bathe and drive.

Last night I posted an ad on Craigslist. My objective is to find a stranger online who will take a bath with me, during which I will record the bath, and then we will play it back loudly through his car stereo as we drive around with the windows down.

For a while I've been wanting to broadcast a sound in a public space from a car, and for a while I've been wanting to use the internet as a source for audience/participants/collaborators. I envisioned recording a particular sound to play through a megaphone while driving around a particular part of town, and the thought of that relationship of a drive-by sound to passersby pleased me. In the past I've used Craigslist many a time to meet guys for dates. There's always been something unsatisfying about the way it's done: trying to describe myself in such a way that filters out guys without shared interests/traits, then to meet each other and present ourselves as best as we can, going on a date, going to bed, consuming dinner and a movie, consuming each other, assuming that a second date means we've past each other's first levels. What if a date or hook-up’s purpose would be to create an action/experience, like an art project? I’m not a "hook up" type, but maybe I could be if it were an "art hook up"—meaning making something together instead of screwing each other. Online dating is even more awkward than asking out someone you know in person. It's already forced when you're both going on a date with someone just to go on a date with someone. I can only think to bring that awkwardness even farther, we might as well also have choreographed activities set by constraints, the activities resulting in a sort of time loop. If we're responding to each other's photos, we might as well instantly bear ourselves physically and mentally for each other's judgement, like really forward speed dating. And also, to not expect anything afterwards, to meet specifically for the date and to have a whole new objective unrelated to how well we get along (like a sex hook up but more satisfying in the long haul).

I thought I could even take it a step further, and try to control the kinds of people I meet. On the internet I’ve talked to people I have nothing in common with, and had nothing to say. In my internet dating list/memoir project (the bath project idea comes off the trajectory of that and other past works), I archived my history of meeting many people from online in person and the experiences that came from them. I've come to realize I might just like meeting people with whom I have nothing in common out of sheer curiosity and because I learn about myself. I’ll have an intent when I meet someone, but then there are unexpected qualities in them that I end up having to deal with. I merrily wallow in these stories: a guy who had a tattoo of the symbol of Islam just because he liked the way it looked, a guy who was obsessive compulsive and wouldn't touch me without washing his hands, a guy who was a member of the Alanis Morissette fan club and would fly to various other cities every few months just to be with other fanatics. What if I meet someone specifically because they are different than me, and try to pick out the difference beforehand?

For instance, I’ve been interested lately in the guys I see on the road who drive lowriders around or blast music loudly and bassily. It’s a popular thing to do, as are other aspects of hip-hop car culture, especially in this city, especially in my neighborhood. I’ve never met a guy from online who was into hip-hop car culture, but apparently because we probably didn’t have much in common, maybe because not many gay guys are into this, or maybe because different motives by either party prevented us from meeting. It’s kind of a butch straight guy activity, and it’s not a common kind of person for me to end up around. But I don’t think I’m from a culture that much different from lowrider guys. I grew up in the Southwest and have lived on the east side of LA for six years. Lowriding and ghostriding are a well-known part of American culture especially in the Southwest and on the West Coast. How much of America can I claim as my culture as an American, as a Southwesterner, as a white person? Maybe I want to meet people from other subcultures so I can get beyond the boundaries. I figure, if I have one subcultural aspect in common with them like gayness, maybe I could use that to bridge our differences in race and heritage. So I made this ad, and no one responded to it. I figured the ad should be short, simple and clinical. I showed my mentor Sara, and she said I looked tired and depressed, which might be true. I was afraid to use photos I always use, because I didn't want people who know me to respond, but decided if it was really going to work, I would have to be me as much as in any other dating ad I've made. The ads I usually post are very honest and revealing, so in my second attempt I made myself much more approachable and didn't limit the responders to what kinds of cars they drive, just that they play their music loudly. Besides, aren't most people fairly unlike me? I can explore our differences in the bathtub conversation.

For the event, it's important that we meet soon after the ad's posting time, and I figure it needs to happen all in one meeting (and it might be hard to get them back for a second date), so maybe it's a one-art-stand. The bath should be around an hour; in my opinion that's the duration of a good bathing. The entirety of the bath will be recorded with an Edirol R-09 24-bit WAVE/MP3 Recorder I borrowed from Integrated Media at CalArts. For a short time I will videotape using my Canon PowerShot SD800's cheap-ass video camera feature, just for documentation. I don't have to film the guy's face or genitals, just evidence to set as an example for future instruction; I don't want to botch the bathing experience with the documentation. The tub is sorta dirty, so I need to clean it first. It's also really small, and will make it hard for us not to touch. The participant can opt to have the lights fully on or lighting by candle. As said in the ad, we won't have sex or kiss or touch in a sensual way; we will bear ourselves to each other and just talk. I won't script anything, but I would like to begin the bathtime conversation by asking him about his car. Hopefully that way it will sync nicely with the beginning of the drive. I’m hoping in that hour we’ll forget about the technology recording and surrounding our little stage. Then we'll take the sound file to my computer. We'll edit the sound together, and burn a CD. Unless he has a tape player, in which I can record our bath on tape. Then, we'll drive wherever we decide to go, and I'll videotape again briefly.

The pieces of video will go into a sort of "vlog" along with my usual blog. I would like to offer this experience as a guide for future ideas to myself and anyone interested.