A phonecall this morning..

22Oct07

Where to start? Seems like a lot has happened.. Well, last night, after a bowl of lentil soup (chopped parsley on the top-good sign) at my favourite imbiss so far (Moroccan, big owner, v cool), I waded through the piles of rubbish on the pavement and went out to stick my image and phone number to a selection of the lamposts in the vicinty. It was difficult not to get distracted by the rubbish, the piles, as kind of assemblages, were really beautiful. I took some photos (no tripod, hence the strange perspective). See above and below.

But, I managed to keep focus and stick up about 50 ‘adverts’ for someone that looks like me. I wanted them to look a bit like the adverts for a flat, or a lost cat, which normally appear on lamp posts. As previously I felt a bit shifty, but when I saw someone had used the lamp post space to advertise yoga classes somehow I felt a bit better. Seemed to make the act a bit less criminal. What is this? I’m such lame guerilla artist… Honestly

And then, after a huge breakfast this morning (I am beginning to get concerned that it is not included in the price) I wandered upstairs, looked at my phone, and, as often happens when I look at it, it rang! And there was someone on the end who said, I saw your advert and I really look you! I didn’t know quite what to do. In my pretty garbled German I tried to explain that I was from Oxford, the city twinning, etc. Anyway, we have arranged to meet at Macdonalds (where he/she works) by the Hauptbahnhof at 1630..

I can’t quite believe this has happened so quickly. What about my elusive doppelganger that I would have to use all my cunning to find? I am also slightly concerned that this doppelganger might be a girl, or a boy whose voice has not yet broken.. If my doppelganger is like a mirror, reflecting my true character, what does this mean?

I also got an interesting mail from my friend Marie. There is a website (www.myheritage.com) where you can upload your image and, using facial recognition software it gives you your percentage likeness to celebrities. She did this on my behalf, and the following where the results:

Adam Goldberg 74 %
Allama Iqbal 66 %
Jason Biggs 62 %
Jake Gyllenhaal 61 %
Hendrik Lorendtz 56 %
Roger Daltrey 55 %
Rob Bourdon 55 %
Peter Greenaway 53 %
Joaquin Phoenix 52 %
Gabriela Sabatini 51 %

Unfortunately, none of these seem to be resident in Bonn. I also got an interesting post from Naomi (nts.randomizer on “covert operations”) who was saying that perhaps the self is my own doppelganger. Its weird, as I had been thinking of this sense of duplicity this morning. Its odd, performing the ‘character’ who is seeking his double, and at the same time, the ‘author’ figure who is documenting this and fashioning it into a narrative. Like yesterday when I went around placing photos of myself around, and then returning to take photos of those photos.

It reminds me of my mum’s stories of her childhood. She was an only child and lived in the countryside on a farm, so often didn’t have other kids to play with. She used to solve this by playing all the characters in her imaginary stories. ie She would be a robber, steal something, jump out of the window, (leaving obvious footprints) then run round the house, back in the door, and this time would be the policeman, looking at the footprints left by the robber, then she’d run off and come back as someone else, etc. Ingenius.

I guess in some ways it comes back to the spectre of documentation, and the distance from the ‘action’ that this involves. I think a solution is to embed the documentation as part of the process, and to try and blur the boundaries between character/author, actor/director, perfomer/documentarian. OK, enough of this. If anyone can shed any light on this issue…

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