290 Colloquium

Karola Luttringhaus

Impressions from the PFS Symposium 2018

Eric Taggart
"Sad Babies"
Mostly Eric's talk reminds me that lately I have been perplexed with the idea of
'scientific studies' and 'having proof' for certain hypotheses or claims. How does a baby respond
when the mother leaves the room and the toddler is left with a stranger. How does the toddler
respond when the mother comes back in? This experiment has been going on for decades and it
seems to prove nothing to me except that the scientists who conduct this experiment are
extremely dense about very obvious things such as the bond between mother and child, and
individuality of responses to ever changing circumstances. Yes, the experiment is conducted in
the same way all the time, every time, but nothing can be repeated. The toddler will not always
respond the same way. Different toddlers, mothers and strangers will react differently based on
unforeseeable circumstances and influences.

This experiment seems like a bunch of pathological misguided ways to waste money. Why the
desperate effort to create some sense of continuity, of order, of systems, of methods, of
patterns? What if there are no patterns?

So,... I find it extremely interesting what Eric is doing: analyzing the analyst. Curious to see
what comes of it in the end.

Dennis M. Somera
This performance confused me.
As I come into Della, I notice a short, thin, man with beautiful long shiny black hair. I had never
seen him before. He is walking around. I noticed his hair and I must have picked up on it being
of some kind of importance. I suppose that his attention was on it because in the performance
he was about to give in just a few minutes, he will be cutting it off.

Cutting hair has significance in many cultures. The longer the hair, the bigger the gesture.
This is a performance he can only do every 5 to 7 years. Did he waste it on us 20 people in
Performance Studies? Don't other people need to see that more than we do? Who needs to see
it? Maybe we need a reminder that we are not outside the general norm, no better than others.

He sits down on some paper on the floor, kneeling. He takes out scissors. He cuts a strand of
hair. I am thinking, oh no! not that. Why!?.

I remember him holding the scissors out to us, saying nothing, looking as if he wants us to take
them and cut his hair. Or to contemplate the orientation of the handles and the blades. Handles
on our side, blade on his.

An invitation to injure him?

An invitation to cut our own hair?
Cut something?
Give something?
Anything?
He cuts some more hair off. This is getting ugly.

Isa goes up and cuts off a little piece from her hair. Comparatively non-committal, compared to
Dennis. Will anyone match his sacrifice? No.
Does he want that? A sacrifice?

He doesn't respond.
She laughs a little.
She sends him love.

Does he want someone to take the burden and cut it off for him?
We are the reason for him wanting to cut it?
Are we?
Who do we represent?
Colonizers? Oppressors? Academia? Hegemony?

I was shocked and perplexed.

Victim.
Perpetrator.

No explanation
no words
cutting of hair
desperation
pulling of h air
long hair, be aut iful hai r
yea rs of ti me
cut off
P eople com e aro und h im, John Ross ini is hol ding hi m.
He is not s top ping.

Whe n the scis so rs

are out of

r each,

h e pu lls h is h air o ut.

He stuffs it into his shirt pocket.

How precious is his hair to him?

So much pain.