the pressure to document performance is real. while waiting in line to see the julianna snapper performance a woman was talking with one of the organizers about having the work of a particular artist documented, video taped to be specific.

however…as a performance artist and as an audience member, i have a great deal of ambivalence about this need to document « all. » i don’t know if you have ever witnessed a performance and wondered if maybe you had accidently got the date wrong and shown up for the film shoot. more cameras and camera operators than audience members.

so… in this respect i am thankful that viva! art action is not obsessed with documentation for the sake of documentation.

however…one day (violins please)… i hope to attend a performance where we, the audience members are told our sensations, perceptions and memories of the event will stand as the only form of documentation. we, the actual physical bodies who shared in this space time will carry the only trace of the performance within ourselves.

but in the meantime….for this festival, and in the spirit of sharing to a larger audience, i blog and i draw little schematic representations of what i see. (i don’t take photos because a) there are much better photographers at this festival than i will ever be, and b) because i want to act as if words and drawn images are just as valid as photos and c) i like the way i am forced to observe things in order to draw them.) and i admit i do like blogging and drawing. what i don’t like is if we assume performance always has to be recorded outside of the interior of our bodies. we consume performance, take it in through our senses and it becomes something else inside of us. sometimes this inside of us is precisely where performance should be allowed to stay.