Distanz
Serendipity. I was looking for something and I came across a piece of paper. Its attraction to me was so great that we spent the afternoon together on the beach. The attempt to overcome the distance and to get closer to each other caused a drawing on the paper. I completed this drawing during the performance in my first experiment. I lay down on the paper to get closer to it and drew a line up as I inhaled and a line down as I exhaled. After I had covered a certain distance of lines, I stood up and sat down next to my fellow student who was reading a book. We were elevated, like on a stage, so there was also a spatial distance between the audience.
Since the book for my random generator happened to be a bilingual edition in German with an English translation, it was a good opportunity to explore linguistic distance. Normally one reads a book alone. For this performance, however, we read from the book simultaneously in pairs: One in German, the other in English.
We realized that it is not easy to concentrate on a language one has little or no knowledge of while the other reads in another language. The content is hard to grasp at this moment. However, social distance is overcome by common incomprehension, closeness and empathy is created by acting together.
I notice that the concept of distance is very complex. It can be grasped from the inside out and vice versa, offers many possibilities for discussion and raises socially relevant questions.
The images that have emerged in the course of this process are an attempt to translate the concept into the visual and thus make it accessible on another level, a sensory reception.
Distare
In order to overcome social distance, I conducted a performance with my fellow students.
Part 1: A distance from A to B should be covered without touching the ground with the feet. This is done with cushions, which are laid on the floor in a row one after the other via a chain of helpers. This is documented with a camera, which at the same time, measures the time it takes for the last one to reach the other side.
Part 2: Each of the participants sits down on one of the cushions and all of them remain in a stationary position for exactly as long as it took to cross the track in part 1.
Fortunately, many fellow students have agreed to participate in the performance. So we were able to cross the track quickly. Time flew by, I was so concentrated working with the cushions that I didn’t notice a woman crossing the course in front of me.
With the second part, however, time passed so slowly that I was already waiting for the end. My perception was sharpened, I noticed every sound, every movement. The social distance changed during the performance, from my perspective more closeness was created.
Since the performance has few surprising aspects, the expectation is largely fulfilled and previous assumptions are confirmed rather than new questions arise. It was nevertheless an interesting experience.
Distance
In search of distance through ambivalence and the merging of different perceptions of time: rapid flickering of the light and at the same time very slow movements when turning the pages of a book let you dive into the book without reading it.