The Drive Through Strip-Club

This is actually in Pittsburgh. You drive up to a little diamond window (see below) and apparently watch whatever stripper is performing on stage inside.

Last week I was trying to articulate to Michael why I'm so interested in stripclubs and peepshows - I think it has something to do with the male gaze that Kendra posted about. The peepshow both heightens and demonstrates the act of viewing, makes it more illicit. It is not voyeurism because the object of desire is aware of the viewer. It is a complicit relationship between the object and the observer. How can we make our audience feel complicit in the action, yet alienated from it?

Also, think about Act Three, in which there are several layers of observation. Alwa oogles Lulu during their tryst. Rodrigo and Geschwitz spy on Lulu and Alwa. Schoning watches Rodrigo and Geschwitz spying. And we as the audiece watch Schoning watch Rodrigo and Geschwits watch Lulu and Alwa.

Kohei Yoshiyuki - 公園/ Park

This 1979 series by Kohei Yoshiyuki is brilliantly disturbing, capturing (with an infrared flashbulb) various couples making love in two Tokyo parks while surrounded by numerous, sometimes intrusive, strangers/gawkers. The original exhibit was presented in a dark gallery with patrons holding flashlights to see the photographs. I love the ghost-like quality of the men; it reminds me of Lulu's line about Dr. Goll's ghost:

• I dream that his burial was a misunderstanding. That he’s here, as if he’d never left. Only now he walks very softly, in stocking feet. The fact I married Schwarz doesn’t anger him in the least. Just a bit sad. But then he’s easily frightened, as if he were here without permission.

Anyway, I like what Wikipedia says: "the photographs raise questions about the boundaries between spectator, voyeur and participant."

Lucinda Devlin - Photos

These are photographs from Lucinda Devlin's two series "Pleasure Grounds" and "The Omega Suites". Her work deals with empty spaces that reveal the culture of it's use. "Pleasure Grounds" focuses on discos, tanning salons and fantasy hotel rooms, while "The Omega Suites" is a survey of execution chambers and other associated interiors. I am extremely interested in the voyeurism inherent in these death-rooms - especially the similarities between these observation rooms and the peep show.