"24-hour woman" + X Hour Woman Concept 

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"24-hour woman" - a case for everything in between.

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The "X-hour woman" concept was developed based on  my 24-hour online performance, "24-hour woman" (2017) 

"24-hour Woman" was a 24-hour global live streaming event and concept performance which was initially created as a protest reaction to labour laws (Dagpengesystemet) and Staten's Kunstfond's  (Danish Council of the Arts) lack of understanding of the structural failings of the neoliberal political influence on the arts, and the difficulties that artists - and women in particular - meet when faced with periodical unemployment and a labour market in the creative sector that doesn't mirror the "normal" labour market - a market that forms the norm from which the labour laws are currently modelled from. (in reference to former minister of culture Mette Bock's statements 2017-18). 

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The work featured the female creative subject (artist) in a 24 -hour creative process as a "performance" and as precarious labour.
It presented itself as an exploration of the nature of process versus the structural leanings of late modern neo-liberal "performance society" - And a general case against the rationalization of body and mind as pertaining to one singular, closed temporal discourse. But over time, the purpose and meaning has expanded itself to deal with bio-politics, artistic stamina-ism and elitism, and the value of artistic process versus the value of artistic product.
 

Staging X-hour: 
Dramaturgically speaking, this "work-in-progress" -performance could be seen as creative research in to creative process- in-action, while exploring the interplay between sound-action and the actor as a sensuous and emotional consolidation and continuum, within a given space and context. #autopoeisis

The live-streaming aspect both diminishes, disperses and democratises the significance of the artistic action and its implicit message, simultaneously; 
With a lack meaningful forums to turn to, social media also comes in to play as a new performance platform that potentially dilutes potentially meaningful transmission of information. At the same time the cyberworld offers a platform for artistic expression and showcase, and serves as a vanguard channel for new ideas and movements that otherwise will be suppressed by structural inequality, upheld by institutionalisation of artistic recognition and financial support. #democratizationofart

Finally streaming, as a media platform,  has a 'voyeuristic' nature that assumes connotations to the monetization of the human body that is seen in the porn industry (i.e. Cam Girls). The unhindered access to a human being over such a long period of time, that might activate our mind - and imagination - especially when we don't know what this human is going to do -  apart from making sound.

With the knowledge that a sound action* is to take place, the immediate question seem to be how the performer then avoids sleep and bathroom breaks. This line of though could prove as testament that productivity does not create compassion for the producing subject - it only create more demands.  

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From this event and the here-in shared thoughts, the x-hour concept has grown and I have later done the concept in a shorter version "3-hour woman", where the focus has been more on exploring the psychoacoustic aspects of the event, while maintaining the same artistic method and purpose. My thoughts on this is also elaborated in my LandEscape artists feature. 

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The artist's notes:

Through this experience I gained a lot of understanding in to what my own performative limitations were and to which extend I am willing to expose my process and evidently: myself in the state of a biological being acting as an artist (in praxis). By, essentially, performing to myself and whoever was watching, I remember also experiencing an imagined relation between myself and the unknown viewer. But, not as a separate individual, but rather an extension of myself. Not seeing or knowing the recipient, I was not so much concerned with the sender-receiver part of the experience (and how the whole thing was to listen and watch for them) as I was with taking care of my own sonic environment.  Through the extreme exposure and publication of my artistic abilities AND limitations, I gained a lot of self acceptance and experienced another form of self-care and compassion that was specifcally related to my senses and my body. No doubt that although I wished to challenge the growing tendency to relate artistic validity with things like stamina, productivity and visibility, I recognize that the very making of 24-hour woman was related to my years of training of how to be in flow and how to improvise.

What I hope to learn and to further discuss with my peers, is how to understand the importance of flow and process, and how we practise being "inside" artistic chaos (abstract proces continuum) in a comfortable and controlled way, can help us deal with the chaotic parts of human life. To me, this is one of the opportunity that especially sound and music presents, because you don't run our of canvas, all you can do is run out of time and energy.

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* my own definition of what an action which has the only intended purpose: to create sound in a performative context. 

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