The Defendant is Present
The Defendant is Present is an experimentation with queer(ing) justice. A pursuit of an alternative dispute resolution apparatus, The Defendant is Present seeks to transform the resolution of a conflict into an embodied experience of catharsis.
During this performance-workshop, each participant will put on trial a defendant of their choice. Each individual trial will entail a five-phase proceeding:
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Indictment: selecting a desired defendant, and deciding the charges against them.
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Arraignment: each participant stand before me, and reading the indictment aloud as I embody their defendant of choice. I will ask you to read your indictment aloud.
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Deliberation: Each participant can choose either to answer questions that I ask them about the indictment for 3 minutes (hence the timer), or declare they are ready to give their verdict.
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Verdict: Each participant decides the verdict against the defendant. It can be either “guilty” or “not guilty.”
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Punishment: Be it a “guilty” verdict, the participant cut an opening on my shirt along one of the designated lines. Through that opening, they inscribe the word “guilty” on my body using these markers.
The performance-workshop was held on 30 June, 2025 at the Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College, London.