"Rather than seeing this soul as the reactivated remnants of an ideology, one would see it as the present correlative of a certain technology of power over the body. It would be wrong to say that the soul is an illusion, or an ideological effect. On the contrary, it exists, it has a reality; it is produced permanently around, on, within the body by the functioning of a power that is exercised on those punished- and, in a more general way, on those one supervises, trains, and corrects, over madmen, children at home and at school, the colonised; over those who are stuck at a machine and supervised for rest of their lives". - Michel Foucault, on "The body of the condemned" from 'The Foucault Reader'
I have been reading Foucault, specifically from The Foucault Reader, and thinking about these power structures as I move through Berlin on the train from east to west (former though the psychological/social borders are still very present) to work as a life model- I get 'controlled' - ticket checked by controllers as i read foucault on the train. I think 'I want this job of controlling, I want a job full stop (aside from life modeling), but what would this job feel like'? They came and sat right next to me pretending to be normal people then they trick people by pulling out their card. Luckily i have a ticket, i am aware of areas i will be 'controlled' and ones i will not...
I also observed how much the bodies in the space in general are controlled a bit panopticon, even in Life Modeling my body is very much a trained and military 'docile body' which Foucault speaks of. In response to Lynn Book's proposition to 'interrupt' or 'subvert' the spaces of berlin in performance ways as i do subtley when i do not buy a ticket, a 'black rider' or 'free rider' of the trains, or as i have done- made up a name for a cheap deal for yoga as i cannot afford to pay 20 euro a class to get the initial deal again of 20 euro a week/first week- and i am 'kitty argyle' as i go to yoga.. and this is now a performance, kitty argyle does yoga not alexa wilson- I have taken some beginning pics of the many uniforms/people on the train/controlled bodies vs my body subtley.. sexually subverting the train. I am stared at.. doing this :) drawing upon the erotic readings suggested by Nicholas Estevez- my studio supervisor.
People outburst in these spaces, I've heard more yelling in the past 2 days than in a month- racist explosions across the tram and train, a turkish woman, a french african guy, rambling- screaming! And a woman yelling on the platform at midnight at the main station? What is she yelling about? Oh she's a christian, its about the crisis and the end of the world and saving our souls. Through yelling. A mad woman today on the way to yoga, yelling in a door way both times i pass. So much repressed and seething emotion and sadness/anger/oppression. Can I do this? sometimes i also want to.. not so much now. Maybe 2 years ago!
And the language, as a system, a power constraint, inclusion/exclusion... either i speak german and i get rambled at fast so i or they change to english and i feel stupid, there is no mid way. Like if you speak slower or simpler i can learn better and do this. The only people i can really 'have a conversation with are people whose second language it is also' ; we are 'outsiders' together. And this expectation and feeling of 'you must learn german properly'... what is this language violence??
I also have been doing "tarot reading" in the Mauer park markets which could be something i could take into the streets more as a performance somehow... Berlin is a cynical city, its many things, but there are not many tarot readers! People mostly just took photos of me!
This seems like a relevant conversation from facebook: And just BTW... putting all of this stuff ONLINE means that I am totally traced, tracked and monitored- ONLINE of which I am well aware.
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