Tabula Rasa Magazine

About

It’s strange to learn you’ve done something you have no recollection of doing. You didn’t blackout from a drinking binge, and you weren’t sleepwalking. You were simply living your life. Or, rather, performing it. Every voluntary move we make—getting out of bed in the morning, going to our jobs, dating, grabbing coffee, going to the restroom—is a performance. It doesn’t always have to be a sold-out audience, but it’s the role of a lifetime.

To some degree, we’re all aware that society looms large over our actions. As the visionaries in this issue show, we modify ourselves based on those imposed standards. In the moment we might tell ourselves these performative adjustments aren’t important, but ultimately they shape us as individuals. Once we become aware that every part of life is a performance, we can take control of our output. But then again, isn’t that a performance?