Photo by Dianne Bowen

The Party is Over
Virtual Reality as Life Imprisonment

Kofi Fosu Forson

The party began for me in my bedroom as it normally does for most teens.

As a child I was playing with a neighborhood girl Regina when I stuck an Ever Ready battery in her underwear pretending she was pregnant. I was chastized heavily for this.

A diagnosis of depression kept me in my bedroom for months. In between therapy I did everything to keep my spirits up. I wrote poetry, sang to my self, wrote theatrical sketches where I played the part of each character both male and female.

Once I grew to the point of health and started college I concentrated on girls and a social life. I remember trying on a condom for the first time in preparation for my first sexual encounter. It was quite successful and lead to other meetings with girls in that bedroom of my parent's apartment. As legend would have it I lived in that bedroom beyond its limit changing the lives of some, inspiring many, sitting with some beautiful women, collaborating with musicians in performances and persuing my ability to write, paint and photograph.

The party truly began in college as it does for many who leave their place of home to study elsewhere. I chose a college in the city and so home was not far away. The center of my living bordered people I met in school and others in the bars and clubs.

A cafe called Heaven changed the lives of many who knew it. It was at the point when the Barely Legal generation were making an impression in society. Many of my friends were maturing thinking about adult relationships. All of a sudden we were faced with teeneaged girls who wanted to drink and smoke with us.

Unice was a highschool not far. Many of its students drifted into the cafe, young, attractive girls who came in for coffee. Somehow they were allowed to smoke. Then again at this point and time smoking was a common thing.

It was such an exceptional point and time to be among these girls and others from around the world. A hostel was right near by. This was our party before the year 2000 which was to change everything.

Certainly the 2000 decade was techno ponorgraphic. Internet porn and new technology changed everything. Much as everything was supposed to crash at the welcoming of that year it didn't. Little did we know that politically we were destined for a crash of another circumstance.

Our reality then if party at the beginning of this decade was the welcoming of Tantra and gender division where women found a new calling, their centerdness on what was their ability and will as sexual beings.

Domesticity combined with libido became common as in the invention of the word M.I.L.F. (Mother's I'd Like To Fuck) as well as home made porno. The infestation of pornography on the internet had begun.

What was the party then was the gentrifying of many neighborhoods, areas in places like Bushwick and Williamsburg in New York City's Brooklyn welcome a new generation of people, be it hipsters, young lesbians, black new wave or a heavy gay population with it a homo eroticizing of culture.

In this decade I found art as a professional. This was my party. Writing and directing for Riant Theater. Interning at Eickholt Gallery. A partnership with Liverpool's Transvoyeur and my very own independent work with what would be knows as "muses," this was my party where communication was ideal. Whether I was dialoguing with other artists in Europe through the email or telephone, even the postal mail. Directing actors for the stage where I studied the nuances of performance and creativity. Writing press releases for an art gallery, overseeing its artists where I hosted literally parties where there were some Hollywood types.

Where is the party now. I see how people are stuck on social media sites whether they are known celebrities or people who think they are celebrities at least try to be.

I see a world of artists with no vision torn between domesticity no sense of income yet they live this affordable life entitled to pretend to be nothing. The nothingness of their existence is an example of how futile the greater picture. They suppose this philosophical role in a world where the artist is no longer philosophical.

Political verse and prose are examples of modern philosophy.

Walking among these artists, going to these art shows is afterall a means but to what end.

Great artists are either dead or they exist.

More or less we are at a point where we are trying to sell wisdom. Much of this is an imposition and threat.

The party now is virtual. Prison sentence. Life imprisonment.

Virtual reality does not equal enlightenment but for many it does.

The party is over. I can breathe now.