“Hi guys, I’m Jeremy Bailey: famous new media artist.” That’s how Bailey opens this short lecture to a group of University of Cincinnati undergrads via webcam. First posted on ilikethisart.net, by Jordan Tate, who I can only guess is the professor of this class, this talk is a reflexive performance in itself, as Jeremy Bailey gives a brief overview of the evolution of performance art in its relationship to recording technologies up to the present day through one of his iconic dayglo reality-augmentation software programs. Bailey’s work has always stuck me as a little naive, or straight up goofy in its aesthetic, but he argues that this is intentional. Unlike a lot of internet-based work that employs 3d rendered images and net-culture artifact as medium, Bailey’s works avoid the shroud of mystery and exoticism that gives power to so many other artists playing with pseudo-techno-spiritualism or eclectic web subcultures. It’s also important to note that he writes all of his own software himself. Despite the inclusive nature of his pieces, he is nevertheless keen to point out that his performed identity as artist is exactly that: a performance. However, his insistence on explaining why he chooses to construct this artist-persona punctures the ambiguity that makes this kind of performance fun in the first place.
He makes a good point though, that with social networking and webcams, which are now integrated into most laptop computers, we are always seeing ourselves as our own image is presented to the public, and so conscious performance becomes inevitable in this narcissistic feedback loop. Hilariously, this video ends with a question and answer session, which Bailey can hardly hear because of the audio feedback on his computer.
