The Joanna Spitzner Foundation Blog

The project that I propose for The Creative Class is currently called Tears of Love. It is a performance with documentation and objects. It is based on the idea of catharsis. In ancient Greece a human Katharma would be paraded around the city soaking up all the toxins and impurities of the community. The Katharma would then be murdered expiating the sins of the city, and thereby alleviating social tension. Greek theater has its origins in ritual, and Aristotle’s translation (and domestication) of catharsis as emotional release maintains this violent background. Oddly enough when modern scientists study how emotions function in the brain they find this same structure. Recent research has shown that tears shed under different emotions have different chemical makeups. On a biological level our emotions are different chemical balances. When we feel any particular emotion strongly enough it causes some chemicals to spike creating a chemical imbalance that becomes physically toxic to the brain. Our body treats these toxins like any other and attempts to flush them out. This cleansing of toxins is why we weep.

For this project I am going to attempt to obtain crystalline oxytocin. Oxytocin is a naturally occurring brain chemical secreted in childbirth, breastfeeding, sex, and “positive social interactions.” Oxytocin is what makes you feel high for a few weeks when you first fall in love. I will dissolve the oxytocin in water, and inhale it using an inhaler. I will then attempt to cry and collect my tears. Those tears will then be analyzed by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) to show that they indeed contain oxytocin. The final piece will consist of the test tube of tears, chromatography readout, photographs and video. Lately my studio practice largely consists of talking to people and trying to convince them to help me make a work of art. Much of the “work” that will produce this piece will be talking to people, doctors, chemical supply companies, chemists, crime lab forensic scientists (who routinely use HPLC to test for trace elements of illicit drugs), and gain their help in creating the piece.

Thomas Gokey