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Well, thankfully the perpetrators are all "out there" and so we CAN all be
victims here in America. Or there are some perpetrators among us--the
artists, the "traitors" the questioners. We re-victimize everyone every
day, don't you know?
That poll was very very interesting. Thanks for posting that information
because it was in fact very disproportionate to the quotes in the papers.
(If you've ever been involved in an event that the media has blatantly lied
about, you come to see how very subtly (and not-so-subtly) they shape the
telling of the story. And I've seen that happen up close and personal a
number of times.)
Pursuant to the other thread we have going, I was surprised because again,
my impression of living among New Yorkers is that they are generally more
tolerant and more sophisticated about things than that.
Your comments on the official memorial vs. the work of independent and
questioning artists also get to the heart of conversations in the other
thread about who sanctions and creates official culture. Who owns and
controls memory--especially our collective memory?
As I thought more, what I wanted to get to beyond subjectivity per se is
that I think Americans react more EMOTIONALLY to things than intellectually,
and this is one of the things that is driving some very very bad politics
(and has for quite some time).
I'm just so stuck on this Debord quote lately: A lie that cannot be
challenged become a form of madness.
And if we experience everything emotionally (and hence subjectively) how can
it be challenged? Who are you to question me and my feelings, my trauma, my
perceptions? Especially when we can't set or agree upon a basis to begin to
discuss/debate/argue. And thus we are divided and unable to find common
ground.
-----Original Message-----
From: Performance Studies international Extra
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Theresa K Smalec
Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2005 9:07 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PSI-EXTRA] Falling Man: The Performance
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response to that list *
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Hi Laura,
Yeah, the media reportage is curious and suspect. I
participated in a NY-based on-line poll about
"Whether or not you find this performance
offensive?" and the results at the time were 77% of
people saying NO, and 33% saying YES. So I think the
people chosen to offer quotes in the papers were
sort of disproportionate to "actual" sentiment.
(Well, the sentiment of that particular poll, at least).
I also think this is yet another effort on the part
of the State to constrict or clamp down on the
general public's rights to make personal metaphors,
meanings, and modes of remembering out of the events
of 9-11. At first, I couldn't understand why
Bloomberg and Pataki would both get involved in the
scandal, instead of simply dismissing it as some
wacky thing that some wacky guy in Chicago did. But
their very harsh and public condemnations strike me
as a warning to others: see what we think of people
who try to have any personal connection to 9-11?
Don't try to be an "artist" with respect to
remembering 9-11, because there is no place for
"art" here, unless it is state-sponsored art in the
form of memorials, new Freedom Towers, etc...
I was talking with someone about this on another
list, and they suggested that another aspect of the
backlash probably has to do with the fact that 9-11
is still too historically proximate to our lives and
memories to be accepted by many people as a
performance. It's too raw and live for us still.
I sort of agree with this, yet wonder if many
survivors would not actually PREFER Skarbakka's form
of personal, embodied engagement with reliving his
sense of trauma to the state-sanctioned efforts that
have been made to grieve this day? If I had lost
someone in the towers, I wouldn't be thrilled about
ringing a bell in their memory: that seems strangely
hollow and distancing, depersonalizing somehow. I
also wouldn't be satisfied with saying their name on
the radio. But I'd appreciate the idea of someone
getting into a harness, standing on the ledge of a
building, and trying to imagine how my loved one
might have FELT as they stood there and made a
decision that was not a decision at all. It would be
torturous to watch this, but also a gesture of human
interaction with someone else's memory and
experiences. And I would be glad to know that at
least for us, the survivors, life DOES "go on." But
i don't think the current admin really wants us to
be able to feel that: they want us to remain stuck
in the trauma, the hate, the helplessness, the
fear... victim culture at it's best.
Related to this notion, I think another part of what
interests me about this is the sense many commenters
seem to have that Skarbakka is somehow "mocking" the
dead by doing this. I think that lies in the
*repetition* of his act, and in that fact that the
harness ALLOWS him to safely repeat what the real
victims could only do once. Logic dictates Skarbakka
should die when he jumps, but because he is wearing
the harness, life DOES "go on" for him, whereas life
does NOT "go on" for the others who jumped as a last
resort, not as an art form. So that sense of mockery
is an aesthetic and temporal component of his
performance: it's the harness and the repetition
that seems to do the mocking, rather than it being
part of the "tone" or mindset of the performer.
Weird... I guess it's almost like being "mocked" by
a snowstorm or a bird, by elements that don't really
have the capacity to mock in themselves, but that
can be interpreted by spectators as mocking.
I hear the guy's been getting DEATH THREATS! Some
people really seem to want him to meet the same fate
as the people whom he intentionally or
unintentionally invoked. Anyhow, I'm sure he'll find
supporters once he gets back to Brooklyn. But you're
right I think about the limits of the circle of
mourners that "victim" culture demands: we can't ALL
be victims. Some of us must be perpetrators for
there to be victims, right?
>
> And finally the value of the subjectivity of the
victims. And
> America is,
> above all, a culture of victims. And so without
making light of
> the real
> suffering of those who lost relatives in the
buildings and
> especially those
> whose relatives may have jumped, the subjective
experience of the
> victims is
> placed as the highest suffering, the trump card,
that is to silence
> anyoneelse.
>
> This is where we're so polarized I think because
everything around
> us is
> presented as subjective and so how can you argue
with it? I am
> finding it
> increasingly difficult to trust what anyone says
about anything
> because it
> all comes with an agenda, with a pre-set idea, a
pre-set
> subjectivity, an
> ordering of people's suffering, and we seem to be
more and more
> unable to
> just talk to each other and try to get to some
understanding. Can the
> artist and the people who lost family and friends
at the WTC get
> togetherand talk about this experience and what
upsets them and
> what he learned? Or
> does it have to, once again, be us/them you/me etc.?
>
> I hope this can somehow become an opportunity, and
in so doing,
> accomplishsomething that the artist might truly
have wanted to
> accomplish in the first
> place, rather than just a public lynching after
anyone who dares to
> open up
> our wounds again.
>
>
> Fluffy
>
>
*************************************************************
>
> **Side note--Saw comedian Tom Rhodes last night
and he said "boy,
> wouldn'tthe religious right be pissed off if they
found out that
> stem cells can be
> used to cure homosexuality. What a conundrum!"
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Performance Studies international Extra
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Theresa K Smalec
> Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 7:14 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [PSI-EXTRA] Falling Man: The Performance
>
> * This email is sent via the PSi-Extra mail-list.
'Reply' will send
> yourresponse to that list *
>
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>
> So... here's the piece I mentioned yesterday. Any
> thoughts anyone?
>
>
>
> Artist Stages 9-11 'Falls' From Museum Roof:
>
http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/news/celebrity/sns-ap-falling-
> artist,0,4699431.story?coll=mmx-celebrity_heds
>
> Enraged New Yorkers Jump on Falling 'Artist':
>
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-fall17.html
>
> 'Artist' Sorry for Stunt:
>
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/319921p-273482c.html
>
> Go Jump in a Lake, Pal!
>
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/319553p-273185c.html
>
>
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