8/10/2019 Getting unfriendly

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Star2, TUESDAY 14 JANUARY 2014 BRATS 7

By DENIELLE LEONGbrats@thestar.com.my

IN July 2011, performanceartist Brian Lobel allowed apanel of friends and ran-

dom strangers to decide if heshould keep or delete any ofhis 1,355 Facebook friends afterlistening to a 60-second presen-tation on each friendship.

Described as the worlds mostbrutal game of friendship main-tenance, the project, entitledPurge, sees the American (nowbased in London) examining thedistinction between online andreal friendship.

Within the five days that Purgewas performed, Lobel lost afew hundred friends on the socialmedia platform including 64that chose to delete him pre-emptively.

Since then, Lobel has presentedhis insight from that daring socialexperiment through his partgame, part story and part lectureperformances around the world,most recently in Malaysia.

Just last week, he took centrestage at the Kakiseni Freespacein SSTwo Mall, Petaling Jaya. Itwas the first show in Kakisenislatest series, SENIfix, an initiativeto expose more people to theperforming arts by including ele-

ments from other fields.What Kakiseni is tryingto do is to get input and

expertise from otherfields say medicine,

bio tech, architecture interested in increas-ing and promoting anawareness of arts inthat particular field,

shared Kakiseni presi-dent Low Ngai Yuen.

For Lobels arts-meets-digitalmedia show, he collaborated withdigital media consultant NikiCheong to discuss the emotionalimpact of digital technology onits users. Ironically, Cheongs roletook place on social media wherehe led a Twitterpretation dur-ing Lobels presentation.

Were killing two birds withone stone. While were lettingothers in on whats happeningduring the performance, my roleon Twitter also sparked discus-sions on topics related to Lobelsproject, explained Cheong.

Id never seen so much tech-nology in a room like that. It wasa weird experience for me, said

Lobel, adding that it was a cooladdition.

Overall, it was truly a uniqueexperience and a true testamentof the progress that our localperforming arts community ismaking.

To learn more about futureSENIfix shows, check out www.kakiseni.com and search the#SENIfix hashtag for tweetsrelated to the series.

By LAM KA-JHUN, MISTIKA IDRISand TAN JEN LIbrats@thestar.com.my

ITS a sacred part of football histo-ry that not many people get to seein person, at least not until now.And for those who have been in itspresence, chances are, it was aonce in a lifetime opportunity.

Were talking about the FIFAWorld Cup trophy, the mostcoveted and revered piece of sil-verware (or should we say gold-enware?) in the history of thebeautiful game and we BRATs

were right there to behold it in allits shiny glory.The trophy was in Kuala

Lumpur as part of the World CupTrophy Tour, which brought thetrophy to 88 countries aroundthe world over 267 days before itfinally returns to Brazil in time forthe 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Sure, some younger footballfans will probably find the UEFAChampions League the moreglamourous prize, especially withthe popularity of European clubfootball these days.

But no one can argue withthe sheer amount of history thatlittle golden statue has been apart of, having been lifted by the

likes of Diego Maradona, FranzBeckenbaur and, most recently,the Spanish team that has beenhailed as possibly the best nation-al side of all time.

And of course theres the factthat over 9,000 people turned upat the Putra World Trade Centre,KL to have a look at it and pre-

sumably get a few selfies with it.The venue, a Chinese restaurant,

was completely transformed intoa true football fan experience.There was foosball, bubble foot-

ball, freestyle footballers and evensome samba dancers flown all theway from Brazil.

The official mascot of the 2014FIFA World Cup was also there Fulesco the armadillo.

Visitors were also treated withthe opportunity to view a specialhologram show of some of the

most memorable moments in

World Cup history.Andrew Wigham, the managerof the event, said: It is alwaysfantastic to bring somethinglike the World Cup to Malaysia.Not many people get the privi-lege to see the trophy and it ishere, and you get to stand rightnext to it.

During a press conference inthe morning, FIFA Ambassadorand former Manchester Unitedforward Dwight Yorke wasasked by a football fan if hethought Malaysia could oneday reach the World Cup.

His response was that ifthe government investswell at the grassroots level,

there is no reason it canthappen. He added thatthe passion, skill andhistory are obviouslythere, but to achievetop-level success,you ultimately needcommitment anddedication.

The BRATs see the iconicFIFA World Cup trophyup close.

Goldenopportunity

Franz Beckenbauer, the first man tolift the FIFA World Cup Trophy.

Trophyfunfacts>>TheFIFAWorldCup

Trophyis36

cmhigh,madeofsolid18-carat

goldandweighs6.1kilograms.

>>FranzBeckenbauerwasthefirst

toliftitatthe1974WorldCup,

aftercaptainingWestGermany

tovictoryinthefinal.

>>OnlyheadsofstateandFIFA

WorldCupwinningplayerscan

actuallytouchorliftthetrophy.

>>Thewinningnationsnamesare

engravedonthebaseofthe

trophy,whichmightrunoutof

spacearound2038.

>>Theoriginaltrophypresented

toWorldCupwinners,theJules

Rimettrophy,wasawarded

permanentlytoBrazilafter

theywonitforthethirdtimein

1970.Itwasstolenin1983and

neverrecovered.

DiegoMaradona liftingthe trophy afterthe 1986 World

Cup final inMexico City.

Former Manchester Unitedforward Dwight Yorke, FAMsenior vice president Datuk SeriSubahan Kamal, Coca-Cola Far

East Limited (Malaysia)franchise director AgustinusGunadharma and Coca-ColaCompany global footballmanager Annamaria Gazda withthe FIFA World Cup trophy.

Digital media consultantNiki Cheong (left) andAmerican performanceartist Brian Lobelspeaking duringPurge, aproject which examinesour friendships on socialmedia and beyond.

GettingPerformance artistBrian Lobel makesus rethink ourvirtual friendships. unfriendly

The audience atPurgehelping Lobeldecide whether to keep or deletecertain Facebook friends.

As part of the performance, Lobel goes through hisFacebook friends list with the audience.