- Upgrade
Who we show ourselves to be has become the obsession of the bewildered.
Everything we experience today is identified and very closely associated with some brand or other. Modern marketing communications now dominate a hierarchical system of human identification and classification. In our consumerist society, freedom is simply one’s ability to define one’s relative identity by the brands one is able to acquire… or rub up against. The human circumstance is no longer a matter of who we are, but whom we are better branded than.
In UPGRADE, I present a satirical evaluation of some of the country’s traditional branding and classification devices—our range of affordable names. As brands, names have relative value in any given society. In this piece the artist values and offers these ultimate accessories for sale.
Try on one today! [End Page 111]
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Dave Williams is a Trinidad-based performance artist and choreographer who uses elements of dance to re-present archetypes and stereotypes of our circumstance. In an attempt to manipulate the way we perceive, reference and interpret our responses and actions, he is now exploring media beyond the stage.