My Dog’s Name is Cat

Kate Hawkins and Eloise Fornieles
2011
Physical Centre, curated by Juliana Cerqueira Leite
Guest Projects, London

‘My Dog’s Name is Cat’, examined the paradox of the Internet as a highly intimate yet extremely public medium. Dressed as a dog and a cat we sat at opposite ends of a long table, each in front of a laptop. The performance was based on a constructed dialogue between the two animals that was spoken by the computers in automated voices. As the performance played out it became clear to the viewer that the dog was pretending to be a cat and the cat a dog. A romantic narrative ensued that was all the more absurd due to it being spoken in computerised dialogue. The performance concluded with these simulated online identities being unveiled in exchange for a stab at love: a happy ending all round. However, it also addressed a darker side of social networks, hinting at the dangers of loneliness, simulated identities and façades of intimacy that are intrinsic to our ever-increasing use of social media.