Performance art, abuse, and links

[blimix]

Marina Abramović. Rhythm 0. 1974 A performance piece in which the artist presented the audience with a wide variety of objects that could be used on her, and then stayed immobile and passive for six hours while they did whatever they wanted. The result was abusive and horrifying. (e.g., cutting off her clothes, cutting her, pressing rose thorns into her, loading a gun and pressing it to her head.) At the end, when she walked toward her audience, they ran away.

This is thought provoking: The change in their behavior at the end makes me think that the only thing keeping many "civilized" people from behaving like brutal savages is the expectation that they will be held accountable for their actions. When there are no consequences, there are no inhibitions. Perhaps there was a dehumanizing aspect to the performance, and when she stopped being passive, there was a moment of, "Oh shit, that's a real person we just did that to!" The size of the audience would have added social proof to the mix, making abusive actions seem more acceptable just because some other people were doing it. And I wonder whether, on average, women told of the piece would have better predicted its brutality than men would have. (As men often have no idea why women are afraid of them, and what it's like. (Which is not to say that the abusers in the audience were all men; they weren't.))

On a related note, a TED talk: Why domestic violence victims don't leave.

In more enjoyable links:

This video on Electrostatic Discharge had me laughing.

Carry On Wayward Son - Maniacal 4 Trombone Quartet

Space Janitors is a wonderful show for geeks. It hits its stride around the third episode, and the episodes are short, so try it at least that long.

There's a second season of Enter The Dojo in progress! It is hilarious, though unfortunately sexist.

Badass bearded dragon. (Source?)

Cat helps out with the dirty laundry.

Comments

[blimix]

A reasonable interpretation. And yet, I would still consider it dubious consent. She spent much of the time terrified. She could have chosen to opt out, at the cost of breaking the performance. But that's kind of like saying, "She could choose to opt out of workplace harassment, at the cost of her job." In both cases, silence is not a good indicator of continued consent. I don't know what she was expecting. The performance could have been something beautiful, like, "Some of them waved their hands in front of my face; one threw out the gun; another used the knife to cut the thorns off the rose, which they then put in my hair; they took turns coloring my nails." Overly optimistic, of course, but the point is that she suffered, almost certainly far more than she had expected to.

It seems like a "scene" with no rules laid out beforehand, in which the sub feels that they may not use the safeword. Not only is it a bad thing to get into in the first place, but continuing to further push the boundaries of assault, in a context in which continued consent cannot be established, is (I think) way beyond the bounds of decency.

However, not being part of the scene myself, I could be grossly mistaken.

I think that the audience members who abused her were aware, on some level, that they were taking advantage of the illusion of consent. If they had honestly thought that she had found their actions acceptable, they would not have run away when she "woke up".