Deconstructing the isolated astronaut-artist paradigm

Abstract

In the context of a viral outbreak and necessary physical distancing, the emergence of new or the evolution of older artistic behavioural schemes becomes evident. We correlate the isolation space of the artist with the cockpit of a spaceship and the navigation and communication interfaces used by an astronaut. The cybernetic domain between physical space(s) and artist(s) can be thought of as consisting of many ‘organs’. It includes a core (black box), many-layered limits: skin, walls, mental and digital borders as well as mechanisms of connectivity with external entities (other astronauts in art spaceships). This space could be a bedroom, a studio, an office or any different location the artist uses as an isolated bubble of information sharing and manipulation (material and immaterial). For the construction of such an (astronaut, artist) ontology we use metaphors, etymological references, transformed concepts and creative analogies between the actual and the subjective space. As one case study for this paradigm, we experimented with a telematic performance of Heiner Müller’s Hamlet Machine titled, I want to be 171.