With the digital space on mind constantly, I came to question myself about what's intimacy now that everything is visible in the digital space. 

2 formal traits characterize that thought : the first being that we live in a society that has pushed experience as a product in every aspect and scales. What was prophetized in the 2000's regarding relationship somehow became true (cf. Noriko's dinner table by Sion SONO) whether about the sex industry or the service industry. We can also note old works from Chinese artists Xiumen CUI, in Ladies, Room (2000) or another project in which she gives erotic phone calls. 

The other trait is about the sophistication of digital technologies. Such as the use of video calls as we have experienced during the COVID era.  That sophistication of technologies (and media) lead to consider the digital space (with the time spent and the opportunities of unique experiences) as a moment as real as real life. Now that we are fully connected, the focus for big tech companies has been centered on immersion and confort. 

With that in mind, I want to explore where absorption ends and theatricality begins within the digital space as regard to intimacy (cf. Michael Fried).

What drove me to this is the fact that intimacy has also become an experience within the digital space. Through the notions mentioned above, I believe we can address both the male gaze and the image—understood from a Heideggerian perspective—as instruments of control (cf. Stanley Cavell) in an artistic framework focus on intimacy.

Whether it is about a shared experience, as in Cammie Toloui’s book 5 Dollars for 3 Minutes (2021), or a direct approach, as in Thomas Struth’s blurred Nudes, the eye projects and creates the intimate space, thereby engaging with theatricality.

To address these questions, I decided to explore performance as well, involving not only the body but also myself.

TUTORIAL by Diego Lorenzini