BELIEF IN THE PART

“when an individual plays a part he implicitly requests his observers to take seriously the impression that is fostered before them...the individual offers his performance and puts on his show for the benefit of other people”
(Goffman, E. The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life, 1990)

 

Each piece of work, each situation, that I have created during the MFA has attempted to draw attention to the part a person might play/enact in a given social setting or scenario for the benefit of another. The situations encourage a flux between what Goffman termed the “sincere” and the “cynical” performance.

 

If works such as Paid Opportunity and Say Hi From Me had been about the cynical performance then What Are Other People Like... was to focus on the sincere and have participants truly believe in the part they are to play. An exploration of this idea would take form in
Think of Someone You Know.