In October 2021, after what felt like an eternity, I transitioned from exclusively performing in a virtual capacity to a multi-channel mediated performance—compressing the live and the now dearly beloved virtual space into one. With the use of an iPhone, a clear acrylic chair, and wifi connection, the viewer witnesses a body on their phones in addition to the physical space shared during a moment in time; a meditation on the difference—inviting them to question, when presented with both, what takes priority. An exercise in communal voyeurism, pondering if the surface of the screen is a barrier or a mediator to connection, to an intimate exchange.

In this performance, the audience is prompted upon entering the room to scan a QR code via a small piece of paper titled “Scan Me: the performance is not in this room.” The piece begins when I start to remove my clothes, transitioning from everyday pedestrian wear, to almost nothing. The stage is a plinth with an acrylic chair placed in the middle, framed on the ground by a string of light pink LED lights. As I approach the chair, it’s gently revealed that the iPhone camera underneath is broadcasting the perspective from under the chair into the Zoom room, as well as onto the wall behind me. I intimately press various parts of my body and splosh a variety of food items with the surface of my skin, including gummy worms, raw egg, and cherry Jell-o, onto the surface of the chair. The piece is scored by an electronic synth soundtrack with fragments of “Material Girl” looping and distorting into the noise. The performance comes to an end when I step off of the plinth, make my way through the audience, and exit the room, leaving behind a relic, a mess, a memory of a body that once was, but is now no longer present.

The title “Perspective Box” is inspired by the original name of the peep show that had nothing to do with sensuality and everything to do with spectacle, alternative world building and viewing. Our phones are our modern day perspective boxes in which we perceive and are perceived in return in a reciprocal exchange, a feedback loop of flesh, liveness, and the gaze. Broadcasting out, welcoming others in.