ideological structures

Staying at Scott’s place for the last days here at Florida State University. He’s doing tech management for the Art Department, having just finished his MFA up at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Yesterday was heavily involved in discussions with students and faculty about my performance last Thursday. Passionate discussions to be sure. Because of a small glitch in communication between Paul and I, (and, the onerous ideological relationships that accompanied the performance space itself — the Art History lecture room) the dialogue which is the third component of the performance stopped after about ten minutes. The intensive hours of discussion that ensued in the days following amply illustrated to me a number of factors influencing the dialogue. The first was the power of the ideological structure enclosing the audience and space. (This would include the unfulfilled expectations, based in preconceptions and comfortable same-ness)… Anyway, the continuing discussion has been very stimulating and has opened up new areas of consideration for me. I have very mixed feelings about the performance, but the flux of energy that has enveloped it in the four times it has happened — once in Köln, once in Helsinki, once in Tampere, and now, in Tallahassee — has carried my thinking on a productive tour of my own pathway as well as providing deep insights into others’ attitudes, dreams, and beliefs.