ELECTRONIC DIARY
Henry asks the narrator, now 48 to make a videotape about the process of his death. He has just been diagnosed with a malignant tumor. Henry's doctors have told him he could only expect to remain alive a very short time. Though Henry is the exact same age as the narrator, he becomes a shadow figure as he is her reverse in race , gender and background. A few weeks after the project begins, The narrator learns that she has an illness identical to the one Henry is suffering from. The tape moves into parallel points of view regarding fear of death, fragility in life , unspent dreams and ultimately, hope. During the process of this tape Henry dies .The narrator recovers. We see both characters at different phases of their illness, recounting the toll pain and medication take. In each segment, computer based possibilities of videos are used in order to visually split, rupture or fragment the narrator. This technique underscores, through visual impact, the content of each message. Occasionally the narrator appears to verge on schizophrenic psychosis in order to simulate the pressures required to function in a wounded world. Each diary directly confronts viewers by employing close up frontal head - shots as the primary means for telling each story. The cathartic nature of speech and revelation brings a balance, assurance and occasional wholeness to the duplicitous subcurrents of the text. This series is based on fact, on reality, however close up head - shots on video denounces even the most honest and despairing episodes, giving them a fictitious innuendo. Discrepancies emerge between what is being said and what the viewer wants to believe, creating a dramatic tension . THE ELECTRONIC DIARY derives from feminist performances in the 1970's . Both are concerned with documentation and articulation of identity. THE ELECTRONIC DIARY , however, is specifically designed to be electronically distributed to a mass audience. Each video is produced privately, using no camera person or technicians. The completed works are, paradoxically, widely distributed and internationally broadcast. Individual traumas suffered by the narrator move to a more meaningful level when it becomes clear that the fracture and internal loss also applies to the audience. Indeed, to the culture. As viewers witness the narrator reclaim personal history, displaced memory and finally an empowered identity, they also identify with and participate in the recovery. Each segment ends with an unhinging or opening that leads into the next episode. Continuing sections delve deeper into both personal as well as international history. Innuendos and subtle references in early segments eventually come into focus as ensuing issues of the diary unfold. All actions have ramifications that sometimes take decades to understand and articulate. That we are all survivors becomes the basis for the diary's communal language. The goal is to emphasize how ramifications of destructive patterns can be reversed to allow new opportunities for a vital and positive future. |
1984-PRESENT A.D.