Liz Magic Laser Talks to the Hand | "New York Close Up" | Art21

[sounds of camera shutter rhythmically repeating]

[Performance dome]

[Liz Magic Laser, Artist]

[Liz has decoded the unspoken
language of political rhetoric.]

[Two presidential speeches are
being performed...without words.]

[Alan Good, Dancer]

[Cori Kresge, Dancer]

[Seven weeks earlier]

[LIZ MAGIC LASER]
--Okay, so I’ll start the camera going.

[sounds of camera shutter rhythmically repeating]

[Chelsea, Manhattan]

[Liz Magic Laser Talks to the Hand]

So we were just working through
Obama's most recent State of the Union.

[BARACK OBAMA]
--Mr. Speaker,

--Mr. Vice President,

--members of Congress...

[LASER] We had it on mute.

--[OBAMA] ...distinguished guests...

[LASER] We were looking exclusively at
his arm and hand gestures.

For instance the first gesture we decided was
"Here I am".

--Here I am.

--Left over right.

--Interlace.

[LASER AND KRESGE IN, UNISON]
--Point,

--one, two, three, four, five, six.

[BOTH LAUGH]

--[KRESGE] Left over right.

--[LASER] Let's also play with the pacing,

--maybe try to go twice the speed.

--Is it too fast?

[KRESGE] I think I’ve always seen
politics as something very abstract.

What are they saying?

--[OBAMA] Some financial firms
violate major anti-fraud laws because...

[KRESGE] What do they mean when they’re saying that?

I find it more accessible to just
look at their body language.

I'm not really even thinking about what he's saying.

--[OBAMA] That's not right.

--Americans know that's not right.

[KRESGE] I usually tune that part out, to be honest.

[LAUGHS]

[LASER] I was struck by the virtuosity of
Obama's movement.

And I started to wonder about the choreography
that is being used

to persuade the public.

These rhetorical techniques can be traced back
to Francois Delsarte.

He developed a system of oratory to teach
actors, priests, and politicians

how to to win over their audience.

He talks about this imaginary cube
that you have in front of you.

Touching the bottom side means
you're going to take care of people.

And on top, you're communicating that you have possession--

that you have control over the issues at hand.

Our working title for the piece is, "The Digital Face".

Why would Delsarte call something the digital face
in the 19th century?

Five digits means five fingers,

so he's talking about the drama of the hands.

And so I started to look back at
previous State of the Union addresses.

[JIMMY CARTER]
--We will meet these threats to peace.

[LASER] I had assumed that Reagan would be
the first to be animated,

but he just held his script

and he didn’t move his hands or arms at all.

The camera pulls back but he’s still not using his hands.

[RONALD REAGAN]
--...and God bless America.

[LASER] The first president to use his hands and
arms quite actively was Bush Sr.

[GEORGE H.W. BUSH]
--And he begins his speech to his fellow citizens
with these words--

--words of a distant revolution.
We hold these truths to be self-evident...

[Six week later]

[LASER] I decided to put Bush Sr. into a gestural dialogue with Obama,

to show how politicians have come to maximize
the efficiency of every move they make.

--[OBAMA] Nearly one trillion dollars...

[LASER] Speech coaches use the camera as a tool to dissect and perfect individual movements.

In turn, we used stop action photography
during the rehearsal

to optimize the mechanics
of the performer's movements.

--I should really get a rehearsal going.

We decided to amplify the sound of
the camera shutter clicking.

This tone of mechanical efficiency became
the soundtrack to the piece.

[ALAN GOOD] I saw two things from Bush.

One was, he's a snake in the sense
that he pounces quickly

with no muscle coiling beforehand.

These very quick hand movements that came out of nowhere...

It's kind of like being knifed.

--[LASER] Great.

--Fantastic.

--Let's do it one more time.

[KRESGE] Liz and I would come up with
our own little language for Obama.

It would be like a spank.

Or not looking at the thing that you're
talking about because it's bad

or it's not American.

There’s a subliminal quality.

--[LASER] Okay, great. [APPLAUDS]

--Let's do it.

[KRESGE] There's one moment that I really love.

He's talking about, "This generation
knows that we will only endure..."

--[OBAMA] Our way of life will only endure...

[KRESGE] He does this delicate plucking of some flower.

It's like he's suddenly heartbroken and
asking the nation to endure with him.

[GOOD] In the United States, there's a general
fear and loathing

of the power of government.

I feel this piece is saying,

there is a system of gestures,
unbeknownst to us,

that looks into us and is being perfected as we speak.

[One week later]

[LASER] We are living in strange days

where performance itself has become the dominant instrument of power.

The style of someone's delivery ends up
foreclosing the real content.

As spectators, we're being treated as
lab rats to be impressed.

I'm asking myself,

"Can we reclaim some agency by getting our hands
on the tools of mass communication?"