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with everyone sharing what they
thought was wrong with society. It was
nothing cheesy, with everyone simply
saying what they had to say. Somewhere
during the airing of frustrations and
solutions, the girl who initially vocalized
her uncomfortable curiosity about why
our presenter was naked began to cry.

Someone then asked Diamant
about previous Human Body Projects
and how often people get up and
join her. Diamant backtracked to the
session’s opening comments, to a time
where most of us were still struggling
to understand why there was a naked
middle-aged woman standing in front
of us. She said that people often became
inspired and take off all of their clothes
too. Diamant recalled fondly of an
89-year-old woman who did just that at
one of the recent sessions. A follow-up
question asked if she’s ever had a room
of people where everyone got naked, to
which Diamant replied no. “But this
room feels pretty close.”

For the second time in an hour,
everyone exchanged confused looks,
half expecting to see the person sitting
next to them to be magically already
undressed. But other than that, no one
moved. Diamant continued mediating
the discussion.

Then, in a moment I can barely
recall, a girl sitting behind began to
address Diamant. “Looking at you up
there, I’m realizing just how many layers
I put on today... I don’t know.” Diamant
invited her to join her, and the girl began
to have a vocal debate with herself
over whether she should or shouldn’t.
“Why not!” She strode to the front and
began to slowly shed the layers that
she had become so aware of. Not much
time passed before the girl who used
to be an actress, the girl who studied in
Barcelona, and several others walk up
to join her. Before I knew it, there were
at least six people standing alongside
Diamant, as exposed as the day they
were born.

The girl who was crying before
continued to do so, but at a slightly
louder volume. I felt a slight urge to cry
alongside with her, but I’m still not sure
why. The room felt like the Fort Knox of
humanity.

By this point, our time was officially
up and you could hear the attendees
from other panels being let out for lunch.
The organizer pointed out that lunch is
about an hour long and that technically,
we didn’t have to be out of the room
until then. A few people took the
opportunity to walk out, turning their
backs to those naked as they headed for
the door. As they left, passersby in the
hallway got a glimpse of what it means
to be human. Diamant insisted that if

anyone walked by and wanted to join,
they could.

“We could go for a walk,” Diamant
suggested next to her brave group of
nudes.

“Where?”

“Anywhere. Down the hall. Around
the hotel lobby. Parliament isn’t too far
away from here.” A few laughs were
exchanged, but it became clear that
Diamant was being serious. The snow
on the ground outside though seemed to
be a major deterrent.

With every minute that passed by,
another person left and another made
their way to the front and revealed who
they were underneath all the clothing
brands and extra commercialized
fabrics. I was still trying to grapple what
it was I was feeling when out of the
corner of my eye, I saw the girl who had
been crying. She still was, probably more
than before, but she was now standing,
slowly removing her clothes, trembling
the whole time. She made her way to
the front and as she fell in line with the
others, after a few nervous laughs, her
tears ceased.

It felt like a victory for everyone
in the room. People smiled at each
other like they were old acquaintances
and though some of us couldn’t fully
comprehend what we were feeling, we
finally understood Diamant’s message.
But not longer after, her open door
policy backfired.

A delegate from another paper who
I had seen creeping on various girls
through the conference poked his head
in and saw what was going on. He sat
down in a chair next to me and began
to browse the people who were baring
it all at the front of the room. The only
thing I could feel at that moment was
rage, as | saw him carefully surveying
their’ bodies. The honest and trusting
environment Diamant had created
vanished for me. Almost immediately
after he had sat down, the man got up
and began to make his way to the front.
Without knowing the reason why people
were naked, he was going to join them.

At that point, I felt an indescribable
urge to flee the room and return to the
world waiting outside the door. I made
a half-assed remark about how I had to
meet people for lunch and then left the
room without looking back.

When I finally made my way into
the hotel elevator and pressed the button
for my floor, the first thing I noticed was
how badly my hands were shaking. But
that didn’t matter, because in my mind,
I wasn’t in the elevator. I was back in the
conference room, breathing heavily as
I stood up and lifted my shirt over my
shoulders.

 

 

O&A with Tasha Diamant

 

A few weeks after the conference, | sent an email to Tasha telling her
that | wanted to write an article on my experience I had. She was kind
enough to respond to a few of my questions and give a bit of insight to
what The Human Body Project ts to her.

How long have you been doing The Human Body Project for?
I started in March 2006. At that time, I made a commitment to do
it at least once a year, partly as a chronicle of a body changing
over time. The first one was so powerful I realized right away
that I needed to do more. It’s very difficult, though, to figure out
ways to get the HBP “out there” because, as you say below, it’s
very difficult to categorize. Luckily, there are fringe festivals.

It’s almost impossible to describe what it is you do (seminar,
performance art, etc). How do you describe it to people?

For the fringe, I describe it as performance art. In my Master’s
research I describe it as arts-based research (there’s a whole
school of thought about this; I’m not the only one doing arts-
based research... you could call it a form of creative inquiry).

I also think of it as public education. I also think of it, as I
mentioned to the girl who cried in the back, as an experience

of non-domination. We live in a culture of domination and
competition when we could be living in a culture of cooperation
and acceptance. I also think of the HBP as a form of non-violent
action in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi.

If my PowerPoint had worked I would have showed a slide
that read, “The medium is the message.” My body—a human
body—is the message. We live in a culture where body=sexual
or body=status or body=shame, etc. Definitely bodies always
need to be fixed in some way in our culture, especially women’s
bodies. But body=human, i.e. for all of us, our body is the “site”
of our humanity, our nature, our creativity, love, feelings, etc.
And for women, it is the vessel of creating the most perfect
beings on earth, babies! How did we get so separate from these
miracles? No wonder our culture is addicted, ill, lost, and on the
way out.

If you wanted people to take at least one thing away from the
HBP, what do you hope that is?

Feel something! I believe people don’t really change until they
experience something viscerally. | want people to change from
the programming we've all received that makes us prefer the
who’s-on-top/ego mode of evaluating our lives to the difficult
but necessary understanding of our own/ other people’s/the
planet’s vulnerability, where, in that place, we understand that
we are all in the same boat. The main way to “do” this is to
actually feel your feelings. I created the HBP out of my pain and
anger with the destructive train wreck humanity is on. I believe
most of us have an awareness of this pain and are unwilling to
feel it because it is too vulnerable (and inconvenient).

I would also like people to join me in my Human Body
Project Outside excursions. I started on Jan 1 and am planning
another outside action on Feb 14 in Victoria (check the Facebook
page for more information).

Do you have any plans to bring the HBP outside of Victoria in
the near future?

I may be presenting the HBP at a conference in Ontario in
October. It hasn’t been confirmed. I’m also on the waiting list for
the Vancouver Fringe.

Have you ever thought about the HBP’s life expectancy, or is it

something that you plan to do until the very end?
Right now I’m committed to do it until I die.

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