"Performance Art at the Whitney Museum"
Last week our class went on a filed trip to the renowned Whitney Museum. Specifically, we went to browse the "Rituals of Rented Island" exhibit which was a collection of ephemeral artworks. Ephemera is the term used to describe various forms of documentation which record the respective performance arts. Ephemera is vital to the concept of performance art as a whole as it emphasizes the fact that a performance is a designated event which occurs in a very isolated moment in time. To better put this in perspective, try to imagine how much time has ever passed since the very first second ever. Now, imagine how puny the moment in time during a performance is within this context. Ephemera are indeed the remnants of the isolated occurrence but are not the only ones as the artist and audience both shared that moment in time. Of course that is if there is an audience and if so, the connection is intimate in nature as the sheer fact that the performance will never be duplicated adds mysticism to the atmosphere. At the Whitney, I encountered remnants of a Vito Acconci work entitled "Claim/Excerpt". The ephemera in this instance was a video recording of Acconci seated in a chair while in a dark room which was a basement. Acconci swung a metal pipe or bar around aimlessly as he spoke maniacally to himself. There was an interesting addition to the performance as there were videos being relayed to the street level above the basement and there were speakers which made the erratic rants audible to anyone who would wander by. There was also an option to go down the stairs and attempt to view the crazed man but that most likely did not happen (as was most probably intended). Another exhibit I remembered was the Michael Smith exhibit. I was able to view video recordings of the "Secret Horror" performance. This performance was unlike the others as it seemed to induce humor and was even goofy. The portion of the performance I was able to see included Michael Smith in a bedroom being harassed by ghosts (which I believe were people in white sheets with eyeholes). The subject matter seemed to parody horror in general as Michael Smith seemed to get more and more anxious at the random activities of the ghosts, which included branding each others back with a hot iron. The ghosts also appear randomly by (uncharacteristically) entering the frame by simply coming through a door or under a piece of furniture. The tension builds until they all (including Smith) breakout into a show tune, singing "Owimoweh" over and over (The Tokens- "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"). Overall I enjoyed the learning experience and found a new respect for performance based arts as the temporal aspect was emphasized through all the ephemera. 
http://www.mikes-world.org/videos/secrethorrorvideo.html