This past weekend, I attended a show at the Wexner Center in Columbus as part of my course of study for another class I’m taking this semester, Contemporary Dance History. Going into the performance, I didn’t have much information about the artist or what exactly the event would consist of. All I knew was the following: a, that the artist presenting the work, Miguel Gutierrez, was queer, and that some of his previous work had made use of gay pornography; b, that this work would in part be representing certain tropes from telenovelas; and, c, that Gutierrez’s work in general had been known to ruffle some feathers.
Being aware of the concept of Confirmation Bias, I often don’t seek out information, reviews, or thoughts from peers in advance of any performance that I am about to see. That way, I do my best to go into a new experience with an open mind, and without any pre-existing expectations that need to be filled by what I’m about to absorb (that is, without any expectations other than the normal amount). Confirmation Bias is the idea that when we are given information or a judgment about something, we are likely to look for proof that what we have been told is the truth rather than looking for information that would run counter to what we have been told.
In this case, I was unable to avoid running into my own confirmation bias. In advance of the performance, my professor made the program notes for the show available to us, which stated that the show would contain nudity and “adult themes”. Having seen the show, of course, this was true. It would be true regardless of whether or not I read the program notes — that isn’t the point. However, perhaps I wouldn’t have been so focused on these elements, or they wouldn’t have been so emphasized for me had I gone in knowing nothing. Perhaps I would have spent less time anticipating elements I had read about and constantly trying to read into things to tease out the influences of telenovelas in the work, and perhaps I would have paid more attention to the other elements of the piece. The experience might have been more jarring, yes, but perhaps I would have been able to take away some other meaning, and to react according to my own honest experiences, staying in the moment rather than simply following a script which had been laid out for me in advance.
socially psyched 