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Witnessing Violence, (Re)Living Trauma: Online Performance Interventions in The Witnessing Violence, (Re)Living Trauma: Online Performance Interventions in the Digital Age A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Jenna A. Altomonte April 2017 © 2017 Jenna A. Altomonte. All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled Witnessing Violence, (Re)Living Trauma: Online Performance Interventions in the Digital Age by JENNA A. ALTOMONTE has been approved for the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and the College of Fine Arts by Charles S. Buchanan Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts Elizabeth Sayrs Interim Dean, College of Fine Arts 3 ABSTRACT ALTOMONTE, JENNA A., Ph.D., April 2017, Interdisciplinary Arts Witnessing Violence, (Re)Living Trauma: Online Performance Interventions in the Digital Age Director of Dissertation: Charles S. Buchanan Since the Persian Gulf War (1990), the rise of the televised/telepresent event transformed the process in which individuals both witnessed and experienced violence. Defined as a belated reaction to telepresent violence, virtual trauma, or a form of digitized, psychological trauma witnessed through the screen, complicates the act of witnessing and/or experiencing violent events. Considering the development of virtual trauma since the Persian Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq in 2003, this dissertation critically investigates digital-based performances influenced by the violence perpetuated during periods of warfare. Using the following artworks by Iraqi-born artists, Wafaa Bilal and Adel Abidin, and American artist, Joseph Delappe, I explore the various approaches used by each artist in order unpack the power of telepresent violence and the traumatic after-effects produced via the screenic platform: Bilal’s Domestic Tension (2007), Virtual Jihadi (2008), and 3rdi (2010); Abidin’s Cold interrogation (2004), Jihad (2006), and Abidin Travels: Welcome to Baghdad (2006-2007); and Delappe’s dead-in-iraq (2006-2011), Twitter Torture/MGandhi in Jail (2009-2010), and Killbox (2015-present). Each digital-based artwork confronts the various dimensions of telepresent violence and the lasting effects of virtualized, traumatic witnessing. 4 DEDICATION To Ryan 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A special thank you to my parents and Mimi for their love and motivation. I would like to thank my dissertation committee for their support and guidance over the past several years. I am especially grateful for the encouragement offered from my advisor and committee chair, Dr. Charles Buchanan, and my long-time mentor, Dr. Jennie Klein. Thank you to Dr. Marina Peterson and Dr. Erin Schlumpf for their expertise and direction. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 Dedication ........................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 5 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................... 14 Critical Studies: Digital Performance Interventions .................................................. 17 Critical Studies: Reframing Trauma in the Digital Age ............................................. 22 Methodological Approaches: Witnessing and Experiencing Trauma ........................ 29 Methodological Approaches: Active Participation and Participatory Performance .. 37 Chapter Outlines ......................................................................................................... 39 Chapter 2: Confronting Personal Trauma: Wafaa Bilal and the Politics of Digial Performance ...................................................................................................................... 45 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 45 Understanding Trauma in the Post-9/11 Frame .......................................................... 49 Biography of Wafaa Bilal ........................................................................................... 56 Domestic Tension (2007), Virtual Jihadi (2008), and 3rdi (2010-2011) .................... 64 Confronting Solitude Online: Domestic Tension ........................................................ 65 Triggering Traumatic Memory ................................................................................... 72 Manufacturing Violence in Virtual Jihadi .................................................................. 79 Playing Virtual Jihadi ................................................................................................. 85 The Traumatized Body: Bilal’s 3rdi ........................................................................... 95 Four Dimensions of 3rdi ............................................................................................. 98 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 107 Chapter 3: Trauma, Memory, and Laughter: Adel Abidin and the Performance of Satire ......................................................................................................................................... 109 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 109 Proselytizing Terrorism/Patriotism: Videotaping Violence ...................................... 112 Mining Humor from Violence .................................................................................. 119 Biography of Adel Abidin ........................................................................................ 121 Finding Humor in Cold Interrogation ...................................................................... 122 7 Abidin’s Jihad ........................................................................................................... 130 Humor via Terrorism ................................................................................................ 135 Tourism during War: Abidin Travels: Welcome to Baghdad ................................... 140 Gallows Humor in Abidin Travels ............................................................................ 148 Audience and Identity in Abidin Travels .................................................................. 150 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 156 Chapter 4: Protesting Online Space: Witnessing Joseph Delappe’s War Against America’s Army .............................................................................................................. 158 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 158 Biography of Joseph Delappe ................................................................................... 162 (In) Direct Witnessing: Experiencing War through the Screen ................................ 165 Occupying Online Space: dead-in-iraq .................................................................... 171 Memorializing the Real in Virtual Space.................................................................. 180 Occupying Second Life: Twitter Torture/MGandhi in Jail....................................... 182 Creating Presence in Second Life .............................................................................. 183 Collaboration Online: Killbox ................................................................................... 197 Playing Killbox.......................................................................................................... 205 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 215 Chapter 5: Conclusion..................................................................................................... 217 New Methods of Subverting Terrorism and Violence .............................................. 220 References ....................................................................................................................... 228 Appendix A: Excerpt from the DSM-V Diagnostic Criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder .......................................................................................................................... 247 Appendix B: Lyrics to "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie ........................... 251 8 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Screen shot from the Persian Gulf War broadcast from CNN, January 17-18, 1991................................................................................................................................... 15 Figure 2: Jean-Martin Charcot, Freud’s mentor and successor, demonstrates a method of treatment on a female patient suffering from hysteria with a female patient, Salpêtrière Clinic, 1887 ....................................................................................................................... 31 Figure 3: Photograph of a soldier suffering from shell shock, the early term used prior to PTSD. Battle of Courcelette (France),
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