Group Body Extension Reflections
Twistagrambookchat was a creation based off of our interpretations of AIan Bigelow’s poem This is not a poem, René Magritte’s This Is Not a Pipe, and social media. This idea of portraying something that isn’t actually there led us to social media. The interactions on social media are superficial. A more sustained relationship exists through actually experiencing things with other people, not passively liking or commenting on random posts. The idea of connecting beyond our generation’s idea of “connection” was to show the imperfections of our interactions on social media. Even the game mat was a reflection on the overuse and glorification that society gives to social media. The style of the mat takes the pristine facade of social media away. It is no longer on this metaphorical pedestal that we (as society) need to upkeep and maintain. This is further evidenced by us leaving our footprints on the mat. We all could agree on one thing, we are more than social media, and we can function fine without it, even if it provides for good entertainment.
We wanted the extension to be a representation of art in itself. The curves and sharp edges were planned in order to appear unrecognizable to the audience. We didn’t want the audience to know which pieces were supposed to connect, so each extension had similar visual traits-- curves, block shapes, and triangular shapes. These edges served to emulate the social media logos themselves: Facebook is blocky, Twitter has triangular shapes, and Snapchat has curves. The thickness of each piece was 12 sheets of cardboard in order for them to have a sense of grandness and a touch of modernity. While the texture itself was an important aesthetic of the cardboard that we wanted to embrace and bring attention to with our extensions. We each decided the location of our extensions. We were inspired by the politically incorrect and 5 minute sculpture by Erwin Wurm, homework assignments. Those “warm-ups” made us comfortable enough to be in the positions required to play our game of Twister.
The true factor in Twistagrambookchat was that it was realistic and okay to fail to connect. There is always a failure of connection through social media and even when there is, it isn’t genuine connectivity and interaction with another human being. Playing twister was a way of connection when we were younger, the intimate and embarrassing situations that Twister forced us to do is what we needed to bring the connection back.
Because the project revolved around social media, we thought we should livestream the performance on Facebook. We decided to live stream the performance on Facebook to complete the social media aspect. The live stream allowed for there to be spontaneous viewers, comments and even allowed for there to be a internet crash. The goal is to be able to connect and form the social media logo imagery, despite the spontaneity introduced through Twister. We were only able to properly connect once. That represents how you CAN make meaningful connections on social media, but that’s not guaranteed, and it requires actual effort. Once we accepted the possibility of failure, it was easy for us to let go and have fun playing the game.
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