Hair | Hair

performance at the barbershop gallery, Philadelphia

Our judgement that Johny's version of the story is unreliable depends on our decision that the later version of the story is reliable. And we must acknowledge that this does not happen by chance but is part of a design of communication. It is the implied author who juxtaposes the two narrations of the story and "allows" us to decide which is true.

On February 12th at 7 pm a 38 year old man felt distracted for seconds when he was walking down the street. The Attention Deficit Disorder, as he calls it himself, was caused by the wrong spelling of the word caffeine.

A semi-painful distraction happened to a 21 year old man who didn't notice the wrong spelling of the word caffeine at all when he walked down the same street. When he stepped into a barbershop a few moments later, his distraction ended abruptly.

Like several other people he left his hair there.
He didn't remember his eye color for a second,
a phenomenon which had occurred also to some
of the other 34 people which were listed in the
found data set.

The data set includes a print of the right index
finger, the name and zip code and a photograph
of each person.

About a month before a similar incident had
appeared for the first time, on January 14th:
All of a sudden a 23 year old man had felt very disappointed, as if he had been incredibly
cheated, disregarded and ripped-off.

This unreckoned change of inner emotion stood
in huge contrast to the vision the young man had
had of himself.

His friends, who had witnessed his change,
had talked loudly about it in order to drown
the background music out. Nobody knows or
remembers anything in particular.

Up to now the young man could not get back to
his original emotional level.

Our judgement that Johny's version of the story
is reliable depends on our decision that the later
version of the story is unreliable. We must
acknowledge that this does not happen by chance
but it is us who juxtapose the two narrations of
the story. It is us who decide which is true. Still,
nobody is responsible.