Video Performance proposal

Tim Hansen - Proposal for Video Performance

Concepts:
Gap between Public and Private Information
Transparency of Process
Pursuit of Truth
Defeating the Power of Embarrassment

Idea:
Venture into public in the guise of a “reporter” or similar journalistic construct, have random strangers attempt to embarrass me by asking me questions. This is a reversal of the typical role of the reporter putting the general public “on the spot”. It is mine to suffer, for my suffering is my truth, and through my truth, my freedom. The project will attempt to illuminate every theoretically secret piece of information about me with the understandable exception of financial access information in the interest of protecting myself from fraud/identity theft.

I am an American, and in America, most of our secrets are sexual. Therefore it is an excellent idea to reveal every last tidbit of private sexual data in order to release me from the power that secrets have over me.

I dislike the idea of being a private person. I dislike the idea of there being knowledge about me that only I have. In the event of my death, that knowledge will perish. If the knowledge is distributed widely, it shall live on as long as it can be shared. This is immortality. I am not concerned with positive or negative connotations. Good or bad, attention is power. This is why I am qualified to be a celebrity. I can traffick in shallowness and vanity like nobody’s business.

Another objective of this is to live as a role model for the government, because every time the government keeps a secret, it fucks us. This is the truth.

In order to avoid the perception of bias, the process by which I interact with the public will be documented as an integral part of the work. My opinions are inherently biased, as are all opinions everywhere, but by sharing the methodology the viewer will be able to discern this bias and filter it out of the elemental Truth.

I have a childlike fascination with Truth. There is a way that things Is, outside of the sphere of human interpretation. Complete knowledge of the Truth is not a thing available to us as human beings but it is the pursuit of it that keeps us moving forward, in technology, in philosophy, in society, and in personal growth.

This is obviously reckless on a personal level. Still, it’s a hell of a lot less dangerous than heroin.

-Tim Hansen
4/16/08