The internet is full of stuff—45 years of stuff, accumulating like dust on top of discarded DVD players—and yet the way we use it often slips into a repetitive pattern: Facebook, Twitter, email, Instagram and repeat. Brooklyn-based artist Xavier Cha knows this more than most, as it's something she's exploring in a new work for an exhibition titled Smart New World that seeks to untangle what it means to be an individual in the information society age.
"I will use the surveillance of volunteers' online activity—mostly people's neurotic, manic, and compulsive behavior—as the basis for the choreography of a dance piece," Cha explains over email. The gathered data will be "transcribed into transcendent movement" by two contemporary male dancers from legendary experimental choreographer Merce Cunningham's company as a means of "sharing and projecting this state of psychosis, this loss of control which persuades involuntary mental and physical patterns."
Want to turn your Facebook visits into a work of art? Cha needs volunteers willing to record their internet behavior. "I will send the consenting users files to upload screen recording software (ScreenFlow) which they have full control over when it starts and stops recording," she explains. "It is completely up to them how long and how many online sessions they record and submit—as long as it gives a candid view of their online habits and navigation." Interested participants should email Cha asap at: info@xaviercha.com
The performance will take place on July 19th in Düsseldorf, Germany, at the city's Germany's contemporary art space Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. UbuWeb founder Kenneth Goldsmith and CGI artist Tabor Robak are also taking part in Smart New World , which runs until August 10th.