Diane The American Swimmer
DIANE THE AMERICAN SWIMMER is an ongoing performance project where the artist is an iconic hero who can do anything because she is American. Through absurd acts and constructed scenarios, the project considers issues of nationalism and hegemony around the contentious and dire issues of water.
"DIANE THE AMERICAN SWIMMER WILL SWIM ON MARS, BECAUSE I BELIEVE SHE CAN DO IT!" -President Bush, February 20, 2004
I am Diane the American Swimmer. I SWIM FOR YOU.
You PROBably already know, but if you've been like, asleep for the last few months, I have big news: President Bush has asked me to be the first American to swim on Mars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's pretty neat. It's going to be a really big project, and I want to thank Rhizome for helping me spread the word about my website, which will give you ALL a chance to follow my training for my mission to MARS.
I really think it will make everyone in America feel better if I go.
THINk about what Mars means for Americans. (I mean, really, we just have to get there and it will be ours... BUT I don't just mean that, even though that's kind of cool.) I know that I have a big job to do, and that you are all depending on me to be the best swimmer on Mars that I can be.
Sometimes people ask me if it will be hard for me to swim on Mars. I always say, don't worry- I am a really really REally good swimmer! (I was on swim team when I was little.)
So anyway, RHIZOME asked me to tell you a little bit about myself, but you can read all about me on my website if you want.
Well, so, Can I just BE Deep for a second?!?!
Sometimes, during my grueling training at NASA, my mind just wanders. (It really makes the anti-gravity machines easier to take!) I think about Maude, usually, she's my cat that died... Yesterday, though, I thought about the word virtuality. Somebody asked me about it last week, in an interview. I looked it up in the dictionary, because that is fun to do when you are thinking about something, because, you know, maybe you only have part of the meaning.
Anyway, Did you know it used to mean potentiality, and potential existence... (and also it meant efficacy, which I had to look up... does that ever happen to you- you have to keep looking up words in definitions of words that you are looking up!??!!!??!!)
Anyway...it was all about possibilities. I think I like that definition.
See you on MARS!
The future of colonization.
The future of swimming.