Yesterday I struggled to get any work done as I tuned in to a live stream project called Purge by performance artist Brian Lobel
I’ve always found artists live stream projects to be particularly compelling, there is something about seeing a real time relay that I find fascinating. Historically I’ve loved Coco Fusco’s early live stream work because rather than just being a live broadcast of a piece of performance art, its also a work about the nature of surveillance, so the form suits the content.
And its the same with Purge, which is a live broadcast of Brian going through all of his 1000+ facebook friends and then asking a panel of judges if he should keep them or delete them. Admittedly quite a banal idea, the process actually becomes totally compelling when you hear the artist tell indiscreet little stories about people from his past, or give his honest, vaguely formed opinions of people that he admittedly doesn’t even know so well. Naturally as a viewer and facebook friend of Brian I feel compelled to keep observing and know if the judges will think me worthy enough for Brian to retain my friendship.
And its this narcissism of watching that is the most intelligent aspect of the project. Social networks such as facebook thrive on the users wish to to create a particular public persona or to somehow perform the self.
The project is also a really compelling reply to some of the writing I’ve done on here about the notion of intimacy in online relationships. Its clear from Brain’s process that some of his facebook ‘friends’ represent deep and intimate connections of which social networks are a valued part. Other so called facebook ‘friends’ amount to only a vague acquaintance of people to whom he is totally indifferent.
I’ve met Brian once and added him perhaps out of ‘professional curiosity’ after he applied to participate in performance platform I was helping to curate with a proposal that would have seen him pretending to masturbate in the gents toilets of the arts venue. We turned the piece down… I wonder if he remembers and will see this as a necessary justification for deletion!
Its online during the day until Sunday 10th July and you can watch the live stream here
