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On Friday the 2nd of October , as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, I and about 130 people took to the streets of Melbourne for amass cloning. Cloning? Well , simple really. The performance company WELL organised to clone Melbournians into Japanese replicants. The idea was based on the Japanese performance artist Kuronoz who , as an arts practise, dresses other people in her very noticable blue dress, black wig and glasses for random in-situ performance experiments. Copying someones style is a hallmark of the fashion industry and what better way to understand this major cultural process than to , well , all copy the identity of an obscure Japanese perfromance artist Melbourne city jaunt and pan-global Kuronoz explosion.
Well theatre , who are good friends of mine, specialise in what they call ‘ new genre public art’ . This piece of art was explained on their website for the project : www.takeoffyourskin.com
KURONOZ is similar to fast food, fast fashion or high brand recognition.KURONOZ fulfills the desire of being a different person, and gives a chance to physically experience global uniformity.
Heres a video that Well made as part of creative development. Kind of wierd , kind of kooky , but I get the same feeling when I see a mob of Collingwood supporter dressed in their colours.
It was seriously fun. As a videographer I had to chase a group of ten Kuronoz’s from Melbourne Art Centre to Parliament house. Not only did we get some incredibly bizarre stares , but suddenly creating theatre out of the spectacle that we created by just wearing the same clothes and staring blankly. Other bizarre effects were when the clones were taking photos of the audience and the audience was taking photos of them , in a wierd simulacrum dance of ” I can see you looking at me , to see you back at me , to see me looking back at you’ .
As a piece of performance , bodies often get lost in crowds. To counter this you organise a crowd. Similar to the idea of a flash mob , gathering everyone as part of the same identity creates an effect of strength in numbers. This effect is similar to the way in which identities form around sports teams or nations. It is because we are biologically atuned to wanting to be around those that most look like us, dress and talk like us. We are all a part of this phenomenon, other than the occasional outsider, and this piece highlighted for me the desire to conform, through fashion , my identity to be a part of something bigger than myself.
The fashion industry understands that to create money you create a ‘look’. You perform it in a fashion parade , then let the media do the work by spreading and saturating the image. TOYS attempted to do this , but on a miniscule budget, by having around 7 video camers and around 20 photographers.
WELL have triumphed with this piece , and I am sure TOYS will have many more incarnation in the future. Stay tuned for the final edit of the day.
On Sunday the 11th of July a sound artist will be presenting a soundscape called ‘Shrooms with a view’ on Radio National. According to the blurb it is inspired by the life , and living matter of our grand family friends called fungus.
My interest with fungus started as a teen walking around the mountains of Canberra , after a hiatus for ten years I have once again become interested in this rich cow pat field of living things.
Over the summer I worked on this video edit of Polyglot Puppet Theatres Big Game project that was part of the Melbourne Festival 2008. Its an interesting , vibrant and fun multi-artform interactive theatre piece made by the children residents of Carlton Housing Estate in Victoria.
I was fortunate enough to be well-acquanited with this theatre group, enough so that I could really gather the essence of the project , documented through fifteen hours of tape to be succinctly edited down to a miniscule 10 minutes. Aaaah the editors job is never done.
It recently had a second life at the Singapore International Arts Festival and was well-recieved by both public and festival organisers themselves.
For more information: www.polyglotpuppets.com
