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Images: I. Lamers and A. A. de Boer
Text: An email conversation between Ine Lamers, (IL) Anneke A. de Boer (ADB) and Sibylle Feucht (SF)
Text Excerpts, Anneke A. de Boer:
(..) How does the use of new media influence our ideas and definitions of the ‘real’ and how does it influence our concepts of what a ‘real’ experience is? Computer simulated environments are nowadays a part of our reality and virtual environments have been used in different disciplines for research, therapy, trainings and gaming. The use of the virtual space offers the possibility to experience- and revisit realities. Scientific researchers have examined that our automatic body responses react in computer simulated environments as in real settings; an interesting example is the virtual version realized in 2006 of The Stanley Milgram Experiment from the 1960’s
We consciously know that a virtual world is not real but some parts of our perceptual system take it for real; some part of the brain doesn’t know about virtual reality. (..)
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(..) 'If someone is going to play my part', is questioning the concept of the ‘actual’ and the ‘ideal’ self.
E. Goffman speaks about the ‘self’ and our associated self: “The expressive cohesion that is necessary in performances shows a fundamental discrepancy between us human to human ‘self’ and our associated ‘self’”
In the investigation of the discrepancy of the ‘self’ and our associated ‘self, I’ve chosen personification as a point of departure. The whole work is based on the idea that every person can formulate what an actor would need to know in order to justly perform that person. By responding to the questions of the interview, the participants gave descriptions of their inner worlds. The questions of the interview are based on Method Acting conventions.
In the installation if someone is going to play my part, the viewer can perceive the other by listening to audio descriptions and by viewing performances on video. The two media cannot be perceived simultaneously. The different ways of delivery and presentation evoke a crack in how we perceive the participants. (..)
Like computer games and other computer simulated environments.
Experiment lead by Mell Slater in 2006, a virtual reprise of the Stanley Milgram Obedience Experiments, Slater M, Antley A, Davison A, Swapp D, Guger C, et al. (2006), PLoS ONE 1(1): e39.
The Milgram experiment is a sociological experiment that sought to determine people’s propensity to obey authority.
Method Acting is a technique of acting introduced by Stanislavsky in which the actor recalls emotions or reactions from his or her own life and uses them to identify with the character being portrayed.