Night scrolling performance

video by Abraham Perez

The performance showed scrolling social media or world news in bed before falling asleep. The piece took place in November 2023.

I was looking at a mirror with LED light for an hour and a half, full REM cycle. I was wearing beige body-color overalls to kind of resemble a nude human already lying in their bed. I was holding a mirror in my hands instead of a smartphone, looking at myself and not at the usual engaging, dopamine-boosting content the whole time.

The basic performance instructions for this piece were:

  • the duration of the performance needed to be aligned with REM sleep cycles;

  • the artist had to remain focused on the mirror the full duration of the performance, getting distracted from scrolling was not allowed;

  • therefore, the performer was not allowed to interact with the audience;

  • the artist was allowed to switch and adjust poses during scrolling;

  • the artist had to perform on something relatively soft, reminiscent of a bed but it shouldn’t be a bed;

  • the artist had to wear a body-color outfit but they shouldn’t perform undressed.

You can see some still pictures of the performance here:

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Sleeping performance