Joshua McVeigh-Schultz /DANM210 /proposal 01

Proposal:

Narrative description:

As a form of media activism, I will film actors revealing intimate secrets to their elected representatives who support warrantless wiretaps.

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.)

I would like to propose that the risk associated with context clash can be harnessed as a kind of empowerment. In particular, I am interested in the power that intimate voices acquire when interjected into public space.

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.

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.

This work capitalizes on the vulnerability of context clash as a form of political empowerment. In particular, I am interested in the ways that intimate voices have a kind of power when interjected into “unsafe” public spaces.

Design Brief

Objective:

This project attempts to address the feelings of impotence attached to the gesture of calling one's elected representative. I want to reinvest this act with performative vitality by shifting the projected audience beyond the boundaries of the call itself.

Challenges:

I may face considerable challenges navigating the expectations of potential actors. While I didn't initially conceive of this project within a tradition of prank-art, I realize I may need to frame it that way in order to communicate my interest in performative risk.

Participation:

Eventually I conceive of this project as having both an installation and an online presence. I am ultimately more interested in the potential growth of the project through an online venue where visitors can create their own video performances for an expanding community of spectators and contributors.

Context:

My hope is that this project will offer new ways to think about public discourse by reinvesting the gesture of calling a politician with new performative strength. This approach draws upon the ironic interventionist performances of the Yes Men and envisions the potential growth of a more participatory community like that of Miranda July's Learning to Love You More. While my work is informed by these approaches I feel that their vision of performance has certain boundaries that I'm interested in stretching. I'm less interested in elaborate culture jamming or in top-down modes of artistic community building and more interested in the potential for community empowerment by expanding the parameters political engagement.

Design:

Constraints:

There are potential legal constraints, as well as hurdles involved in communicating the vision of this project to potential actors. Designing the web environment will require expertise that I don't have. Also, I will have to seek out someone with carpentry skills so that I can build the confessional booth.

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