I traveled from Estonia to Finland via ferry the next morning and arrived a few minutes late, missing the beginning of the next performance.

Day 2 featured three long-term performances, all in a “public square”-style space in the Kamppi Shopping Center, a major upscale mall.

The first was Philip Levine, who stood on a pedestal and wore diamonds all over his scalp in place of hair.  He was there for a few hours.  The second was a twenty minute performance by Francesca Fini, who attempted to apply makeup to her face while her arm muscles were randomly stimulated by electrical devices attached to her body.  There was also a short performance by Meri Nikula, which I had to skip in order to tend to my armor.  The third performance was by Rooms, a group that sung numbers in order, with the sound for each number lasting as long as that number is, in seconds.  This also lasted a few hours.

This performance went completely differently from the first.  The mall setting was radically different from the darkened abandoned factory, which was attended mostly by other performance artists.  This was a well-lit, commercial space filled with shoppers who had no idea they would run into some performance art in the course of their day.  Some of the artists were much more interactive with the audience, and with me, so I built up a relationship with some of them that did not exist with the artists on the previous night.  In general, these circumstances made for a much more interesting series of conversations and experiences for me.

Philip Levine was the most interesting.  He and I were both just standing there the whole time.  He had already applied the diamonds to his head, and was just there to talk to passersby.  I stood perhaps thirty feet away, at about a 30-degree angle to his left.  As he discussed his work with people who stopped by, he often pointed me out and sent them over to talk to me.  I did the same thing with people who stopped by me first.  It was a very symbiotic relationship.  The people in the mall very very excited and interested to see a Stormtrooper, and excitedly talked with me and took pictures with me.

As the day went on, the mall’s visitors changed somewhat demographically.  In the morning, they were mostly adults and younger kids.  As the day wore on, there were more and more teenagers, who reacted to me somewhat differently.  Sometimes they were just excited to see me, but other times they felt a classic teen need to deal with me in some sort of ironic or jaded way, making handsigns behind my back and so on.

The second show created a bit of a stage, roping off the center performance area, and people gathered together to watch in a crowd, as they had not done for Levine.  I simply stood along with the rest of the crowd.

The Hours stood in the central area, but it was not roped off.  They gathered somewhat of a crowd as well, but since it was a longer performance, and it was less clear what they were doing from the point of view of a casual observer, people usually only stayed for a short time.  I moved around more during this performance, watching them from different angles and distances.  At one point, one of the Hours’ off-duty members asked me to watch from a little farther off, as people had started wondering if I was part of their performance.  I had expected that this might happen at some performances, and was happy to move back a bit.  I felt like I had somewhat of a symbiotic relationship with them, but less than Levine’s, since they generally were also a somewhat theatrical, non-interactive performance, and the mall was pretty packed at that point.

Overall, it was an interesting day, in terms of my relationship with the artists, and also with the rest of the audience.  Since it was a commercial space, most mall visitors seemed to think I was just another independent event, possibly commercial or pop cultural in nature, and not necessarily related to the performance art world.  It was nice to see the entirety of each performance, which certainly no one else did. Interestingly, the only other people who saw nearly as much as I did were the festival staff, who were there to help the artists and intervene with the shoppers when necessary.  Since we shared the same long-term view of each performance, we often ended up chatting about the show throughout the day.

Each day’s performances proved to be a little different from each other in interesting ways.

The first day, which was in Estonia (the rest were in Finland), was unique in that the show I watched was a number of short performances rather than one long performance.  Altogether it ran several hours.

The show was in a semi-rehabilitated abandoned factory called the Culture Factory Polymer.  There were at least ten performances and installations, most occurring on a stage in a room with formal seating and standing room.  I stood among the rest of the audience and watched the entire show.  It was generally theatrical performance art, in the sense that they were doing a show and not interacting directly with the audience, so the rest of the audience was fairly passive.  I clearly stood out among the rest of the audience, but the house lights were often down and people mostly ignored me.

Occasionally people came up to talk to me and we talked about my project, the other performers, and Stormtroopers.  They enjoyed the project and took pictures with me.

There were a few other events in the rest of the building, but the performances on the stage were the main event, and most people stayed around to watch for at least a few performances, which lasted between 20 minutes and an hour.

As the night’s events went on, the crowd thinned, until there were only a handful of people left to watch (earlier on the room was packed).  I continued to watch, of course.

Eventually, the program changed to a series of videos, instead of live performances.  I decided to leave at that point, as my performance is really about the relationship between me and the other live performers.

There were a few things that stood out.  Since my mask does not reveal my expression or emotional reactions to the performance or to people’s conversations with me, I am a blank slate that can be either unnerving or easy to project onto.  Even though everyone else is putatively just sitting there watching the performance alongside me, my lack of affect sometimes made them nervous.  My opaque lenses also make it look like I’m continuously staring without even blinking, creating a further oppressive, sentinel-like effect.  Generally speaking, however, I had a more passive role this night, compared to the other nights, since the space was pretty roomy, audience was usually fairly large, and the artists were set off from the audience by the stage space.

In October, I participated in the Dimanche Rouge Performance Art Festival in Finland and Estonia with a performance called If You Can Dish It Out, I Can Take It.

For my performance, I (as Corporal Outis) simply watched other people’s durational performances.

I was basically just a member of the audience, watching each performance from beginning to end.  But due to my continual presence, not to mention my salient physical presence as a Stormtrooper, I transformed the role of viewer from a passive post to a more active duty.  In effect, I put the other people’s performances under continual surveillance.

I also became something of a partner to some of the performers, who enjoyed my presence as one of the very few, if any, viewers who saw the entirety of their performances.

All of the artists whose performances I watched were willing participants in my performance and agreed to let me watch them.

I will detail each day of the festival, and each other person’s performance, in separate posts.

I was happy to have stalked and shot so many of the good residents of Edmonton.

I am now looking forward to Dimanche Rouge, held in Finland and Estonia from October 17-20, where I will be performing If You Can Dish It Out, I Can Take It.  There, I will watch the entirety of everyone else’s durational performance art at the festival!

Look for more updates at that time.

Today was my last day day of stalking, and it was a bit of a bust.  I went zero for three today.

First I tried to get Parker at the Metro Cinema at 10, but I got there just before 10, and I missed him.  I forgot to take a picture then, but here’s one from later in the day.

Then I tried to find out if Tina was walking her dog in the neighborhood.  I looked around for an hour, but no luck.

I moved on to Cari’s dorm again, and watched for half an hour just in case she came out.  Since I never got her full information, I don’t consider her to quite be an official stalk-ee, but I figured I’d give it a shot.  Again, no luck.

Parker had some ideas for the night, but they never crystallized, so I didn’t get a chance to find him either.

In the end, out of the nine main targets, I managed to surveill all of them and shoot seven.  So overall my mission was a success.  However, two–Parker and Tina–managed to evade me the whole time.

Congratulations, you two.  But don’t get too confident.  I’ve hung up my helmet for now, but if I ever come back to Edmonton, you’d better watch your backs!

I should mention that I got my bang-flag guns in the mail yesterday, so yesterday and today I was able to execute my targets properly and not with my fingers, like I had to do with Keith.

The day started and ended excellently.  First I hid near Braedon’s workplace and shot him as he walked by in the morning.  He provided me with several days of excellent challenges, but could not avoid my wrath forever!

Soon after I had a meeting set up with Josh, who expected me to show up in my civilian identity.  I surprised him as Corporal Outis and quickly dispatched him.

Later that afternoon, I surveilled Megan’s hotel for a while, to no avail.

I returned to Alyson’s painting studio and shot her as well.  Three dead targets in a row! (Sorry about the amazingly blurry picture; my attention is on shooting, not photographing, at these moments.)

Then I visited Cari’s apartment complex, but could not get in.  Hopefully I will learn some more about her schedule and track her down tomorrow!

After that, I waited outside Parker’s house for a while after he got off work.  I knew he was going to the Art Gallery of Alberta opening later, and guessed that he might go home first.

However, he didn’t show up. I knew I might see him at the Art Gallery of Alberta later, so I went to Tina’s place again to catch her as she returned from work.

I waited from 6:45 until 7:30, but no sign of her.  I did figure out that her apartment complex has an underground parking complex in the back, so I watched that and kept an eye on the front sidewalk through all alley.  However, she might have come in the front door from a different direction.  Tina has been evading me quite successfully so far.  Tomorrow we will have a reckoning!

Later I went to the Art Gallery of Alberta for the reception, where both Megan and Parker were supposed to be.  I tricked my way past the door guards (the reception was for members only) and found Megan after a good slow-motion chase through all the galleries.  I shot her down as well.  I never saw Parker, so I’ll have to find him tomorrow.

 

I have now shot Keith, Dan, Olivia, Braedon, Josh, Alyson, and Megan.  I have only three remaining targets: Parker, Tina, and Cari!  One more day, three more targets.

Here’s a few more pictures of Keith’s death scene:

 

First, I am slightly altering the line-up of my stalk-ees.   I never got any information from Esther,  but Cari just asked me to stalk her.  So I am adding her to my list as target number ten.

Today was a successful day of stalking and shooting.

First I visited Dan, who had so successfully eluded me yesterday at the Manhunt game.  Today he was at work, and eluded me no longer.  I shot him down in his chair.

 

Then I went to find Olivia.  I showed up at her restaurant and hoped I arrived before she did.  After waiting a while, it seemed that I had not.  I had Vieri,  my resourceful driver for the day, go in and do some advance surveillance for me.  He saw Olivia and reported back, so I went in after her.  I shot her in the back of the restaurant.

I then tried to make it three for three, and looked for Tina when she got off work.  However, the place looked deserted, and no one came out.  However, there were several potential exits, and it’s possible she left out of one of the ones I wasn’t watching.

Still, a good day. I have now shot three of my ten targets.  Seven targets and two days to go.  At this point, surveillance is over, and the shooting spree has begun.

Today I visited Alyson at the university painting studio and took this picture.  One of her fellow students helped me find her.

Incidentally, up until now you haven’t seen much of me.  Here I am happily walking away from my successful stalking of Alyson.  Photo credit by Kaytlyne Dewald.

I was even happier to make my first public execution.  I got Keith as he went to get his hair cut.  Unfortunately my bang-flag guns were held up in the mail so I had to shoot him with my finger.  He certainly seemed to have learned his lesson!  One down, nine to go!

Then I went out to Tina’s place.  She wasn’t there, but I left this message for her.

Later I surveilled Parker as he left work and drove away in his car.

Finally I went to hunt down Dan and Braedon, who both happen to play Manhunt–basically a hide and seek/tag game, and a very appropriate place for me to find them.  The game was at 9pm.  As I walked up, there was a large group of people getting ready to play.  However, Dan and Braedon both saw me coming and ran off into the darkness like lightning.  I stayed around and searched for them as the rest of the members played the game for an hour, but never found them.  I’ll get those two later!

I think I am beginning to see a sinister trend on your part, people of Edmonton.

There are so many people stopping me and asking for pictures, honking their horns, yelling exhortatory slogans against those Rebel Scum, that I begin to wonder if this is not all some sort of plan.

It is clear that word of Corporal Outis has spread.  For instance, one woman come up to me this afternoon in one part of town and said her husband called her in the morning to say he had seen me in another part of town.  It is good that my legend grows–all the better to strike fear into the hearts of my prey.

However, I wonder is there is something more afoot.  I realized that if one took all the GPS data currently being uploaded to hundreds of people’s online photo archives, then one could see a virtual trail of my path as I wandered through town.

This, Edmonton, is REVERSE STALKING.  By having numerous individuals take pictures of me on a constant basis, you publicize my presence and location, and in effect make me the prey of your entire city!  I will have to put some thought into how to thwart, or perhaps take advantage of, your insidious plan.