Summary
Through a combination of livestreamed lecture performance and audience participation with wearable assemblage, the piece seeks to pull together a playful, rigorous engagement with cuteness and clothing as scholarship. mecha mecha mecha pulls from Girl theorist Alex Quicho’s use of the mecha as a metaphor for “climb[ing] into and pilot[ing] this already-existing subject that has the unique privilege of being greater than us all, yet thoroughly downplayed and underestimated.” Taking Quicho’s understanding that everyone is already a Girl online, mecha mecha mecha seeks to model an example of unveiling invisibilized stories of technocapital reproduction and the Girl as decoy technology for the 21st Century.
Performance
Stage 1
Transformation through dress: Corset nails and accessory worn by a contemporary dancer / performer. Volunteers (2-3) must help performer string up the nails. In the background, there is a multi-camera real-time projection of all the hands working.
Multi-camera real-time projection of hands working / livestreamed
Reference: Gordon Hall, elementary school teachers with old school projectors
Some cameras are more affected (i.e. data moshing) than others
Reference: transmediale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o20yfTukhKY&t=1805s
Stage 2
The Houses Of The Serpent Bearer. The 3rd House, Noah Klink, Berlin
Gordon Hall, Read me that part a-gain, where I disin-herit everybody, 2014. Wood, paint, and performance-lecture with projected images and colored light, 50 min.
Lecture: Performer wears extremely long nails with small but legible lecture text on each finger
Volunteers (2-3) take turns reading the text from each finger
Text to recite
Excerpts from ρ᥅ꫀꪶ꠸ꪑ꠸ꪀꪖ᥅ꪗ ꪑꪖꪻꫀ᥅꠸ꪖꪶᦓ ᠻꪮ᥅ ꪖ ꪻꫝꫀꪮ᥅ꪗ ꪮᠻ ꪻꫝꫀ ꪗꪮꪊꪀᧁ-ᧁ꠸᥅ꪶ by Tiqqun, Alex Quicho’s Collected Girlstack, and Cute Accelerationism by Amy Ireland and Maya B. Kronik
Emphasizing “mecha” metaphor - accessory / nail as armor
Takeaways (zine of the text printed)
Reference: Journey Streams, 2023 @ Blade Study (https://www.are.na/block/23784372)
Practical considerations
Performance / exhibition space (preferably a location home to queer nightlife)
Performance / Exhibition Reception funds (drinks + food)
Transportation costs for performance preparation
Cost of materials for nails and garment (filament, grommets, threads, cords, patterns)
Cost of materials for exhibition space preparation (black curtains, lighting, etc)
Cost of materials for zine (vellum paper, textured paper, ink, printing)
Cost of materials for 3 nail workshops hosted at 370 Jay Street
Cost of materials for nail workshop signage
Reference
Through this project, we will work under the mentorship and consultation of practicing new media artists from the NYU Tisch faculty, such as Clarinda Mac Low, Sharon de la Cruz, Ali Santana, and Patrick Warren. We are currently working from a growing library of resources, looking to works such as Alex Quicho’s “GIRLSTACK”, Bogna Konior’s “Dark Forest Theory of the Internet”, Tiqqun’s Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl, Amy Ireland and Maya B. Kronic’s Cute Accelerationism, and feminist posthuman phenomenology writings such as Bodies of Water by Astrida Neimanis. We also intend to reach out to and attend events hosted by artists / communities who engage with similar topics, such as NYU IMA resident Mishka Morgan who did her thesis on girlhood online in the form of the developing video game “Yucky World”, Chia Amisola who is currently doing a residency at CULTUREHUB, CSM and LCF lecturer Alex Quicho, POWRPLNT, and the Center for Experimental Lectures.