Movement Online, Performing with eBay
Essay published in the book #exstrange: a curatorial intervention on ebay
I am happy to announce that my essay is published in the #exstrange exhibition catalogued edited by Marialaura Ghidini and Rebekah Modrak and published by Maize Books (Michigan University). The essay relies on the Laban Notation System to analyse the steps it takes to buy an item on eBay and questions how free we are to actually dance within that process.
An excerpt:
“When it’s on your mind, it’s on eBay”[1]. Or is eBay on your mind? When writing this a rhythm of a song popped into my head, but I can’t quite remember the lyrics to go along with the vague notations bouncing from clarity to obscurity in on and off beats respectively. I move slightly to the tune anyway, but my performance is interrupted by an email from eBay (literally, I couldn’t make it up if I tried). It says “Congrats on your first purchase.” My On My Miiind dance, my desire to dance to this rhythm of a song that is completely my own internal choreography and thus forcing external dance partners (in this case eBay) to follow my lead, takes on an altogether different stage — the stage of capitalism. But before I move again to discuss what is On My Miiind, what exactly is this stage and how am I performer here anyway?
In a social media saturated world, the stage becomes an omnipresent platform consisting of notify, notify, notify — capitalism and a well mixed consistency of power flows. So well mixed, we can’t even see spec(k)s from our birds-eye view, limbs gliding easily from corner to corner of this enigmatic surface but to no avail. We may recognise eBay for what it is, but can we really see the details lurking behind?…
