"To the Beat of My Own Heart"

Hello all! I am writing this blog from NYC, back in the Big Apple for one week time clock ticking starting.... NOW! All of you who are here I want to see you, but from all of you I'm going to need a little help for this piece I am doing. This is my inherited Corpse from Carly from who she recieved her Corpse from Eva.

After looking at her images and reading her post I found that that which was sticking most in my mind were the ideas of youth, this contemporary generation and how we not only relate to ourselves but how we view ourselves. I scoured my brain for a unifying quality of all of these traits what immediatly surfaced was the word "narcissism". It was not until I came to the city late the previous evening that I understood how I could make a piece with these thoughts floating through my brain. Thus I am conducting a performance piece, whose documentation is inspired by Vito Acconci's step piece.

I decided to choose a public place and experience it through completely the direction of my own body , my own perspective - I walk only to the beat of my own heart. With one hand on my pulse on my neck I find I look down and notice hardly anything about my surroundings, not the throngs of people, not the looming buildings not the incessent traffic and noise. All I can concentrate on is keeping my steps synced with my heartbeat.

Here are the first places I have gone and how long it took me to walk them:

Place-
14th Street Union Square to Washington Square Park
Time- 9 mins 23secs

Place- The Perimeter of Washington Square Park
TIme- 11 minutes 48 Seconds

The Lenght of One Block (short)
3 mins 31 seconds

The Lenght of One Avenue
6 minutes 27 seecs

Walk up all the stairs of the NYU Library
55 seconds

Walk down all the stairs of the NYU Library
2 minutes 2 secs

I found the stairs quite interesting an experiment as the faster my heart rate increased the faster i had to walk which cylcically caused my heart rate to raise and so on and so forth.

So. I have talked to Chris but I would like everyone to give me a place to walk about to the beat of my own heart. In addition, I would like to assign a task to everyone. I would like everyone to choose one place they can/or do walk around everday, even if it is just down the steps of your apartment building to the street. I would like everyone to do this every day to the beat of their own heart and record the time everyday. Until We New Yorkers go to Sydney. It dosen't have to be hugely ambitious, like I said. Don't choose Central Park or the Brooklyn Bridge. But I would like to see all these places recorded and experienced everyday through the heart beat and maybe the time will change depending on the state of mind and body - happier, sadder, angry, distraught. How will this affect how we epxperience ourselves? In the end we will have long lists to display side by side each - maybe type written, again please look up Vito Acconic's Step Piece for how I am envisioning documentation. Here is a link for reference http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/step-piece/

Could everyone post for me a - where they would like me to walk and b- where/what they intend to experience with their heartbeat everyday.

I can compile a list of all the information every month if that would be helpful and interesting for people to see how and what everyone has chosen.

Ok all the best everyone! I can't wait to hear from you all


Again, only here in nyc