[Lecture performance] A language and pronunciation exercise with nouns that assume/ establish a non-verbal agreement based on masculine presentation and brotherhood, a call to self-reflect and critically look at (visual) communication and notions of objectivity and neutrality, a call to make 1’s and 0’s work for you instead of reducing your sense of personhood in order to get by - win big in digital infrastructure.. and, finally, a call to name yourself and others; set to a grindr message that did exactly not that.. or I guess it kinda did?

 

I took a little video to show off my new earrings, and as I lowered my phone I noticed this tag. ‘BRO!!’ it read. In my mind I made a list of situations in which I more or less consciously exuded ‘BRO’, and times when my potential bro-ness was assumed, expected from, projected onto me. This resulted in my ‘bro broer ey brada dude yo man hey brrrrrro sup bro ey broerrrrr yo hey man yo chest day? Yo how many reps u got left? Yo, r u top? Hey btm? Chems? Bb? G? Fun? Face? Masc? Yo yeah you are gay but you’re cool though. Hey dog.. Send me your invoice dude’.. semi-improvised language exercise.. the opening of my second performance.

 

Inspired by my ‘BRO!!’ moment, I rework the tag into a mural and collect texts to recite in the second, third and fourth part of this performance. Roodkapje’s artistic director Gerben Willers gifts me a LED ticker display. It will be used to display texts that are rendered through my mobile phone (e.g. Grindr asking its users to disclose their HIV status and leaking it later).

 

These connections are precarious, always changing, and  embodied by many.

It was great to articulate and visualise the space and time which all of the above comes together, and to share it with an audience.