I’m Garrett Lynch (IRL)

This article discusses a selection from a series of performances created between 2008 and 2019 that as practice as research (PaR) explore ideas of identity, representation and place as they relate to the intersection of what are termed ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ spaces. These include I’m Garrett Lynch (IRL) (2010), I’m Not Garrett Lynch (IRL) – Identity Badge Performance (2018–19), I’m Not Garrett Lynch (IRL) – Zazzle Store (2019), the three complementary performances of Three Wearable Devices for Augmented Virtuality (2011) and As Yet Unnamed (2019). The performance series initially occurred online and later incorporated gallery spaces and sites in six countries. From the outset, my Irish identity formed a crucial background to my practice but remained an implied rather than directly discussed perspective. This article’s purpose is to discuss practice from an Irish perspective and in so doing foreground and clarify how nationality and place were in fact essential to its development. Examining the use of written and to a lesser extent spoken language in performances, discussion explores how language is a problematizing starting point but equally enables an extension of my identity by implying my Irish nationality and Ireland as place. Irish nationality is described in this article as comparable to what is defined as ‘real’ and forms a component in the territorialization of both ‘virtual’ space and places of the phenomenological Other. Methods of moving between ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ spaces, influenced by the philosophical theory of Gilles Deleuze, are described in detail and performances are employed to demonstrate how this occurs. Finally, the use of naming and how it has impacted my identity in ‘real’ space and ongoing life is explored through the discussion of a performance in 2019.