.
"I start to think about all the stated reasons for this war and other wars like it. For humanitarian reasons (every time an expensive humanitarian bomb landed on civilians, it was enough to turn even the most optimistic Pollyanna into a hardened cynic). To fight communists. To fight terrorists. To stop the spread of communism or terrorism or extremism or something else. To help people. To improve the lot of women. Because we’re right and they’re wrong. Because: Why do they hate us and why do they hate our way of life? Because war has always existed and will always exist. To increase the quantity of democracy in the world. Because we have a responsibility to the world and to freedom. For freedom. For strategic reasons. To stop a domino from setting off all the other dominoes.
And then I move on to what I think the reasons are for this war and so many others. Because our leaders need therapy. Because a bully needs a victim. Because so-called powerful men are deeply insecure. So politicians in favour of war can get elected or re-elected by voters in favour of war. To make money. To placate the arms industry and their high-priced lobbyists. To justify never-ending increases in the military budget. To distract from rampant domestic problems. To bring certain natural resources and labour into the jurisdiction of the global marketplace. To ensure these resources most benefit the capitalists doing the bombing and least benefit the people being bombed. Because it’s easier to kill people who look or sound different than you. Because hatred takes on a life of its own. To explain to the world that you do it our way or suffer the consequences. Because a protection racket needs to constantly ensure no one steps out of line or seeks protection elsewhere. So they can set up permanent military bases to keep the surrounding countries in line. Because there is no alternative. Because there is only room for one empire at a time."
- Jacob Wren, Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim
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June 11, 2025
PME-ART in Harstad, Norway (June 22-24)
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PME-ART will be in Harstad, Norway
for a series of events at Festspillene i Nord-Norge
Panel: Common Things Made Holy
June 22, 2025 at 12:10pm
Moderator: Ragnheiður Skúladóttir
With: Maret Anne Sara, Stefan Schmitke, Sonya Lindfors & Jacob Wren
The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information
June 22, 2025 at 9pm
With: Caroline Dubois, Adam Kinner & Jacob Wren
Bring Your Own Record / Listening Party
June 23, 2025 at 8pm
With: Caroline Dubois, Jacob Wren & special guest Tommy Vandalsvik
*
Bonus: the letter I wrote to the audience of The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information in 2011.
.
PME-ART will be in Harstad, Norway
for a series of events at Festspillene i Nord-Norge
Panel: Common Things Made Holy
June 22, 2025 at 12:10pm
Moderator: Ragnheiður Skúladóttir
With: Maret Anne Sara, Stefan Schmitke, Sonya Lindfors & Jacob Wren
The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information
June 22, 2025 at 9pm
With: Caroline Dubois, Adam Kinner & Jacob Wren
Bring Your Own Record / Listening Party
June 23, 2025 at 8pm
With: Caroline Dubois, Jacob Wren & special guest Tommy Vandalsvik
*
Bonus: the letter I wrote to the audience of The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information in 2011.
.
June 10, 2025
June 2, 2025
I Make and Watch Performances
[This text was written for the Montreal edition of Oral Method in response to the prompt EXCUSEZ-MOI.]
1.
I make performances. Therefore I feel an obligation to watch performances. Lately this has been creating difficulties. I feel an obligation to watch performances made by other people, perhaps only so that they might in turn feel obligated to watch performances made by me. This is not a good reason. The difficulties are not recent but have recently intensified. The performances I watch mostly do not feature or mention current events. Many of these performances were created long before current events occurred. But current events are weighing heavily upon my interior life. I think I go see art because it is a place we can speak about the world. I think speaking about the world means speaking out against injustice. I think live performance means speaking and acting in the here and now. By this point you might have already intuited what my difficulties are.
2.
I have a fantasy. It is a fantasy I often have while I am watching a performance. The people on stage are doing whatever they are doing. I am in the audience. In the middle of the audience I stand up and begin to speak loudly. I accuse those on stage of failing to mention current injustices in the world. I do so in a charming and entertaining manner so as to win over the rest of the audience. I make my case: that by failing to mention any injustices they are like ostriches with their heads in the sand. (Ostriches don’t actually stick their heads in the sand. This is a myth.) That every moment art fails to mention painful realities is a moment when art is not doing its job, when injustices continue to proceed unchallenged. When injustices continue to devour every living moment of the world. I know I have to make my case quickly. That soon some usher, or audience member wanting to make themselves useful, will forcibly remove me. I don’t mind being removed. I just want to make my case in a manner that will not easily be forgotten.
3.
I do not necessarily require performances to speak out directly against current events. I just want to see some indication that they know these events are happening. That we are all living in the same indefensible world. I want them to know what I know and somehow let me know that they know it. I find it painful, sometimes almost unbearably so, that we are not acknowledging things that are happening every day and all around us. I also find my position unfair. Unfair to the artists on stage who are hopefully embodying and expressing something that is meaningful to them. Unfair to art, which has ways of speaking about the world that can bypass the didactic and reach toward other truths. Unfair to myself, since I am forfeiting my chance to momentarily stop thinking about the injustices of the world and enjoy watching a performance. But I do not enjoy watching these performances, and for that I probably should, but will not, apologize.
4.
Then there are performances that do directly denounce specific injustices and I don’t much care for those ones either. You can’t win with me. Because it is not enough to denounce injustice. It is not enough to say those people over there are bad and over here we’re good and that’s all you need to know about the world. The performance must also implicate the audience and do so in ways that lead to action rather than guilt. We must begin to see what is to be done and with what small steps we can begin to do it. I have not yet seen any performances that meet this perhaps unrealistic criteria. Did I mention that many of the performances I see take the form of contemporary dance. I am not sure there is any way, using the forms of contemporary dance, that one can implicate the audience in the injustices of the world and do so in ways that lead to action rather than guilt. But dance is not the problem. Rather it is more like I am going to the hardware store and trying to buy bread. They do not sell bread at the hardware store. Instead of going to watch performances, there might be other kinds of events I could attend. But I want something specific from art, and no matter how many times it disappoints me, I will never stop wanting it.
5.
I make performances. And the performances I make also do not sufficiently fulfil the criteria I have outlined above. Each time I strive toward it, and each time I fail. Since audiences do not have the same strict desires as I have, they do not seem to notice these particular failures. They notice other failures, such as the failure to entertain, or the failure to present aesthetic splendor. But mostly they are not thinking so much about failure. They are people who know how to enjoy watching a performance which is the reason they attend. I could learn from them but I will not. I will wait for one of them to stand up in the middle of the audience and quickly and loudly denounce me. I will continue to wait.
.
1.
I make performances. Therefore I feel an obligation to watch performances. Lately this has been creating difficulties. I feel an obligation to watch performances made by other people, perhaps only so that they might in turn feel obligated to watch performances made by me. This is not a good reason. The difficulties are not recent but have recently intensified. The performances I watch mostly do not feature or mention current events. Many of these performances were created long before current events occurred. But current events are weighing heavily upon my interior life. I think I go see art because it is a place we can speak about the world. I think speaking about the world means speaking out against injustice. I think live performance means speaking and acting in the here and now. By this point you might have already intuited what my difficulties are.
2.
I have a fantasy. It is a fantasy I often have while I am watching a performance. The people on stage are doing whatever they are doing. I am in the audience. In the middle of the audience I stand up and begin to speak loudly. I accuse those on stage of failing to mention current injustices in the world. I do so in a charming and entertaining manner so as to win over the rest of the audience. I make my case: that by failing to mention any injustices they are like ostriches with their heads in the sand. (Ostriches don’t actually stick their heads in the sand. This is a myth.) That every moment art fails to mention painful realities is a moment when art is not doing its job, when injustices continue to proceed unchallenged. When injustices continue to devour every living moment of the world. I know I have to make my case quickly. That soon some usher, or audience member wanting to make themselves useful, will forcibly remove me. I don’t mind being removed. I just want to make my case in a manner that will not easily be forgotten.
3.
I do not necessarily require performances to speak out directly against current events. I just want to see some indication that they know these events are happening. That we are all living in the same indefensible world. I want them to know what I know and somehow let me know that they know it. I find it painful, sometimes almost unbearably so, that we are not acknowledging things that are happening every day and all around us. I also find my position unfair. Unfair to the artists on stage who are hopefully embodying and expressing something that is meaningful to them. Unfair to art, which has ways of speaking about the world that can bypass the didactic and reach toward other truths. Unfair to myself, since I am forfeiting my chance to momentarily stop thinking about the injustices of the world and enjoy watching a performance. But I do not enjoy watching these performances, and for that I probably should, but will not, apologize.
4.
Then there are performances that do directly denounce specific injustices and I don’t much care for those ones either. You can’t win with me. Because it is not enough to denounce injustice. It is not enough to say those people over there are bad and over here we’re good and that’s all you need to know about the world. The performance must also implicate the audience and do so in ways that lead to action rather than guilt. We must begin to see what is to be done and with what small steps we can begin to do it. I have not yet seen any performances that meet this perhaps unrealistic criteria. Did I mention that many of the performances I see take the form of contemporary dance. I am not sure there is any way, using the forms of contemporary dance, that one can implicate the audience in the injustices of the world and do so in ways that lead to action rather than guilt. But dance is not the problem. Rather it is more like I am going to the hardware store and trying to buy bread. They do not sell bread at the hardware store. Instead of going to watch performances, there might be other kinds of events I could attend. But I want something specific from art, and no matter how many times it disappoints me, I will never stop wanting it.
5.
I make performances. And the performances I make also do not sufficiently fulfil the criteria I have outlined above. Each time I strive toward it, and each time I fail. Since audiences do not have the same strict desires as I have, they do not seem to notice these particular failures. They notice other failures, such as the failure to entertain, or the failure to present aesthetic splendor. But mostly they are not thinking so much about failure. They are people who know how to enjoy watching a performance which is the reason they attend. I could learn from them but I will not. I will wait for one of them to stand up in the middle of the audience and quickly and loudly denounce me. I will continue to wait.
.
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