Please, comment on the video documentation of Osseus Labyrinth's performance.
The video and the interview was made by Aras Ozgun.
The assignment is due for the session on Cyborg Bodies, Nov. 10th.
Osseus Labyrint is a dance/performance collective from San Francisco. This is the video recording of performance made by Osseus Labyrint at New York Downtown Arts Festival in 2000 at Frying Pan, ve Aras Özgün’ün interview with the members of collective, Hannah ve Mark at Tompkins Square Park following their performance.
I think that this performance is jarring and shocking because we see bodies moving their muscles and articulating themselves in ways we are unaccustomed to seeing. When bodies move in these highly unconventional ways, it seems unhuman and is therefore disturbing. The performance reminded me of the movements seen in Tool’s music videos. I looked on Youtube and actually found that this performance duo works with Tool in their videos and live performances. They actually perform some of the same exact movements in the following video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhjG47gtMCo).
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting to see the two performances of the same unconventional body movements in these very different contexts. The music video seems designed to create a sense of mystery and horror, using disturbing and surreal imagery of which these performers are just one component. The live performance which is documented in Ozgun’s video, while using some of the same series of movements, seems to emphasize the body as a medium as opposed to the music video in which these performers are almost like actors performing in a more constructed, semi-narrative context.
The performance Osseus Labyrint is very disturbing in the sense that we start forgetting in the middle of the performance that the performers are human beings and they become "creatures".
ReplyDeleteIt is almost like they are in a trance, like they let go of their thoughts, shut down their brain and just started moving their bodies. But then the fact that it is a performance means that they are performing something that they prepared and rehearsed, which makes it even more disturbing. Personally, I would have liked it better if they were improvising, because this would have emphasized the idea of being in a trance, rather than solely shocking the audience.
I think this performance is very unique or maybe I haven't seen enough performances!! As emilie and sama have already mentioned i think the performance is very disturbing because it depicts humans as unnatural. They opposed features that make humans humane. The way they moved their bodies was more like a scene of creatures in a horror movie;its unsettling. The background music also adds to that atmosphere. However, i think the performance can be comfortably described as a success because it has in fact interacted with the audience. I'm pretty sure that this performance sucessfuly stirs a certain feeling or reaction in its viewers.
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ReplyDeleteI found the performance both shocking and informative. I had no idea someone can actually move some of the muscles the performers in the video moved...etc. As a whole what I liked about Osseus Labyrinth is the alien quality of the performers' movements and the way they seem to progress through an almost evolutionary scale through out the performance.
ReplyDeleteFor example their moves at the start of the video reminded me of the way worms crawl then they seemed to develop limbs which gave them a wider scope of motion and so on and so forth.
Overall I found it liberating to know we can move, use and transform our bodies in all those ways. It provides a wider physical autonomy.