Effort | 2011

In the space there is a chair, a roll of rubber band, a bucket with small bells, a needle and a pair of scissors. On the chair there is the Helmet for a Same Vision. There is a projector and sound connected to a computer. I take the helmet, wear it on my head and turn it on. The sound and vision of the helmet is broadcast through a smartphone via Wi-Fi to the Internet, being afterwards projected into the space, sharing my vision. My vision outside of the helmet is mediated by the smartphone. 

I sit on the chair, take the rubber band cut a piece and tie it to my body. I take the other end of the rubber band and pass it thru the sewing needle. With the rubber band fixed to the sewing needle I start fixing the small bells to it and involving it around my body. I tie up the rubber band and take another piece to tie to another part of my body. When I cannot see the rubber band anymore to insert in the sewing needle I get up and ask someone from the audience to do it. The action of fixing the rubber band with the small bells to my body is repeated during more or less 1 hour. At a given moment I start involving my body with the rubber band, tying the bucket with the small bells to my body. I stand up and walk in the direction of another space where there is a rack with iron files. I start to tear out the rubber bands by rubbing my body on the iron files, provoking the bells and rubber bands to fall on the ground. Once freed of all rubber bands, I take off my helmet, and finish the performance.

I created this performance following an invitation of the artist Michelle Moura to present a work related to sounds. There are two meanings related to sound in it: the sharing of the sound captured by the Helmet for a Same Vision, and the sound of my actions amplified by the sound of the bells fixed to my body. The Helmet for a Same Vision is an object that I created thinking of how to include a transmission via Internet within the performance. With that, as my vision is being mediated through a smartphone, I am able to share what I see and my sounds through the net. All that can be seen back in the site with projectors and sound boxes in the place. On the account of that mediation, and according to the speed of the connection, the helmet alternatively produces echoes and a continuous reverb. During the performance, due to the internal heat of the helmet, little by little I loose the accuracy of my vision. 

The work directs itsellf to a relation of more feeling in the action. Here the relation between being-able-to-act and knowing-how-to-act, a constant in earlier works, returns as the difficulty of acting and according to the development of the action itself.