THE RED ROOM
The Red Room with PERSON
A Generative Format/ Meta-Performance
Performed and Documented at The South Philadelphia Athenaeum, 2004
We experience a unique world colored by our perception, feeling, desires, and individuality. Reading into the world of Ed Gein galvanized initial sketches for The Red Room. This convicted serial killer wore skin suits made of his victims in self-described ‘transvestite rituals’ to pacify a horrific desire to be inside another’s body. Understanding similar, yet far less gruesome, desires to know what it’s like to be inside another’s body; I set out to find a space to execute a ritual of my own. USAISAMONSTER was playing a show at The South Philadelphia Athenaeum and I knew of this Red Room there. So I set up shop while they played and invited PERSON into The Red Room. I shot PERSON with a digital camera while they explored the space. After a brief period, I asked PERSON to swap clothes with me. I entered The Red Room as PERSON while PERSON examined the digital images I shot. I asked PERSON to direct me back into the images captured. I asked PERSON questions like, “what was on your mind in that picture, PERSON”, and like, “PERSON, how did you feel there?” I tried to transform myself into PERSON, through PERSONS description. PERSON shot my experience in PERSON as PERSON saw fit. The results clearly show that my experience was only an approximation of PERSONS’ physicality and brain-state, but not nearly as close as I had wanted to be in PERSON, so I made skin suits by way of Photoshop to peacefully pacify my craze.