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I. WANTING

B/w surveillance video; b/w film; b/w HD video--shot in such a way as to mimic an old b/w western. Music that references western genre. Setting: an EMPTY, ALMOST CLINICAL ROOM (OSTENSIBLY A DRESSING ROOM AT GYM, BUT THERE ARE NO DISTINGUISHING SIGNS), I. "A" moves into the frame and stands there. Studious attention to details of movement, posture, quality of gaze fin b/w HD video, highly extreme close-ups of body, almost clinical).The reference: solitary cowboy figure, in the mode of: I) mastering the territory: exploring an uncharted frontier--the frontier spirit SIOWl 112 that is projected onto the landscape as a place to be conquered, controlled through visual/physical mastery; 2) affirming the self: self-discovery and self-affirmation as a self-contained, self-sufficient, free subject (basis of ethics); 3) inventing the terms: the figure of the renegade, working outside the bounds of law and society, making his own rules.The combination of b/w formats draws upon the codes of film as a basis of departure, while bringing this "frontiersman"sensibility into the realm of contemporary surveillance culture, both in a panoptic sense and in an intimate,"invasive"sense. 2. "A" begins to remove his clothes--slowly, with studious attention to details of clothing and qualities of movement, with, marked shifts in distance and scale. Instead of fortifying the self (the norm), he is willingly dismantling his self. At the same time, the western reference--protective masculinity--is being queered. 3. He puts on a towel. The western music is gradually deconstructed. Setting: sauna. 4. Enters into sauna. 5. Sees object of desire ("B"). 6. Moves toward "B" [pure pleasure principle].

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II. THE CONFLICT: EMERGENCE OF THE STAGE

The b/w formats gradually) give way to color HD video FANTASCENES: The staging that occurs in (Laconical) psychoanalytic theory: acting always for the unseen Other--what does the Other want of me? 1. "B" turns away: desire blocked, both by way of self-imposition [object a] and prohibition [profane]. [Emergence of the stage.] 2. "A" stops: desire blocked, both by way of self-imposition [object a] and prohibition [profane]. [Emergence of the stage.] 3. Internalization/repression; anguish (for both.). Some portion "His claims to mastery and self-containment are increasingly countered, invaded, by a technology/body that wants to measure him, make him accountable, claim him--dematerialize and redistribute him. Extreme CUs in HD continue, referencing biometric invasions. Again, given the "frontiersman" reference, one would expect him to fight against this invasion and attempt to shore up his self (build a protective shelf). But that tendency is held in suspension: he engages in activity that would seem to be on the surface a surrendering of self. 4. "A" begins to open his towel--slowly, with studious attention to details of clothing and qualities of movement, with marked shifts in distance and scale. The tension builds. 5. Intimate details of bodies at crossroads. Creaking of boards; heartbeats; breathing. He is not surrendering to the controlling gaze, but rather transforming this "invasiveness" into a technology of self. ATTRACTIONS: direct solicitation of the viewer occurs (an exhibinonistic mode of address, in contrast to diegetic absorption)--a tension develops between spectacle and narration, voyeurism and exhibitionism, availability and withdrawal. 6. He bathes in the gazes of those wdio (purportedly) see him (posing, offering himself), through the channels of the various observing/exhibiting technologies--a distributed presence that is no one yet everyone.This destabilizes his position.

III. THE DANCE

1. Play of forward/advance, reveal/conceal (eyes, hands, towel): the play of eroticism first level Extreme details in HD, gaining. INTENSITIES slowly emerge--multiple channels of bodily apprehension, multiple registers of sensation. Affective arousals and conductions--the accumulation, discharge, and transformation of energies. Continue creaking of boards, which evolves into a rhythmic undercurrent of hybrid beats that derive from a childhood scene as a flashback occurs, which mixes with the play in the sauna. Setting: yard. 2. "A" is chopping wood. His pants are sliding down; his friend (as stand-in for "A") watches him from behind. "A" occasionally glances back hut is unable to decipher the terms of his address. Parental observer in window. Beats provided by: wind lashing tree against building; chopping wood; imagined spanking (inherent violence, punishment); rhythms...

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