Interview by Joana and Thomas - transcribed

What are you busy with?

I think my focus of attention is at this moment my Nr. 39-project. Because I’m working on it for prototyping. Or lets say develop it more. So yeah thats what I’m doing at the moment.

So you do Nr. 39 as your personal research but also in Prototyping? Yeah for sure it is self-directed research, a personal project or how you call it. But now I have the chance to do it for prototyping, or I see space for that it and I would like to do it, because otherwise I would waste time or…

So what space do you see there? Well you know the gave.. The topic was platform and scaling and yeah I don’t I just had the impression that we more free and allowed to do what we wanted to do.

What do you want to do? Ehm well to connect that to platform and scaling. Basically I want to bring the project to a larger, bigger stage. One of the things I want to add is to videotape myself when I’m eating Nr. 39. And thats a reference to Mukbang, which is a Korean phenomenon where Korean or actually BJ’s (Broadcasting Jockeys) are consuming food in front of the webcam and talking to the audience etcetera, about the food or answering questions. Its like a livestream where people can log in and see the BJ’s eating the food. And when they like it, than they can send balloons with is a rewarding system and every balloon is worth 10 US cents. So the more balloons you get, the more money you earn. It is really a market economy.

Ah so it does follow the same platform as what you where doing before? It is also about money exchange..? And commodities? Yes, it is a commodity market in that sense. You are now making a reference to the TE KOOP project (marktplaats). But it, in this the commodity in itself is maybe not so important, I don’t know yet.

So there is a difference? Difference between?

Between TE KOOP and Nr 39? Ehm the difference….

In abstract sense its not really… I mean regarding ideas and.. Because it is a behaviour now that you are recording and the other one is more about the objects and then obviously that you were also performance in there… Yeah you were actually in both of them.(J) Ehm.. well in the videos I want to shoot, because I want to film myself eating the food, is that you see me eating. And in TE KOOP you, I was also physically there but then more in a hidden way. But it is not about, in this project it is not about hiding, at is more about.. You can see a sort of fetish to see somebody eat is… Mukbang can be translated as Food Porn, or Food-selfie. It is very from the perspective of the maker, maybe its maybe a very mechalomanic (megalomaan? Soort eergevoel) way of showing yourself, maybe its not a good description but to show yourself eating is quite posh maybe (this is food-selfie). While maybe form the perspective of foodporn or food fetish maybe there a lot of people who really enjoy to watch this or get turned on by seeing people eating. Mukbang is mostly considered as something.. they say people do that, and people watch because they don’t want to feel lonely or eating alone. You know in Korea, or in Asia households, mostly is one person households. So you eat alone and now by watching does videos you are not alone.

So this process of videotaping yourself, how did, are you looking at that interface? Are you interviewing people or you just no server and will in this way imitate? Well I don’t want to be a Mukbang BJ, its not about that. It is something I found and I thought I can implement this in my own project.

So you work online and only use this technique? Aw so you mean, if I want to put myself on a broadcasting platform?I would like to try that, yes..

And see the feedback you will have? Well, for mukbang that is live streaming, I more looking to Youtube as a platform to post. So it is not live lets say. But it would probably be different, I mean. The videos I probably want to take.. You when you see a Mukbang video its is really like a table, a dinning table with a computer in front of you. You can’t see the computer but thats recording you are, or the video is filmed from that angle of view. And then you see a desk with a lot of food and stuff and in the background you see all well decorated houses. Stuffed animals or toys etcetera. In my case I have to think about how do I want to film myself…

Setting? Yeah exactly the setting, the viewpoint of the camera. Am I going to use the same viewpoint of the camera or more distant or more closer? I’m not looking for to copy Mukbang. I’m moe into like, ow lets see how it would look if I videotape myself consuming the Nr. 39 because thats leading. So what I have in mind now is, I need a bit larger viewpoint, so more into the distance where I.. Somebody is putting the food on my table, I unpack it, make a composition, make a photo and then eat it. So you know Nr. 39 is all about taking a picture of the food.

ah So in this way you are mixing your photography work of Nr. 39 with a more performative work showing the process and playing with this other platform? so it is a recording and for you it really doesn’t matter if you are doing it livestream? And at same point you make an event out of these, like the day that you decided that you are going to eat Nr. 39 live? Will it ever matter? (J) If I do it live or here?

Yes because want oen thing you want to show the process and record and another things is to show the process live..? (J) Yes, like I said maybe I’m not really into live broadcasting, I’m more maybe.. Lets say if I have one video it is maybe not so interesting, but if I have 10 videos of this recording (performance) that could be interesting. So it could be an actual art work lets say.

And what about the feedback. Do you want feedback from these people that follow these interfaces? You mean for example on youtbue.. Well I’m a bit afraid of that, I’m not a live performer. I think I’m very anxious when I’m in front of a camera. And be aware that I’m tapped. Especially when it is moving. So I don’t know.. For me it is really a challenge to tape myself and interact with the camera and then getting comments on that.. yeah that is a bit what I’m afraid for.

Could you not merge the performance into an actually space? Gallery thomas meant to eat live in a space on human size height and people then can join me eating as if they eat with me (T).

Cause you were switching from disguising to the one of being now in charge of everything. So before people didn’t know it was a work of art and you were hidden. Now you put yourself in front of the camera and showing your work process. Have you thought about this switch? It is a bit difficult, I don’t know how to answer.. I want to say it is not about me the NR. 39 project. It is about a phenomenon, a comment that happened.