The Other History of Intercultural Performance

This blog entry focuses primarily with the movie/writing entitled "the Other History of Intercultural Performance. The primary plot for this work was for two people to present themselves as two Amerindians that went undiscovered by the Europeans for five centuries. These two such "actors" were to be entrapped in a cage and be put on display as performance art around the United States and other parts of the world. On page 86 of the text it states "Our performance was based on the once popular European and North American practice of exhibiting indigenous people from Africa, Asia, and the Americas in zoos, parks, taverns, museums, freak shows, and circuses." This "throwback" performance was actually a study not of the two undiscovered Indians, but a study of people in the audiences reactions and feelings. The variety of emotions and expressions that were displayed in the movie by people in the crowd show the presence of mental separation that many of us still have today. Many people took the performance at the art shows to be extremely serious. I don't really think that is what the creators of the project were going for. I think in a sense they were trying to portray the image of "the noble savage - someone who is indigenous, but yet still has a European personality" This is evident with the two experimenters watching TV, reading, doing normal 21st century activities, but yet had the appearance of people that had been mistreated centuries ago. This brought on a mixture of reactions as stated by the text, "many audience members felt entitled to assume the role of the colonizer, only to find themselves uncomfortable with the implications of the game." It also showed an audience woman, who was so moved that she started shedding tears proclaiming that the treatment of these people were harsh, and that she was sorry. These exhibitions around the globe could be summarized best by the text that says "the human exhibitions dramatize the colonial unconscious of American society." I think this can wrap up most of my thoughts and opinions in the proverbial nutshell. I think most of the opinions about other cultures and prejudices are present because of being "unconscious" to what is around us. Not understanding or taking the time to get to know a different race, culture, being is what separates our thoughts and actions. I think the experiment that we read/watched about explores ourselves, and hopefully by educating the people and opening our eyes, we can eliminate the feelings of otherness.