Photos: Bee Ottinger

1

A and B (close behind)

walking up long hill (or flights of stairs)

A, holding large mirror before face

keeping eyes on B's reflection. throughout

B. copying A's movements

at top, A telling story of ascent

tape recording it

B. listening





B and A (close behind)

walking backward down hill (or flights of stairs)

B. holding mirror before face

keeping eyes on A's reflection, throughout

A. copying B's movements

at bottom, A telling story of descent

tape recording it

B. listening





A. alone, retelling story

of ascent and descent

recording this on tape





2

A and B (close behind)

walking backward up long hill (or flights of stairs)

A. holding mirror before face

keeping eyes on B's reflection. throughout

B. copying A's movements

at top, B telllng story of ascent

tape recording it

A. listening





B and A (close behind)

walking back to back down hill (or flights of stairs)

neither looking into mirrors

copying what's sensed

of each other's movements

 

at bottom. each going own way





3

A and B (close behind)

walking back to back up long hill (or flights of stairs

both holding mirrors before faces

keeping eyes on each other·s reflections. throughout

copying each other's movements

at top. A telling story of ascent

then B telling story of ascent

tape recording them





B and A (close behind)

walking forward down hill (or flights of stairs)

B, holding mirror before face

keeping eyes on A's reflection, throughout

A. copying B's movements

at bottom, B telling story of descent

tape recording it

A, listening





B. alone. retelling story

of ascent end descent

recording this on tape





 

When alone, telling stories

of ascent and descent

recording them on tape

USEFUL FICTIONS
- for Eleanor and David Antin
Useful Fictions is about ups and downs, literally and figuratively. A couple climbs and descends hills or flights of stairs, three times. But while they do so, they are occupied with looking backward in a mirror, walking backward while looking forward in a mirror, walking back to back looking at each other in mirrors. Though they can feel that they are going up sometime and down sometime, it isn't easy to see it. Above all, they seem to be engaged in copying each other, rather than with where they have come from or are going to. Reflecting what they see, they are apparently a closed system, getting nowhere energetically·.
To each other they tell stories about their up and down, and they fix these stories on tape. Later, the stories are modified, more or less, by retelling them alone. The first eight stories, shared, edited or reflected upon, influence the subsequent climbs and descents in uncertain ways. As externalizations of fantasy and recall, they color the events to come more concretely than memory by itself. They are hindsights like "funny" mirrors that distort enough to cause a reaction to one's ordinary idea of things. So the stories are a way of looking ahead.
After the last descent, without mirrors, the partners tell their stories to themselves and a tape recorder. Where the recorder was used earlier to store and revise "fictions'' of experience, now it is able to become a personal diary free from the constraints of another person's presence. These private recordings, along with the previous ones, are in turn subject to revision, can be shared as secrets if wished, or may be completely erased. In terms of feelings and small but significant changes in behavior, the ups and downs can lead anywhere. That is why fictions are sometimes useful.
The Activity was carried out by a small number of couples in and around Florence, Italy, in December, 1975. It was sponsored by Galleria Schema.