Participant 2: Anonymous
(Completed on 23rd February 2017, Singapore)

1) Why do you choose to be anonymous in this documentation?
Singapore is unfortunately not a very open-minded country when it comes to such projects. Hence I decided it is better to take part anonymously. I don’t want to be judged for my participation.

2) What were your thoughts and feelings when you first read about Undressing Room?
I liked the concept and thought it was a great idea. I also had the feeling that this might be seen as a provocation and that the event could be seen negatively in Singapore.

3) Describe your experience of Undressing Room.
Overall Undressing Room was a deep and challenging experience for me. This is because it is not simply about undressing but about making undressing an artistic, almost spiritual, act, in which the focus is on the process and exposing oneself consciously, rather than simply undressing and changing outfits. 

The performance started with the introduction given by Ming’s assistant who made clear what I had to expect. I could ask her all sort of questions and she made me feel relaxed, prior to the actual performance. It was good that she was there. 

Once in the room, Ming had tea with me in an attempt to calm me down and to make me ready for the act of undressing. I felt nervous and funny at the same time. It felt awkward to me but after a while I decided to simply indulge myself into it. The process of undressing was quite fun and I felt okay doing it. The awkwardness came into play when the act was done and I was left bare naked. Suddenly I felt exposed.

After a certain time, the performance finished and after getting dressed I entered the 3rd room for reflection reasons. It was a good moment to talk about the experience. Overall the experience was strange, but not in a bad way. It was something I was not used to and I felt educated afterwards.

4) What was it like for you, being a participant in Undressing Room?
It felt special and unusual, and had something of being a guinea pig for a new form of art. At the beginning, it felt funny and I had problems to get into the mood. I had to laugh about the surrealism of the moment. Once naked, I felt awkward and slightly uneasy. The most challenging part was enduring the time of nudity after the undressing was done. Because suddenly, you are naked and can’t do anything about it. You can’t distract yourself from that fact by undressing more. You are there, just naked.

5) How was it for you to undress each other and touch each other’s naked skin?
The undressing part was ok, but the touching part was a bit weird and after 10 minutes or so, I felt that it was enough already. There was no arousal. That would have been strange. That was the last thought that crossed my mind.

6) What did you get out from the whole experience? 
That nudism is totally overrated in our society. I wanted to know how it feels to undress consciously and I wanted to know if that would impact my life in a way that I am becoming more easygoing and confident. I expected it to be easier. I didn’t anticipate it to feel awkward. It was more severe of a feeling. For me, Undressing Room is like a mirror of our understanding of our body and how we perceive ourselves.

7) Did you feel unsafe or threatened at any point in Undressing Room?
Nope.

8) Would you participate in Undressing Room again?
Not too sure. Depends on the circumstances.

9) Other comments.
I think it’s a great idea for a performance but one that is challenging the perception of people.