comes from the character played from’the mask through which the voice is coming from’
      there was a mask through whish geert was speking from and his friends talking about what geert does and think, like a double layer or double ‘interface’ that enables geert to appear.

      1. I wonder how many masks there are and what they stand for? what is the other you imagine to be/play as?
        the other that is you mentioned that geert wanted to give responsibility to people in the airbnb project, would like to know more abou this, to give resposiblity or to question responsibility or it was about geert’s responsibility.

    3. Others do not benefit from you work. Can you make it more beneficial for others?
      ///What if the masks you give to people are not you (Geert) but e.g. the I, and function as mirrors? Or what if protagonist is somebody anybody can relate to? What if the mask+script becomes more universal, adaptable, communal, therapeutic not so much to you (artist) but rather to me (audience)?///
      Is the intention to make audience / the speakers invited on stage ucomfortable? Or is it opposite — to enable an altered confidence through the mask?

      1. In the inversion of role, it seems that the “others” could manage/steal the dramaturgy. How much of that do you want to negotiate with you and your others.

    4. ‘problems and solutions’ is not a concept and though cannot “sound” 18th century-like, (whatever 18th century-sound-like might mean) and neither be the opposite of an associative/linking practice (whatever associative/linking might mean)
      But it is the first step to define a practical mode of analyse of situations, in fact, yes, an ‘other way of knowing’ related to two “enquiry” dynamics

      the first : “problematization” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problematization
      For a short and accurate explanation of what problematisation is and can do , see : Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay by Michel Callon (First published in John Law, ‘Power, action and belief: a new sociology of knowledge?’ London, Routledge, 1986, pp.196-223.
      For a political definition of problematisation see Foucault, Michel. “Polemics, Politics and Problematizations.” Interview by P. Rabinow, May 1984, In Essential Works of Foucault Vol. 1. The New Press, 1998 – https://foucault.info/documents/foucault.interview/

      the second : a specific tactic of analyse of practices based on a ‘what if’ hypothesis; Something like a momentary fiction used as a device to see;
      It goes like : let’s consider for a moment the practice we want to analyse as a solution (or a response) and let’s ask what is the problem (or the challenge) this solution/response is based on.
      “How to elucidate a plural object in a framework that is also plural? By stressing an intuition common to the different epistemologies summoned together: a practice can never be analyzed on the sole plane of reality where it manifests itself but requires, for its understanding, the recourse to a second plane, if only virtual. A practice is the solution to a problem. Its non-intelligibility requires the elucidation of the problem of which it is the solution.” P. Rubio in “practice / problem / solution / research”, to come, Summer 2018

      1. thanks for the clarifications! my 18th century remark was a very blunt reference to the Enlightenment (and one of its 17th century godfathers, Descartes) and its -as I understand it- stress on the power of mind (as the machine that creates problems and solutions)…

        1. Concerning the topic of problem that is mentioned in the beginning, it makes me think of the Deleuzean distinction between real and fake problems – a problem that you can solve is not a real problem.

      1. MOUSTACHE DAY: the history of hair… (LINK WITH ADRIAN PIPER)
        – everyone has a moustache
        – whenever someone feels like she/he puts her/his moustache on and inhabits it
        la moustache comme mediateur… go deeper…
        (other possibilities beside/like moustaches:
        – blown up man/woman: walk blown up through the city)

        MOUSTACHE FLASH MOB

    5. outsourcing/stand in
      simple complexity
      entertainmentonacampsiteinthesouthoffranceduringahotsummerevening
      imposition
      out of proportion
      house of mirrors
      representation
      #Christodoulos Panayiotou_Dying on stage_thefragmentinwhichthestarintheaudiencewatchesherownperformancebyadragimpersonator
      outsourcing identity
      semi-amateur
      show
      interrogation
      disguise
      #Amalia Ulman_Excellences & Perfections_Instagram performance
      me vs. we
      the Other that is you
      distance
      BigFace
      fake
      marionette as a symbol, hanging on the wal as a kind of jesus
      mask/filter/metaphor
      anger/confusion/happy/neutral/sceptical
      fake
      Big heads
      Uncanny
      appearances
      #LastLecturebyBarbaraVisser
      Irony as a device

    1. I can’t help it, it’s a disease!
      ///Just an idea – Narcissism – not mean in a criticizing way but as a possible research interest for you – as in psychology (Narcissistic personal disorder etc.) when a person fails to think the world though any possible lense but his/her own. (Changing dispositive of vision is impossible.) Also related to extreme lack of empathy and obsession with the self.///

    2. Is it more about the experience of the person wearing the mask or about the audience experiencing witnessing from the outside the reactions of the ones wearing the masks?
      What are you looking for with others? Who is in/out?
      I also thought about the same question: did I do ok? Is interesting the idea of performing you because I notice how is really dificult to take the ” I ” and put this in another place. In the same time, there is some relief of not taking the responsability of my “I ” when I say things. I could say things that could be “me” or “you”. And the confused Geert was the perfect mask for this moment. Then, the question ” did I do ok ? ” became not more a worried question related to my performance as you, but just a question. I was here wondering if all our questions to others were also the other’s question. Like, if my question was a mirror. So then, the responsibility of the question is divided in two. How it would be?

      What happens when you put on a mask without knowing what the masks looks like and without looking in the mirror after you put it on? Could you find out through other people what you represent?

      Something very strange happens when someone in a mask makes you them and asks themselves questions. A shape-shifting maybe. Being in the shoes (or rather in the skin) of the ‘other’ – particularly when this other is your friend – creates an intimacy and a context of care. At least I found myself in this. A sort of empathy. Trying hard to be a ‘good mirror’. A mirror who is trusted with your image. Trying to invent what you would say, trying to remember what you have said. Accessing some difficult archive in my head entitled ‘Geert’s research’ and trying to feel my way through it. Trying to feel (because i can not possible know) what holds true. Trying very hard to be honest. Show you the image you need to see. Try to represent the version of you filtered through a me. A sudden weight of tremendous responsability and a check-up on how I have carried it till now when it was not framed quite so openly. How much attention do i pay actually? How well do I listen?

          1. 4. possible long, possible pocket-cri

            !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! do that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
            – I make a mask of everyone’s face
            – we have a wall of masks/faces (INTER-FACES!: interdiciplinary, international, internal,…)
            – we ask questions (list!) and answer them using another’s face
            – or day to day you decide who you want to be that day
            – it’s also possible we develop the masks into power objects by making them grow over time by hanging ‘important/useful/useless things’ and big or small objects on them, to decorate/enhance them, make them smaller or bigger, change their perfor mative power… So using tinkering and performativity as ways of researching/knowing/learning

          2. 1.

            investigate pictures / think about it more in depth

            SCULPTURE ATELIER
            – the fellow researchers choose photographs of events (historical, personal,…) related to their research
            – the photos serve as masks: embodied interfaces, tools to gain awareness and/or knowledge, to further relational reseaerch
            – we make groups of ‘models’ and ‘sculptors’
            – the ‘sculptors’ are allowed to see the pictures, the ‘models’ not
            – the sculptors put the models in positions
            – physical and facial positions are important, as well as the positions between models
            – when the picture is ready, the sculptors stand back and look
            – the models take time to inhabit their unknown role, they take the time to deeply feel and experience their position
            – after some time the ‘leader of the sculptors’ tells the models they can start to find their voice
            – then they can find their movement
            – what happens next, happens next
            – TAKING TIME IS OF THE UTMOST ESSENCE!
            – it’s also possible to take this C.R.I. to public spaces

            PLUS MIX WITH MASKI: shamanic and classical

            BEFORE NOON + AFTERNOON

      1. Discomfort observed from (almost) safe distance is a different kind of discomfort!
        sharing an estranged moment, sharing the confusion and an uncanny sense of humour, constantly trying t understand what is happening.

    3. Is mask also a lense? Is a lense about covering and uncovering (like a mask)? Or is it rather about zooming, focusing and distorting?
      Is there a difference between a mask and a lens?
      As mask is a device that puts identity into a circular movement, so it is for knowledge if we think of it in term of a lens to share
      How do you entangle if the “other” speaks with/from, about “you”, “i” “themself” etc? What are your indicators to distinguish?

      You seem to look at your research through the lense of “all” your feasable emotional lenses.

    4. Adding skin (the mask) affects the way your body moves and the way you interact with others. You change the outside of the body to find out about the identity of the inside of the body. The mask you chose to use was (relatively) close to yourself (white male, possibly heterosexual). I’ve heard that you chose also other masks that are further removed from what you represent (a black guy and white woman). I wonder what would happen if you chose masks that are really close to what identity you think you perform, even closer than this old guy.

      Trough skin and mill plateaux or folding/unfolding identity: How the old age mask affect your body in term of texture and skin ?

    5. To me, the most intriguing aspect of your identity research in performance is the research on age and aging. I know you are experimenting with different masks than Walter and Johannes but their age and degree of decomposition, we have to admit, is very distracting. I also remember your project in Helsinki (?) where you attached weights to young people’s bodies and taught them how to walk as an old body. It was very powerful.

    6. third person
      narcissism
      maks/shadow/self
      split-identity
      becoming
      #dirtyoldman
      carnival
      adding skin
      mutual identity
      fear
      identity
      knowing
      hyper extra reality
      self-referencial
      allowing fragility
      transformation
      retrospective crisis of the self
      I me and myself
      Erkenntnis
      types
      Cindy Sherman
      tautologic mask
      queering
      discomfort
      identity politics
      more time
      fear
      #Snatch game_RuPaul’s Drag Race
      mirror
      performance
      external identity
      an attempt to alter confidence by masking
      age and ageing
      confusion uncovered
      thinking live
      ageism
      identity politics
      the other
      performing identity
      #personwithnoface (don’t google)
      fragile

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