Chat Club – Episode 21
Performed for the 20th Biennale of Sydney Public Program, 2016
In 2016, I initiated Chat Club - a secret Facebook group made up of 53 people suggested to me by Facebook.
Each week throughout the year, I posted in the group a time to chat, and then added whoever liked the post, into a conversation.
During the year-long project, we developed a unique syntactical rhythm and awareness of the online chat as a form for non-linear, polyphonic conversation. But mostly we just chatted about whatever we were thinking about that week: a collective exploration of the flat, porous nature of millennial conversation.
Chat Club Episode 21 recreated the 21st group chat as a live performance, devised with the group meeting in real life and each chat participant performing their own part.
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Excerpt from the first Chat Club chat, 2016
Emily
What can everyone see in their FB feed right now, the top post?
Marlee
guardian - Is this a smashed table I see before me? Must have been "quite a party", says Penny Wong http://gu.com/p/4ddc5/au
Officials are being grilled about a marble table that was smashed in the prime ministerial suite during Tony Abbott’s farewell party.
Poll bounce for Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition – politics live
Emily
Mine is a picture of a snake swimming in a pond of lillies...
Peter
also western culture is very centred around individual success and expression whereas the same isn't so true for places like china where you are part of a bigger culture which you are pulling your weight in. I mean this is all changing and not totally correct but generally i think maybe mediocrity wouldn't necessarily be the thing but just more collaborative success, and would be a cultural thing
Anna
my top post is a lasagne recipe from the new york times
Emily
maybe we already are mediocre ?
Ash
I've got Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator so I can't tell you what my top post is....
Anna
what is that!
i'll google it
Ash
Laura
Why do u wanna eradicate your newsfeed?
Ash
That's it. Sometimes I log in and my newsfeed is filled by a quote: "This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time"
Peter
i love my newsfeed!
it's like reading a personalised newspaper!
Ash
I can access it in other ways, or through other Google accounts, but I'd prefer not to have it available on my work-related account cause i compulsively hit 'ctrl+t f' and all of a sudden IM TRAPPED
Emily
That should be a tshirt Peter
but then how will you know about your friends complaining about public transport
or about your friends muscles
or about hipster grandmas with spray cans
or about the 2015 spring cactus and succulent show
Ash
Good news always finds me, sooner or later.
IS THIS YOUR ENTIRE NEWSFEED YOURE TELLING ME?
oops
haha what
Peter
wow ash, calm down
Laura
Yeah
You'd be so disconnected from very important things
Peter
hehehe
hey this just went down my newsfeed
photographing boredom and teenage angst in 80s america | read | i-D
Laura
Or cute videos of small animals doing adorable things
seems people have been bored and anxious longer than us
Marlee
of course I can be mediocre! Who can't. The only thing is that it would be kind of unfair to people who have shared their stories for it. ANother thing is whether we actually actually choose whether or not to be mediocre, sometimes what you produce just is!
sorry for the late reply! SOmeone came to chat to me and i couldnt get rid of them
Peter
ok so my top news feed item is https://www.facebook.com/the.Benjamin7/posts/10153661676088516 so maybe it's not all good
Anna
lol what did you chat about outsidde chat club?
omg pete
lololololol
it shouldnt be funny but it is
