Eye Contact

Interior Monologue(/Dialogue) - Eye Contact.

Two people: Francois Brice & Sven Goyvaerts.
Camera: Hendrik De Smedt.

OBSERVATION: In our everyday life we rarely look into each other's eyes for a long period of time. Why don't we? Is it because it makes us uncomfortable? If so, how come? Could this eye contact not be the basis for some form of true communication? Or is it rather deceptive instead? Maybe it's a bit of both.

EXPERIMENT: I ask someone I run into to look me in the eyes until one of us stops. A third person who happens to be around is asked to operate the camera, capturing the event. As soon as the eye contact is broken, we give our impressions of what just happened.

INVITATION: YOU can also perform this experiment! Find two other people around you - people you know or don't know, someone you like or someone you don't ... ANYONE really - and then decide on who will have eye contact and who will handle the camera. You can also fix the camera, onto a tripod for instance, and then you would only need one other person, and a camera device. I suggest you already start recording during the preparation phase of the scene and to keep the camera rolling during the conversation afterwards. You can also make a transcript of what's been said. And don't forget: UPLOAD it!

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VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT of conversation at the beginning:

Hendrik: 'Of euh ... of hier?' (Dutch for: Or uhm ... or here?)

Sven: Yah? Okay, uhm, so ... we start? We start ... now.

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VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT of conversation at the end:

Sven: Yah ... Okay, thank you.

Francois: It's difficult, difficult ... both eyes ...

Sven: Yeah! You have to choose ...

Francois: Switch, like, and you want to look to the other, and ... (laughs)

Sven: Yeah.

Hendrik: Yeah.

Francois: Hmm.

Sven: Maybe it's also the distance, eh, if you ... if you go further, than ...

Francois: Yeah.

Sven: No, you always have to choose, I think.

Francois: Hmm.

Hendrik: Hmm.

Sven: 'Dank u.' (Dutch for: Thank you.)

Hendrik: 'Nog eens of euh ...' (Once again or uhm ...)

Sven: 'Nee.' (No.)

Hendrik: 'Maar er is veel euh ... randlawaai, eh.' (But there is a lot of uhm ... surrounding noise, eh.)

Sven: 'Ah, maar dat is niet erg. Dat is niet erg. Allez, ik weet zelfs niet of ik dat ga gebruiken.' (Ah, but that's no problem. That's no problem. Well, I don't even know if I am going to use that.)

Francois: Also, was nice to hear some conversation, because ...

Hendrik: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Francois: You could, you could uhm ... imagine that ...

Hendrik: Yeah. That it's from them.

Francois: ... that it's from us, thinking.

Sven: You also have, like, eyes of a kind of bird.

Francois: Uhu.

Sven: But, like, a real ...

Hendrik: (laughs)

Sven: ... a HUNTING bird. I was ...

Hendrik: A hawk!

Sven: A hawk, or something.

Francois: (laughs)

Sven: Or an eagle. (laughs)

Hendrik: Okay.

Sven: Yah. Yah, thank you.

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About the ENDING: I think I broke off the eye contact because I didn't want to keep Francois for too long. I had a feeling that he was on his way out before we began the exercise. As soon as he crossed his arms I figured it was a nice moment to stop.

After we stopped recording Francois told me that my glasses acted like a kind of screen. This caused a kind of imbalance, I think, which was not intentional on my part. On the video it is hard to see my eyes. So here is some extra advice: if you wear glasses, take them off.

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This experiment took place during the first installment of the week-long seminar The Document As Performance - The Performance As A Document, February 2nd-6th, 2009. An initiative of the drama & documentary departments of the Rits and of De Samenscholing, the research platform of Campo. In collaboration with Kask (3D) and the VUB. Under the general direction of Prof. G. Opsomer. 'Interior Monologue' workshop led by Sarah Vanagt.

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S

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• documentary
• performance
• eye
• contact

[endtroducing]

interesting video. thanks for uploading.