Last week I missed my blog post. It was opening night for one of the shows that I am in this semester and all my engineering homework was due, so I used one of my allotted skips for the semester and neglected to post the blog I had begun to write. As I prepared to write this week’s blog I thought that I should acknowledge the fact that I had missed last weeks but couldn’t help but wonder: Did anyone notice? And does anyone care?
Our culture is that of continuous performance. As we sit staring at our screens, we perform for each other debating if a conversational quip is clever enough to merit a Facebook status or a picture is sufficiently filtered to hide imperfection before posting. Breaking 20 “likes” results in repeated behavior while less than five results in hiding the miscalculated post from your timeline. The immediate show of approval or disapproval from a removed audience via technology such as Facebook has brought new meaning to the saying “All the world is a stage”. Previously, only actors could stand up in front of a large group, separated only by the 4th wall, and perform receiving immediate feedback through boisterous applause or deafening silence. Now the internet allows us to present ourselves to the world and receive our applause in the forms of comments, shares and likes.
Being an artist within the performing arts I live for the applause. There is nothing more disheartening than performing to a dead house which never laughs, cries, coughs or claps because you begin to wonder if there is anyone out there who understands what you are trying to say or if you are alone amongst the masses.
Working as a blogger has been like performing to a dead house. There is little to no response to what I write and at first it was depressing because I spend a lot of time and energy attempting to craft meaningful posts. Yet, as I have continued to write I have come to appreciate the difference between performance and physical art. Performance art is about saying something to someone and developing a relationship with them while physical art is about putting something into the world simply because you have something to say. So even if no one is reading my blog the fact that I’m doing it – putting my thoughts out there for the world to see – is enough for me and I can learn to live without the applause.
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