A Story of validation – CCW Salon @Flat Time House 25.05.10

A Story of validation – CCW Salon @Flat Time House 25.05.10

To validate is to demonstrate or support value or truth of. It gives weight to something demonstrating its purposefulness or importance.

Ok so first off I think I better explain why I’m here. Well I guess it all started with Nick here. He sits opposite me in the studio you see, Usually perving over Gemma Artitons face or spouting some nonsense about colour sequencing or plywood. Anyway last Fri was different. Nick was focused and not on Gemma Artiton for a change. Confused by this I asked what he was doing.

‘I’m making some work for that salon thing we got an email about the other day’

‘Salon thing? What Salon thing?’

‘That salon thing we got an email about the other day.’

‘What email?’

‘The one we got the other day’

I forgot to mention as well as being a nonsense-spouting pervert nick is also thinks he’s funny.

I give him this look (pissed off)

‘yeah … there’s a salon going on and there after performative work you should send in a proposal.’

Bollocks! Now I’m going to have to make some work. Its funny how I feel obliged to do theses things.

I thought about this for a while then forgot about. That was until Nikki come over and asked if I sent a proposal you your dear selves. Crap. Gota do it now. A proposal couldn’t hurt, its not like it was going to get it accepted especially with the shitty proposal I sent in. This pre-documentation of sort will work; a kind of an performative utterance or such meaning I wouldn’t have to do the work the proposal would be enough.

But then you fuckers just had to go and accept every thing don’t you.

So here I am attempting to validate my inactivity to you.

O shit I better introduce my self – I’m Lauren and I am a Visual Language of performance student at Wimbledon and because I am a Visual Language of performance student I feel somewhat obliged to perform at these things even if I haven’t got a clue what to do. A kind of DANCE MONKEY DANCE thing.

I should also tell you that my work deals with seemingly pointless endeavours as part of which I have taught my self to do a rubiks cube then did it for an entire week documenting every time I did it and I am currently trying to break a world record for the largest display of knitted mice.

This attempt has been rejected on the ground that it is too specific. However a similar attempt of 'Largest display of paper-mache pandas' has recently been accredited in the 2010 book.

This group is a campaign at the appalling rejection of this record in attempt to gain access into the book of world records.

Join the facebook group 1000 blind mice now!

Any how plug over I digress

Also as part of the course we have recently been told that we need to do a performance outside of the uni sooo…

So this is why I’m stood here now like a numpty because logic tells me to validate why I should be here in the first place.

Ok so technically I’m not really doing anything here apart from telling you this pointless story but surely my presence here validates my non-action.

Anyway for all you know I could be making this all up. I could just be some weirdo telling you a stupid because I love the attention I’m getting. (hey)

But what does it matter. Your buying it. Your Belief in the truth or that that is packaged as the truth doesn’t make any difference here, it doesn’t validate my presence any less. By documenting my story and repackaging it as this performance I am not only validating my experience to others but even making it bigger and better to get greater validation for something originally quiet pointless.

Ok so time to justify my actions. Give them validity. Which ironically is what I’m am doing within my practise by attempting to give the steamily pointless point. I am partaking on a useless endeavour and questioning the value of this uselessness.

Performance as storytelling is part of this validation in terms of documentation. I document my inactivity, to tick some boxes, validate to my self, I twist it to make it ‘interesting’, tell it you, validate it to you, tick some more boxes and gain some public interest.

It is ‘interesting’ isn’t it? Its got to be interesting? This is what we strive to achieve if we want to enter into this world, public interest the validation of others. The need for someone to be interested in order to validate your experience or endeavour is the fundamental issue here. I am interesting! I have a purpose. I have a point.

But this is all bollocks really isn’t it? what the hell am I doing here? Fuck it.