Keanu: My first question. What is the role of the formal attire in your work? And does it differentiate, maybe, if you did your performance in a tracksuit or even in your pyjamas say?
Koy: So, when you see maybe not me in not in a performance, but maybe someone wearing a suit, how did you feel about that?
Keanu: I thought either, just by your manner of not caring it was potentially a satire on the stereotypical businessman, or a person who is commerce focused and has to look professional and smart consistently, so, I though maybe it’s a satire on that or maybe it’s a way of formalizing your body actions because the suit is quite tight no? But the way you wore it was very casual, kind of like in a fall out boy fashion, and then I thought it was some kind of South Korean fashion thing.
Koy: So, only because, I feel comfortable-
Keanu: Okay-
Koy: I was kind of changing the character and like you said, the businessman is someone who is wearing the suit and maybe they are by business or they have to do something by fashion. I don’t really do much performance, so, if I have to make myself do performance, definitely I have to change some clothes. But, the costume for me is only what I need for a performance, and even if I have to wear pyjamas, I will. So, for the suit, in a way, it’s just more easy. And actually wearing the suit in performance for me is kind of casual, and it’s not like wearing your average clothes, but a little bit different. It’s something that is in between.
Also, I don't really use much material in my performance, of course if you count the time, the bottle of water and the speech, but instead there Something in the air, I didn't bring any material, just small things, coins, money that I can hide in my pocket like a magician, when you go into the performance, it looks like there not much difference, then you can start taking something out of your pocket, use my time or something else.
Keanu: So it’s your preference of keeping, not incognito, but not too eccentric, more causally everyday?
Koy: … I like dressing smart.
Keanu: And it’s a genuine matter of taste?
Koy: Yes. (laughs)
Keanu: Another five Minutes of Your Time, did you think about how the audience would have received the piece and did you think maybe I need to make a space, for this piece to exist, and not a physical space but a time space – psychologically, for them?
Koy: So for the Five minute piece, I put a bottle of water in the middle. Then, I have another bottle going in a circle around the space. Because if you stay still you don't move, even if you are moving actually, for the earth, we don’t really move, but for the whole universe we are moving, so, there is this water bottle in the middle – you are staying still, turning around and I am going around in a circle – how are we spending the time? You can stand there but the whole universe will go around but for them you’re still moving, you’re still wasting your time, you’re still dripping water.
Keanu: But did you consider the act of dripping water a waste of time? And what do you consider a waste of time?
Koy: Was it a waste of time? Everything is waste of time.
Keanu: You think? But then how do you value waste? Waste is something that has no use no? That gives no surplus, pleasure or function.
Koy: I don't really feel anything of it.
Keanu: So let’s move onto the last question Camera shooting/ Performance shooting and the question you’ve attached to it, have you found any conclusion to your question, if there is a performance that can only be established on filming devices and what would it be?
Koy: Camera shooting/ Performance shooting, is just a way to record, to try to present. If you try to record a performance with a camera or a photo, they become photos, video pieces, it’s not really a performance for me, because if you see in a live performance, it’s always about the space and the time, of course in the video you can always see the time going through but you can go back, but real life there’s nothing to go back. I really am thinking, is there really anything that can only happen only for the camera? ... But maybe something, only staged, where the camera started doing some kind of homing image, they used to just take pictures of the corps…
Keanu: This one, by Edward Muybridge, who does the stills of the birds and other animals?
Koy: Yes this one… Actually, something like that. Our eyes process like this, in frames per second, you put twenty, thirty frames it becomes movement, you can continue building up a movement to visualise. But now today, technology is improving and the movie can do more than one-hundred frames, if you can move something in one second more than a hundred times – then, you feel you don't see it because you cant see it through it your eyes but you can break down everything that is there.
Keanu: And this, the micro-movement, because it would be a micro-movement for our eyes, feels like the only thing that could exists on film or on the screen, compared to real life. Of course visually, you could see someone do a hundred frames per second movement, but it would be very fast it might not even be achievable for a human body, maybe a blink.
Koy: No no, not even a blink. Maybe tap dancing for recording, maybe for one second someone can do more that forty taps in one second. But it will be very hard to distinguish.
Koy Yijung Lee is a recent MA performance graduate from the RCA
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