pinkanarchygrrl

[pinkanarchygrrl]

It's my 1 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

#1 year tumblrversary #tumblr milestone

[pinkanarchygrrl]

Pretty excited to find this pin at Mardi Gras, so cool to see some neo pronouns becoming more visible

#transgender #genderqueer #neo pronouns #queer artist

[pinkanarchygrrl]

Media Ecology in the Garden

It became apparent as I was heading towards the fourth video in this series that I would need more time to complete the last video. Since I had set the goal of posting a rough cut video artwork every two weeks, instead of giving up or posting a very rushed video work I am posting a video that is a discussion about the topic of art medium and it's shaping of our society.

The work had been planned to explore this subject through a little stop-go story about a man made of chalk who wanted to walk in a 3D world, he was so determined that he discovered how to turn himself into paper and then clay! Once he was able to step foot in the 3D world he wandered through the grass and found a tree. Once he had seen the tree now he wanted to know what it was like to be up in the tree. It was hard work but he was helped with some inspiration from above and he managed to find a way to climb the tree. Now he looked down and saw the chalk garden where he came from. I might still make this work but I am also considering leaving it as artwork in three parts.

These works are part of a larger site specific exhibition in a garden setting. The final show will be a combination of large interactive installations, smaller sound works and the three (or four) video works projected onto various surfaces in the garden.

I hope the video is somewhat engaging and I would love to hear about other opinions on how out society has been shaped, positive or negative by today's technology and mediums.

references

Strate, L. (2008) Studying media as media: McLuhan and the media ecology approach. Media Tropes, 1, 127-142. Retrieved from http://www.mediatropes.com/index.php/Mediatropes/issue/view/174

Fuller, M. (2005). [Introduction]. In Media ecologies (pp. 1-5). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Shaefer, R, M. (1977) The Tuning of the World. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, Canada

#anti capitalism #experimental film #female filmmakers #film art #girlartist #videoart #work in process #filmmaking #vimeo #curators #Vimeo

[pinkanarchygrrl]

Nostalgic Magic

This video work is an exploration of the visceral and cathartic possibilities through embodied experiences of nostalgia and magical realism.

My original concept for this video work was to explore the aesthetics of gender and the performative nature of self expression. However I received feedback from several friends and colleagues who viewed previous works being developed for this series who said they were not sure what I was trying to say with the imagery. They both felt a narrative connection was not clear. Although it was not my intention to create a clear narrative I wondered perhaps if the work was muddying the line between narrative and non-narrative based assemblage (Rizzo, T. 2012) and in doing so creating a nullifying effect on both. Leaving some viewers with neither a clear narrative nor a purely abstract embodied experience. The concept for the gender aesthetics involved a number of interviews and out of town filming, a similar scope and planned structure to the first two works, possibly ending up with a similar outcome. As an experiment I decided to create a different kind of work accentuating the abstract through simplifying my subject matter and prioritising an opportunity for viscerality and private affect.

Getting my feet wet at the shoreline of what is a vast ocean I became quite overwhelmed looking into the nature of aesthetics and affect. My personal interpretation of this work represents the tip of the iceberg of what seems to be an undefinable and infinitely subjective field of enquiry. I question how one can semantically delineate something which is a bodily experience and thus in “conceptual opposition” (O'Sullivan, S. 2001). Creating language to approach such a subject has the potential to frustrate its meaning (O’Sullivan, S. 2001) although this does not stop the many stimulating theories from being valuable. Perhaps in an attempt to reconcile the contradictions there is the scientific lens of affect, an area which I am not focusing on with this work but acknowledge its existance as an interesting way to bridge the gap. The interactive map of emotions created by Doctoral student Alan S. Cowen and Prof. Dacher Keltner, PhD whilst a thought provoking example of such a bridging attempt suggests semantic spaces have fallen short of visually representing the nuances and interconnectedness of the human emotional landscape (Perry, P. 2017) which appears to be another self contradiction being in itself a semantic space. I question if emotions can accurately be defined in language through adding visual stimuli and gradients in between the suggested key emotions therein, again contradicting the corporeal aspect that opposes finite definition (O’Sullivan, S. 2001) averting true meaning. Although this study has merit in that affect cannot be viewed purely from a semantic or semiotic tonality due to the undefinable and ultimately subjective nature of an individual's emotional experience. O’Sullivan supports Philosopher Brian Massumi’s view that a semiotic or semantic interpretation of affect can only ever be symbolic and quotes his statement; “What they lose, precisely, is the event – in favour of structure” . These like forces arguably cannot account for the visceral moment.

Attempting to find some reconciliation I was again faced with new arguments of the interconnectedness of aesthetics and affect. Considering art as autonomous and cultivating moments of affect only experienced fully on reflection (O’Sullivan, S. 2001) therefore accentuating a non-temporal intensity and value. O’Sullivan proposes Adorno’s theory moves towards a concept of aesthetics being deceptive and unavoidably disappointing through attempting to represent an unachievable reality. Moving away from this negative aesthetic is a reconfiguration (O’Sullivan, S. 2001) toward the act of representing as an endeavour toward contemplation and meaning.

Ruminating on my own creative practice’s aesthetic tendencies several themes have emerged. Magical Realism is a landscape I return to often in order to comment on social constructs and attempt a certain mood allowing for audience contemplation through a partial removal from familiar spaces.

Magical Realism being in itself an oxymoron (Benito, J. 2009) the style of the video work itself is reminiscent of the contradictions within affect theories emitting a meta undertone.

Beginning with the actual construction of the small set used in the work I have created an assemblage of items symbolising the characters’ inner world. Through the juxtaposition (Bennito, J. 2009) of items reminiscent of times outside of the temporal experience but recognizable to the viewer, such as the old medicine bottles and indications of known and unknown medicinal herbs and plants, with items positing nostalgic reference to times of analogue technology, such as the headphones, communications device and cassette tapes.

Literature theorist and researcher Sapna Bhalla proposes in her study of Magical Realism that through hybridity and converging multiple planes it is possible to “create a deep and true reality” . The hybridity in this work is created through the inharmonious (Bhalla, S. 2018) objects curated and filmed to evoke moments of questioning and a tone of disembodied magic. The character which engages with the set appears humanlike and is equally imbued with an element of creatureality by rupturing the deeply human concept of “eyes are the gateway to the soul”. By subtly modifying the eye area of the face away from humanity the soul of this body becomes creature like, reinforcing the incongruous and hopefully urging an intensity.

Augmenting the material environment is the use of light and colour. Drawing on the sensation of blackness and perception of grey, not as a reflection of early colour theory in which blackness was broadly viewed as an experience of no sensation (Ladd-Franklin, C. 1929) but leaning towards Goethe’s concept of blackness as an active ingredient in the light spectrum with its own sensation (Goethe 1941) offering a potentiality for the viewer to experience a sense of privation (Goethe 1941). Blackness is used as a contrasting element to the adjacent colours, subdued through grey values, mimicking the infinite “hues” of affect theory.

The central focus of this video work is a visual assemblage of the installation. The body interacting with it is an extension of the installation and the installation is an extension of the body. In his discussion of literary and critical theorist Julia Kisteva’s writings about aesthetics, O’Sullivan presents her concept of the installation as a space of “incarnation” which he supports by quoting philosopher Alain Badiou’s articulation of “an event site”. A tonal space with possibilities of meaning, in this case nostalgia with sub tones of melancholy as an empathetic embodiment creating possibilities of autonomic emotional response. Nostalgia, once thought to be an experience which could have a negative effect psychologically, was found by researchers doing a collaborative international study of the subject in 2011 to have the capability to fulfil deficits in existential meaning (Wildschut, T. et al 2011) which is my hope to offer with this video work.

Whilst understood that nostalgia is subjective and will be experienced by way of varying stimuli based on a person’s socio-cultural make-up, through attempting a nostalgic quality in the work it becomes an experiment moving toward Walter Bejamin’s “messianic time”, moments of affect immediately over once experienced but instilled by reflection.

I hope this work can take you on a little journey slightly out of time and place, evoke feelings and provide little moments of meaning or reflection.

References:

O'Sullivan, S. (2001). The aesthetics of affect: Thinking art beyond representation. Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities, 6(3), pp. 125-135.

Caygill, H. (1998). Walter Benjamin : The colour of experience. Taylor & Francis Group.

Mourenza, D. (2020). Walter Benjamin and the aesthetics of film. Amsterdam University Press.

Rizzo, T. (2012). Deleuze and Film: A Feminist Introduction. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Perry, P (2017). Article. Online Magazine Neuropsych Scientists Chart 27 Distinct Human Emotions on This Interactive Map. Retrieved from

https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/27-distinct-human-emotions-have-been-identified-and-mapped-in-a-starling-way/

Benito, J., Manzanas, A.M., Simall, B. (2009). Uncertain Mirrors : Magical Realism in US Ethnic Literatures, BRILL, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sae/detail.action?docID=556624.

Created from sae on 2022-04-09 04:38:00.

Bhalla, S. (2018) Magic Realism Aesthetic Blend of Magical and Realistic Elements in PostModern Fiction, Volume 5, Issue 7 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research. Retrieved from www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)

Ladd-Franklin, C. (1929) Colour and Colour Theories, Routledge, Trench, Trubner & Co.

Goethe, J. W. (1840) Theory of Colours. John Murray; London

McLaverty-Robinson, A. (2013) Walter Benjamin: Messianism and Revolution - Theses on History; Online Magazine; Ceasefire. Retrieved from https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/walter-benjamin-messianism-revolution-theses-history/#:~:text=He%20suggests%20that%20the%20'messianic,in%20spirit%20to%20past%20revolts

#anti capitalism #experimental film #female filmmakers #film art #girlartist #videoart #work in process #curators #film photography #filmmaking #Vimeo

[pinkanarchygrrl]

Warning:

This video contains nudity and themes of sexual violence

Sukeban Grrrl Boss - Process Video #2

This video work is a semiotic inquiry through re-contextualising perception of the voyeurism, commodification and representation of Japanese Girl Gangs, the Sukeban. An attempt to lead the audience into transtemporal spaces and meanings both in body (Rizzo, T. 2012) and mind. A becoming (Rizzo, T. 2012) provoking questioning of the experience of dialectic gaze and embrace.

As with my previous post please read on below if you would like more information on the context and process of this work. If you would prefer to view without further context please stop reading here.

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Sukeban is the name for the Japanese Girl Gangs of the 1960's and 70's. Literally translated Sukeban means Girl Boss (Schmid-Reess, H. 2019) and is potentially one of the origins for the concept we know in western society today depicting a strong female leading character. The Sukeban were formed in Japan in the 1960's in response to boy gangs "Bancho" not allowing girls to be members. The gangs had a very specific look which not only created a visual connection but also could have been in protest of the male sexualisation of women in Japan (Schmid-Reess, H. 2019). The gang members would modify their school uniforms, lengthening their skirts to ankle length and embroidering anarchic slogans and gang symbols (Wang, A. 2020), cropping their shirts to show their midriff and rolling up their sleeves. The long skirts were used to hide weapons, mostly chains and blades.

Researcher and writer Dr. Alicia Kozma, author of Pinky Violence: Shock, Awe and the Exploitation of Sexual Liberation explores the the Japanese exploitation films of the 60's and 70's depicting the Sukeban in what she calls 'alternative constructions of gender and female sexuality' (Kozma, A. 2014). Kozma proposes that the Pinky Violence films featuring the Sukeban are undervalued for their potential to explore constructions and new iterations of gender (Kozma, A. 2014) from Japanese cinema in this era.

My video work attempts to examine a different interpretation to Dr. Kozma's work through a semiotic lens and an inquiry into the commodification and Bathes-esque mythological interpretation of the Sukeban. Although the films do portray strong female characters winning out over oppressive and violent male characters there is a darker side to these films which is less talked about. Film Director Norifumi Suzuki who co-wrote and directed the majority of what are referred to as Sukeban or Pinkie Violence films speaks candidly about procuring leading actresses Reiko Ike and Miki Sugimoto by picking them up at a bar (Suzuki, N.) once they had been seduced and promised fame they were required to do many scenes involving nudity or semi nudity, soft porn and sexual torture. These scenes invoke more of an opportunity for sexual voyeurism than female empowerment. As such the strong and gender disruptive meaning of the original Sukeban was formed into an ideological abuse (Bathes, R. 1957) through a mythology of apparently empowering films which were made by preying on young girls and then sexually exploiting them for the profit of Toi Studios. Looking for sources which had first hand interviews with either of these actresses turned up nothing in English although I found second hand information indicating, specifically Reiko Ike, having left Toi due to the constant pressure of doing nude scenes. This knowledge creates a shift in authorial identity (Busse, K. 2013) from portraying empowerment to a deconstructionist inversion of meaning.

The style and approach of the video work is based on researcher and writer Professor Tereza Rizzo's theories of cinematic assemblages and becomings. The work opens with images of a child turning her hands into animals and seeing a performer enter the stage she questions "Is it a cow?". Presenting as signifiers of the synchronic nature of her experience of language and meaning. Attempting a disruptive time-image work (Rizzo, T. 2012) the images shift temporally and in meaning from the children's dance performance to male and female dancers embodying interpretations of sexuality, a contrast in it's complexity and dimensionality to the child's expression of meaning. This proposes to create for the audience the beginning of an assemblage, an embodied viewing experience (Rizzo, T. 2012) provoking an exposure to the viewers own diachronical perceptions from childhood through to adulthood.

Hoping the viewer is introduced somewhat to the sensation of a reality specific to a becoming (Rizzo, T. 2012) through an internally experienced semiosis, the work transitions into a reflective visualisation of sexual voyeurism and commodification through the context of Sukeban mythology. Here the work deepens into the becoming, as in an embodied re-interpretation through melded images of varied inferred meanings. For example images of original sukeban gangs melt into Suzuki's sexualised film posters and screen captures. Still from scenes of sexual torture and sex scenes are given a different meaning when a partially opaque image fades over of Reiko Ike gazing through a wired fence which in turn has its meaning altered from the original film it came from due it it's association with the sexualised images.

Encouraging the viewer further into an internalised sensory experience, in collaboration with noise artist Lucas Darklord, part of the soundscape was created using a process called Fast Fourier Transform or FFT and applying this to soundbites from the Norafumi interview and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. FFT is an algorithm which calculates the element in a sequence which is able to convert parts of the sequence into different representations. In this way the audio creation is an experiment in semiotics. What new meanings are created when not only are the sounds processed in a way that changes the original meaning, they are then replacing the sound from some of Norifumi's interview further disrupting the original meaning. These processed sounds are used in other parts of the work strengthening the deconstruction.

Through this attempted assemblage the work aims to develop a becoming (Rizzo, T. 2012) for both itself and for the audience, an outcome is not determined nor what the audience will experience only the hope that they will have an embodied experience and that meanings will be internalised and disrupted.

References

Alicia Kozma (2012) Pinky Violence: Shock, awe and the exploitation of sexual liberation, Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, 3:1, 37-44, DOI: 10.1386/jjkc.3.1.37_1

Bathes, R. (1957) Trans. Lavers, A (1972) Mythologies, Noonday Press: New York

Busse, K. (2013).The return of the author: Ethos and identity politics. In J. Gray & D. Johnson (Eds.), A companion to media authorship (pp. 48-68). West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Rizzo, T. (2012) Chapter 3: Cinematic Assemblages an Ethological Approach. in Deleuze and Film: a feminist introduction, (pp.57-80) London: Continuum.

Video; Interview With Norifumi Suzuki. Posted to YouTube by MeikokajiSasori; retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4urEFOXPpIo

Schmidt-Reed, H. (2019) Article; Sukeban - The Forgotten Story of the Japanese Girl Gangs, Perspex Blog; retrieved from https://www.per-spex.com/articles/fashion-history/2019/2/16/sukeban-the-forgotten-story-of-japans-girl-gangs

Wang, A (2020) Article; Defiant and Dangerous: The Girl Gangs of '70's Japan, calibremag; retrieved from https://www.calibermag.net/blog/2020/10/1/defiant-amp-dangerous-the-girl-gangs-of-70s-japan

#filmmaking #experimental film #film art #videoart #girlartist #female filmmakers #anti capitalism #work in process #creative works #Vimeo

[pinkanarchygrrl]

The Weeds are Rioting

A Commentary on the Culture Industry - Process Video #1

This video artwork is the first in a series of works I am developing reflecting on coerced perception and the Culture Industry, semiotics of voyeurism and gender aesthetics. They are not finished works and as part of the development process I am sharing them in order to hear what viewers think and feel when watching the unfinished versions. I am using a practice based research style as part of the development process and will use the feedback for reflection and consideration for following iterations of the works

The Weeds are Rioting is an inquiry into how humans have been trained to perceive certain things as “good” such as a smooth green lawn and weed free manicured beds of blooming flowers. Who is doing the “training”? Why is a smooth green lawn without brown patches better than one which is patchy and has dandelions growing in it? Why do we perceive weeds as “bad” or “unwanted” and what defines a weed? How are these images and concepts a metaphor for the commodification we as humans have been trained into accepting as a normal and necessary part of life? These are some of the questions which this first work is asking and commenting on. 

If you would like more context for the work keep reading. If you would prefer to have an embodied viewing experience without further context stop reading now and just watch the video. 

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Reflections and context for The Weeds are Rioting 

In his theories about popular culture Professor John Story refers to Karl Marx’s formulation presenting the system of the superstructure (Story, J. 2014) and it’s dominance. Using the home garden as a metaphor this video artwork is reflecting on how humans’ will has been taken over by a coerced perception of what is necessary and valid by the superstructure which is representative of dominant and self benefiting societal groups (Story, J. 2014). Thus consciously building a popular culture which grooms society into thinking the consumerism offered is not only “good” (Adorno, T. 1991) but necessary for survival. 

The images of weeds superimposed with discarded hospital beds and rubbish strewn on the lawn of a closed down aged care facility refers and positions weeds as an anti Culture Industry symbol. The weeds represent the unsellable, the misplaced, a demo tape that is thrown in the bin at the record label because it is too experimental. Further explored in the images of dandelions with bees happily feeding off them, in the background TV Commercials for pesticides offer solutions to create a garden which would be seemingly more acceptable by getting rid of the dandelions. 

Theadore Adornos’s theory of the Culture Industry takes Marx’s superstructure and zooms in on the artistic ramifications of a such a system. One which exposes society to the art which it deems is easy to sell and does so repetitively until this same art is what is considered “good”. The mass advertising for the perfect ways to rid your garden of weeds and have the flowers which will be the envy of all your neighbours is juxtaposed with the interviews about wild gardens which are unruly and certainly not manicured but bring happiness, fragrance and food. These images and interviews focus on perception, for example the weed being used as a living wall to create beauty and privacy instead of killing it with the heavily advertised products which will turn your garden into what is accepted by “popular” culture.

Adorno discusses the concept of an advanced product renouncing consumption (Adorno, T. 1991) and as such these would arguably be viewed by the superstructure as less valuable. The mass production of garden tools and commodification of the concept of a “garden your neighbours will envy” because it is manicured, weed free and pest free, aims to signify the coerced societal and capitalist rejection of art which is overtly non-structured, improvised or experimental. 

There are two elements to the soundscape of the video which are used symbolically to comment on media production methods over time as a subliminal and temporal element. The interviews were recorded on a handheld cassette tape recorder and subsequently digitised juxtaposing old and new ways of media re-production. A second audio layer which feeds into this is the soundtrack. The artist who made the music tracks creates noise art partially through deconstructing artefacts from popular mass media such as Disney films which was the motivation for having these sounds acting as a subliminal auditory layer signifying the breadth of the superstructure in shaping perception through entertainment conglomerates.

In summary I would like to share an small anecdote which inspired my thinking process. A few years ago at a local market I bought a lovely plant which would normally have been considered a weed. It was sweetly potted and the stall owner was selling them for $5. It lived and grew happily in my bathroom, which gets almost no sunlight, for years. Why would I pay for a weed you might ask? Well, why not? 

References:

Adorno, T. W. (1991) The Culture Industry. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge.

Story, J. (2014) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman

Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T. W. (1993) The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. In Dialectic of enlightenment, (pp. 120-167). New York: Continuum.

#film art #girlartist #female filmmakers #videoart #anti capitalism #work in process #experimentation #experimental film #culture industry #karl marx #theodore adorno