Where is Jo?

Because of an email, I started to think about what existence is and where I am.

12 November 2008 was my first birthday after I left Hong Kong to America; I received an email from my ex-boyfriend, which was celebrating my birthday. I was happy, because he still remembered my birthday, there is still a “place” for me in his mind, however, after that, I felt strange because we have barely contacted each other since we split, even on our birthdays. I asked myself: “If I am still existing in his mind, why did he only celebrate my birthday after I left Hong Kong? Is now the right time for him to do that because I am in America and we do not exist in the same place?” From that moment, the curiosity of the relationship between “time”, “place” and “existence” started circling in my mind.

To exist does it mean I have to place my body in a physical place? And, how many forms of existence can I take? Once I take a form of existence, how long does it last? How can I notice my existence? How many “places” can I exist at the same time? Physically? Mentally? These questions remind me of two articles in the book Sensorium, which inspired me to make this project happen. One of the articles- Utopia Body by Michel Foucault- fascinated me by his description of how we can experience the existence of our body and soul, especially when he talks about the feeling of being touched by the one you love. We know we exist because sensing gives us the information that we have our body, which means our body exists. Therefore the simplest way for us to notice the self-existence is by touching ourselves or being touched, because we can feel it. However, what is the relationship between my body and “places” out of my body? How do I know where my body exists out of itself?

From Neuroexistentialism by Joseph Dumit I found that we notice our body existing out of itself because we gather the information from our sensing; by watching, listening, smelling, tasting and touching, we know we exist in the world, which means besides sensing our own body, we also need “something” out of our body to stimulate our sensorium to remind us for our existence, no matter if the “place” is physical or imaginative. If I didn’t receive the email from my ex-boyfriend on my birthday, I would never know my existence in his mind, therefore, I discovered that if I want to know whether I am existing in other person’s minds, I need their feedback. After leaving Hong Kong, I have been in 9 cities in 8 months- Roanoke, New York, Philadelphia, Nancy, Paris, Vienna, Belgium, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. During this period I existed in different places. I took photos of myself as documentary to prove where I physically existed, and kept posting these photos on Facebook, so my friends could see my photos from all over the world. I could prove I was existing by visually appearing in front of them through the computer. Their comments on the photos were feedback information that let me know I existed in their sensorium.

In this project, I selected 252 photos from my Facebook album when I was in different places physically. 252 is the number of days from when I left Hong Kong till 4 May 2009, which is now, today. I edited these photos with a short video that I shot one beautiful morning in America in winter. I want to see myself and show my existence in different places in the past 8 months through this piece.



Thanks Jennie for helping my English.