Happened to sit at Fanz and Sophie tea shop opposite the tea pouring poster in the image bellow.
A few thoughts?
* the person in the image – are they performing?
Obviously they pour tea and most probably for others as well, as there are empty glasses “waiting”.
There’s also a camera that we may suppose, the tea person is also aware of. However, are they:
Performing – doing the activity for an Effect of the action? eg, acting how they think the camera person might fancy tea making and drinking in the desert might look like?
Pretending – doing the action because they hope – that through the action – for some outcome not inherently in the activirt?
(aka prostetution, be it not a sexual one.)
Perhaps they simply make tea?
i.e. despite being well aware of all sorts of happenings around them, they are simply interested in tea making as a practice, as TeaMakingNess.
The sit backs, do they perform? Just rest in wait for someone to sit and alter them?
Perhaps though, they perform a space availability for the Tea house owners? Or such an act isn’t preformative but constitutive of the TeaHouseNess?
How about the stuff on the table?
I placed it there.
How would it be had I re-arranged it before – or for – the photo?
Has it just happened to be there?
…and indeed the photo frame – did i think there is some interest un the composition? Maybe it’s just there for illustrating ideas sake? Perhaps it’s just a photo, taken by the camera itself, the camera just enjoys taking photos, they feed on it.
CameraFoodPhotoNess?
Now lets, suppose, for a second or more, that in all the cases above, Preformative activities were indeed the “correct” sensation.
The tea pouring? For performing tea pouring.
The sit backs? For performing availability.
The other stuff on the table? For performing placing stuff on tables – and so on.
Notice what is happening here? 😉
In case it isn’t as noticeable as i think –
Once everything becomes a performance – performativity has to be for it’s own sake.
Once tea making is a performance, we begin a process of performing performances of tea making – and the tea making becomes a prop in the preformative act. Like a lipstick in a performance of being “female”, or a “geek” t-shirt in a performance of being a “Techie”. The experience is that of acts that attempt to produce certain affects.
Hence we get a self contradicting set, which seems, like a circular conversation and a dog chasing their tale – to fold inevitably, unless being held up by force.