art.308: sculpture studio

hannah piper burns

project 2: kinetics and interactivity

"hit me"

this piece deals with my personal relationship with violence. it was executed in two parts: in the first i approached several friends, all of them except one male, and asked them to punch me in the face. a high-sensitivity microphone located in my bag recorded the conversations that ensued without the knowledge of the other party. during one of these exchanges i was in fact hit, which was also recorded. the second part of the piece involved me spending time in public while wearing makeup that gave the impression of a black eye. again, i recorded responses from my peers without their knowledge. i then edited the material, which was about an hour and a half to two hours in length, down to a loop of approximately twelve minutes, cutting most of the dialogue that did not directly have to do with me being hit. i then made a four sided box in which to locate a portable cd player, and made a hole in the side of the box to accomodate a headphone jack. the headphones sit in front of the box, which is marked by an image, which is shown above, taken with a digital camera a few minutes after i was hit by the friend who hit me.

the piece in its most recent form is meant for the gallery environment, and the viewer must interact with it by listening to the sound loop through the headphones while their gaze is directed to the image of my face marked with the evidence of actual violence. it is also about the interaction between myself and the people i spoke with, about their response to me, whether it be a refusal to hit me, an inquiry about the nature of my request, or actual violence. i feel that the piece's success lies in its form- the documentary style of the audio and the photographic document work together to locate the work as true, and the intimacy of the headphones establishes intimacy with the viewer, but also at times implicates them in the actions taking place.

i feel that the piece may be stronger as a whole were it broken into three separate audio pieces: one piece about those who refused to hit me, one piece about actually being hit, and one piece about the response to the evidence of being hit. in this way, instead of picking up random bits of loop the viewer is exposed to three different takes on the situation at once, allowing them to focus more fully on each one.