It is clear to me that iamamiwhoami took the Volunteer on the journey of his life and I cannot be more glad to see how they committed to offering him a real experience. 101112 is the second video of the Volunteer’s journey, the first one being his acceptance vid. I’ll keep on walking symbolical my line and try to see how this motif has been applied in our case and also to somewhat predict some stages that SUTS will go through in the following footage.
I’ll start by looking at the experience of the journey as it appears in The Bible. You see, I think the religion connected question in the Interrogatory video has a purpose. Anyways, from this point of view, the motif of the journey is linked to the Exodus of the people of Israel to a divine destination, the promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey. If I wanted to avoid the direct reference, I would have said the purpose of the journey is to flee slavery and reach a land whose major characteristic is fertility. Applied to SUTS or any of us, that would be to flee the ordinariness of our boring life and reach extra-ordinariness, or, if you want, for an artist like iamamiwhoami: to flee the appearance of reaching a certain limit and reach new boundaries of creativity.
There are two types of journeys:
- physical (geographical), which is visible to us as we see the volunteer leaving and traveling
- inner (psychological), which, for now, is not visible, but is strongly connected to the concept of CHANGE. Now this is the ultimate type of journey because it will be the one which will produce self-discovery, that is the so much sought after change! In her attempt to escape reality, the human being journeys inwardly and outwardly treading roads (there’s SUTS walking), passing over thresholds (he enters and exists so many spaces), opening doors (no doubt!), reflecting himself in windows or mirrors etc. The inner journey is the exact journey MO has taken in this campaign. The I am- Am I? – Who am I? journey.
One very important thing is that the motif of the journey is always linked with the making of heroes. I’m sure all of you are aware of that, we’ve been reading those heroes books since little and we saw how changes were produced in them. This thing is almost all the times projected against a mythological frame (with us, the Myth of the Mandragora) and it can be regarded as a three-staged process:
1. Departure:
- 20101109 – SUTS hears the call of adventure and accepts it;
- 101112 – out hero enters a new realm (a dark forest for MO, a kingdom underground for CU, a distant land in his case – all of them are on a journey).
- to come: – hero gets supernatural help and guidance out of his state of fear (that would be coming either from within himself – ideally – or from the community, and from iamamiwhoami themselves.)
2. Initiation: the Volunteer is going to face various tests, I’m guessing they will appear in the next SUTS footage vid, and he’ll be getting a reward, an ultimate gift, a BOUNTY as a result of his performance. I’m thinking concert, but this might as well be something bigger, his real change.
3. Return to homeland, sometimes accompanied with difficulties in readjustement.
We’ll see what kind of hero SUTS will be portrayed as. For now, he sure does have a pure heart, we’ll see if he gains the strength to symbolically become a savior. He is now a disciple.
Here are some things I am expecting to appear in the next videos regarding the Volunteer:
- challenges
- crises of transitions
- impediments, obstacles
- revelations (that is a most definite!)
- gaining independence and a great power to control his emotions
- the acquiring of self-responsibility
All steps that might happen (and should happen) when one takes on such a meaningful road.
REFERENCES:
- decoding iamamiwhoami – the beginnings
- A Closer Look To iamamiwhoami’s b Video
- u-1
- u-2
- T – back in the kingdom we were Kings and Queens
- And this is Y all that’s left is Hope
- Iamamiwhoami – 20101001 – Volunteer
- Iamamiwhoami – 20101104 – This is hot it goes
- CU’s A-LOC – Down the honeycomb hole and back
- Journey
- An Archetypal and Mythological Approach to Iamamiwhoami
