// Art is about creating history.
‘Existentialism’ is a school of philosophy which explores about life and suggests that human experiences three main issues that keep on occurring in their lives, including:
My final project aims to visualize 3) – loneliness by using a modern form of media - videography. Moreover, performance and actions would also be used as presentations. Overall, this project would be a mixture of digital media and performing arts.
The general aim of the project is to visualize such philosophical concept, as well as my loneliness, thus the project would be named as – ·
I plan to sit in front of the camera in total darkness for 365 seconds.
(around 6.8 minutes)
The symbols are the following:
Darkness – symbolizes loneliness and infinite isolation from the world. While we could express ourselves through words in daily life, ‘existentialism’ suggests that we are submerged in constant loneliness and isolated from the world regardless of our external communications, as we would not be able to truly and fully express ourselves to others and others would not fully understand us no matter how hard and how detail we explain ourselves.
(E.g. How could you know your red is my red?)
365 seconds – 365 seconds symbolizes 365 days in a year. While it is impossible to stay in darkness for such a long period of time, I have decided to reduce the time to 365 seconds.
Moreover, in this case, ‘a year’ is not really a year, but rather a further symbol for eternity.
Choice of documentation (performance and video) – Through both acting it out and recording it with a camera, I am creating an art piece that involves multi-media, where video represents media that belongs to the future - ‘technology’ and me, the performer, represents the most primitive and fundamental media - ‘the body’.
The name ‘·’ – A dot is a symbol, not a word. This symbolizes the uselessness of verbal communication in expressing my loneliness. It could also be seen as a symbol for one individual and one only.
- I took the idea of staying in an unfamiliar environment for 365 hours and turned it into 365 seconds. Moreover, instead of a virtual world, I chose total darkness.
One Year Performance, 1978–79
- I took the concept of staying in a particular area, and also got inspired by the loneliness involved in the art piece. Similarity could also be found in the duration (one year, 365 days) of the piece.
Before coming out with this final decision, I have conducted an experimental piece of work, known as the ‘realization of thought’. The concept behind was to present my thoughts to others through the media of sound, thus, voice memo is used as the media.
Only one recording is created as a result. No further recordings were made as I got inspired by it and decided to create ‘· ‘.
// I'm creating history in art.
