The UNLIGHTENMENT Project
Category: Research | Role: Performer, Researcher | Venue: Home Office, Theaterhaus Mitte, Uferstudios Berlin
How can the body support the process of lying to oneself ? And is that even a worthwhile endeavor? What are the potential artistic and political benefits that come along with a performative practice of self-deception?
"The UNLIGHTMENT Project" is the third project of my research series The Biased Body. It scrutinizes the act of telling lies as a critical - and perhaps even revolutionary - instrument. The starting point was my realization that discrimination and violent behaviour are not only a physical practice, they are a form of knowledge. I realized how many of our everyday life premises construct, legitamize, and enable violence. And we do great in upholding them.
This work centers around these unintentional thoughts and outdated knowledge(s). I don’t think any knowledge can be true or untrue by itself. But it can be instrumentalized as a tool for power and oppression. In postcolonial discourses, this process is referred to as “epistemic violence.” As a white member of a mixed-race relationship, I recognize every day that this is more than just an academic concept. I am confronted with my Western knowledge supremacy; I am a cultural know-it-all. This bias would not vanish, no matter how hard I try to reflect on myself. It is this paradox between rational commitment and subconscious convictions that I wanted to pick up on.
I became interested in the functionality of lie detectors and their artistic and empowering potential. Despite the procedure being highly criticized and not legally binding, the idea of reading truth from the body's internal operating system seems quite appealing. I started developing a catalog of questions based on the "control question" test. I interviewed myself and tried to manipulate my body into presenting itself as a liar. I started using my senses as an equivalent to the technical polygraph sensors. And I created the Human Polygraph as a choreographic tool.
Let's lie this bias out of our bodies!
supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion
