• greetings (handshake, nod)
• eating (forks and spoons? programs on how to cook, diets, parts from magazines)
• keeping pets (dressing them, “humanising” them)
• fashion (hats, collars, ties, shoes polished – and impracticability)
  • “having shiny shoes means you’re smart?”
  • “we take a tie to work and show our subservience to the boss, the master”
  • image – the construct of oneself by oneself or the looking-glass self?
• dealing with disability (e.g. midgets, people in wheelchairs)
• façade of hygiene; manners and etiquette (savoir-vivre; picking ones nose; publicly “banned” physiology)
• ways of sleeping (using beds – high up, with beddings, pillows)
• public performance; trying to outgrow oneself (only in special situations one is allowed to, e.g. singing karaoke – because of social isolation and judgement)
• listening to music (example scenario: people in suits listening to death metal and gracefully clapping at the end)
• posing (for photos, paintings or drawings)
• ways of applying things to alter the state of conciousness (drinking alcohol, smoking)
• expressing feelings (notably the heart symbol and the semiotics of feelings in general)
• teaching scenarios (dictatorship, master and slave)

I don’t want to overdo it, so I am going to pick 4-5 strongest ones for the installation on the 11th February. The ones I like the most so far are in bold print.

Each subject will be exposed simultaneously as a collage of: photography, selected paintings, videos, pre-recorded (+ live sounds?), live audience action and live actors action. Hopefully this will have the desired effect and will make people notice themselves in relation to these sounds and images.

It would be nice to spot each of these points in the audience, so that would could be included in the mash-up. I can do that with greetings and eating (by serving food before entering), fashion should be an easy one (lots of hats people wearing nowadays), maybe get them to pose before entering too, and the hardest one would be depiction of manners or the hygiene façade.

I didn’t include religion, or “praise” in the list, as I originally wanted, because it would be difficult to integrate it with the environment and the audience. There are bits of tradition, in greetings, eating and manners, so I don’t think I really need to dwell on that.

Again, thanks to Barney for the 2 hours on Skype to brainstorm this at such a late early 4-6 am time.