Together Elsewhere 03: Hans Christian van Nijkerk and Ursula Scherrer
(29.09.2021)

Location: Neuensteinerstrasse 23 in the Gundeli in Basel

Objects:

Hans Christian: pinecones, clock / watch, coffeebeans

Ursula: raisins, paperclips, thread

Extra information: Some thoughts to our online performance, after the performance, before I have viewed the result:

Hans Christian and I were talking about 3 times before the performance as well as having some exchange over e-mail.

We felt that we wanted to use this platform with its particular characteristics of being online. That brought us to the thought to show the viewer our view while performing (we attached the camera to our forehead), an angle that is far less familiar to others in a performance. In this way we hoped to have the viewer almost feel as if she/he/they did the performance themselves. This then links to the world of video games, which I myself am barely familiar with.

I also thought of doing an action that is working well in an intimate setting, since the viewer can be much closer and can see details that she/he/they might not in a performance with many audience members.

To have 6 materials was a bit overwhelming. Therefore I used them in a way that worked.

We chose: pine cones, coffee beans, a clock, raisins, paper clips, thread

My action was very simple. With my toes I moved the objects from the floor onto a low shelf and once they were all up there I started moving them back down. The big moment was when I moved the clock. This object was by far the largest and heaviest.

I had no idea what Hans Christian was doing. Although, that is not completely right, I did hear him and I sensed that there was quite a lot of action.

I am hoping that the viewer had the view more or less the same as me, looking at my toes, with my eyes telling them to pick up an object and moving it up, respectively down. I tried not to only move the eyes because then the viewer wouldn’t follow the view as I did. Instead I tried to move the entire head when I needed to look a bit further up.

I am curious how much that worked, how much I really did that.

Some thoughts to our online performance, after I have viewed the result, the two videos next to each other:

As a whole it was definitely different then I expected. Although I didn’t have an idea since I had no idea of what Hans Christian would do.

And my part? It was similar to what I was hoping it would look like. At least one could see more or less the view that I imagined.

But really it is about the combination. Not about two solo performances next to each other.

We understood that the task is not to know what the other is doing, nor to watch while performing what the other is doing. Only to have the same materials in the same space.

One could think that would give a certain similarity, but no, not at all in our case since living rooms can be so different from each other. Every being so different from the other.

In a way our two performances are a study of just that. How different one can perform within the given parameters. There is still so much space for the individual ideas.

A few questions to myself, possibly also to the organisers:

We were put together by the organisers, randomly? Or did they put us together because of our way of working that they felt could work well together?

Or is it exactly the interest of working with the randomness and having a link through the materials as well as the chosen surrounding?

How conscious was the decision from the organisers for one or the other?

Did I think of my performance of a performance as a duo or as a solo or not consciously thinking of it either way?

Next time I would like to be more consciously aware of what my aim, our aim is.

Is there a thought of that from the organisers? have you thought of it, what do you think?

For me it is definitely not two solos but how much did I really think of that? Especially since we thought we shouldn’t tell each other what we will do nor watch during the performance the other?

Did the view from the ‘third eye’ make sense? I am not sure. Someone said that she thought I was holding the camera in my hand, didn’t realize that it was on my head.

Someone else felt I was just like the view from above although I can’t totally agree with that. My head was moving, had I attached the camera above it would have been a still camera with no movement.