I am interested in exploring what social media theorists have started to call context clash. Context clash refers to the notion that we have different self-presentations for different situations, but that these different "selves" can sometimes collide leaving a trail of social awkwardness in their wake. When the self is extended by various kinds of persistent media, the likelihood and severity of these collisions can increase. (The proverbial example of this threat—which has now become almost cliché—is the fear that an employer might happen upon an employee's social networking profile.)
We seem to be increasingly accustomed to navigating these kinds of treacherous scenarios. Perhaps we have even learned to utilize the danger of context clash as a kind of dramatic energy. However, I would propose that this tendency to court social risk through deliberate multi-vocality has been there all along. For example, Bakhtin identifies the way that authors utilize dialogic structure—creating a pastiche of divergent "voices"—in order to construct parody and other hybrid literary forms. One can think of humor and other sorts of demonstrations of multi-vocal hybridity as a gesture of performative power. There is, one could argue then, a seductiveness or a kind of empowerment that derives from actively courting the danger associated with context clash.
At the same time not all instances of context clash are created equal. The separation between private and public life can vary dramatically between individuals. There are those who risk persecution because of their sexual orientation or their political beliefs, and so in this sense, sometimes context clash is not merely a matter of social risk but also a catalyst for more severe modes of psychological and physical violence.
We live in an era of pervasive surveillance and blanket wiretaps. Currently a bill is before congress which proposes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who blatantly violated constitutional law by allowing the Bush administration to wiretap countless numbers of citizens without a FISA warrant.
As a form of media activism, I would like to orchestrate citizen phone calls to key representatives and senators in order to address this idea of retroactive amnesty for telecom companies. I want to explore this genre of civic engagement as a kind of oddly familiar performative space. When a constituent calls their political representative they are conjuring up a specific kind self-performance which straddles opposing spheres of intimacy and civic duty. I'm interested in the strange "in-between" space that these kinds of interactions occupy. I think this dissonance is part of why the experience of calling one's political representative can feel so uncomfortable sometimes, as if we are acting out the role of Oliver asking for more gruel. The gesture exposes private desires as a way of generating emotional resonance but also projects itself into a wider imaginary of civic duty. I am interested in amplifying this awkward juxtaposition of private and public voice for dramatic impact.
I plan to work with improv actors who will be able to adapt to the changing context of an unpredictable phone call. Instead of soliciting support to kill the bill, however, I would like these actors to call up those who support amnesty (such as Democratic Senator Rockefeller who has been found 
cashing in on telco campaign contributions. In other words, instead of berating such figures, I would like to commend them on a job well done, co-opting the right-wing narrative that says "well... I don't have to worry because I have nothing to hide." Then, in order to demonstrate that the caller actually has nothing to hide, they will proceed to divulge various intimate secrets about their life (drawing from either personal experience or from a fictionalized conflation of private and "public" secrets.) In particular, I am interested in integrating secrets exhibited on the website postsecret.
As more and more secrets are progressively divulged, the uncomfortable context clash of this interaction will hopefully compound, generating more and more awkward energy until the receptionist eventually hangs up.
I want to document these performances while callers are engaged in various intimate activities including lying in bed, driving a car, sitting on a toilet, getting a massage, etc.
I'm looking for actors who would be willing to call senators/representatives who have come out in favor of granting retroactive immunity to lawbreaking telecom companies such as AT&T/Verizon (who provided blanket warrantless wiretaps to the Bush administration).
This "everyday" activist gesture of calling one's political representative will have a seductive twist though.
Rather than voicing a contrary political belief, the caller will instead praise the politician for encouraging warrantless spying. And then he/she will claim that, in order to do their part for American security, they want to divulge several intimate secrets to the senator/representative as a gesture of trust... in other words extending the false narrative that "I don't have to worry because have nothing to hide" up to a point of ad absurdum. I'm interested in ways that improvisationally trained actors will be able to maintain a sense of authenticity while at the same time making the call more and more uncomfortable for the person on the other end of the line.
I plan to videotape these exchanges in various intimate settings (in bed, in a car, taking a bath, on the toilet, getting a massage, in a Catholic confessional booth, etc).
I'm currently working on a loose script which actors will be encouraged to use as a springboard for improvisation.
Beyond this immediate project, I am interested in conducting a series of media experiments, using context clash as the general organizing theme or dramatic palette. I would like to collaborate with improv actors who want to "riff on" or expand the notion of a vox pop interview. I would also like to experiment with various performative masks and "games" including use of mobile phones as a tool for disrupting the faux post-facto multi-vocality that is typical of interwoven documentary issue-based interviews. I would also like to further experiment with the genre possibilities of a phone call from a constituent to their elected representative.
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