3. Finally, as I have suggested, this performance raises important questions concerning the politics of representation. Does “!” [Hollywood Blues] provide us with a more ethical mode of representing a disaster? If by ‘ethical’ one means resolving the politics of representation within an objective, ‘true’ rendering of the event accepted by all parties, then clearly it does not. The contribution of this performance is not in advancing a solution to the problem of representation. Rather, it is in providing an account of the problematic space-time prior to the act of representation. The effect is two-fold: on the one hand, highlighting the complexity of these processes actively disrupts the conditions that enable a politics of violence and violent othering. On the other, the mobilization of affects gestures towards a mode of community-building constructed through a common experience of uncertainty, and indeed insecurity, rather than a shared identity, set of values, or enemy.
CHRIS ZEBROWSKI
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