Introduction
This proposal will attempt to illustrate a strand of Feminism that is unusual in content, standpoint and presentation; examining how online spaces modify for women, in turn exhibiting an array of artworks from online platforms and digital technologies. Thus challenging the notion of contemporary art; as well as advancing the specific thematic of the show, hence questioning the typical feminist blockbuster structure, used continuously to exemplify the social and political struggles of women. This container of work aims to seek out the ambivalent hang ups of the online and curatorial outputs as well as its hybrid relationship with females; posing questions to the spectators, the art world and art curatorship.
In contesting these concepts, this exhibition request, intends to position this show in the unconventional space of the online in the form of a virtual reality environment, interrogating, the traditional, go to strategies of curation. The decision to situate this art show online, in particular in the evolving and limitless environment of VR is to firstly unpick the forever advancing phenomenon of digital technology and the online, and its relationship with feminism, coupled with the complicated nature of femaleness and space in the physical world. Lily Markiewicz furthers the latter by stating. ‘Space loses its neutrality and becomes territory, as a woman the definition of space is important. Space possesses a dual reality … Space, both in its physical and conceptual dimension … Women tend not to occupy space and to allow themselves to be made to feel small.’ (Deepwell, 1995, P64). Moreover, I am particularly interested in the paradox of women consuming a space which is not physical and tangible but yet is infinite and ethereal.
The keystone facet to this show is underpinned by the watered down ideology of ‘fourth wave feminism’ or what some would determine as strategic essentialism ‘which defends essentialist claims just because they are politically useful’ (Stone, 2004). Consequently, these selection of artists in LGR are reviving a political necessity reminiscent of Barbara Kruger’s “Untitled (Your Body Is a Battleground.)” Subsequently, their non-conformist works are diverging from the picture perfect social media applications and creating their own predetermined visual language through the gluttonous space of the online. Social media platforms allow a crafting of identity that appeal and become digestible to the male gaze. In particular, Instagram has been ranked as having ‘the most detrimental effect on young people’ (Cramer, 2017) by the application’s post production methods of filters, deducting the blemish of the woman’s physical essence making many women doubt their ‘lives and bodies … negatively influencing their body image and sleep patterns and fuelling a pervasive sense of FOMO.’ (Ruiz, 2017)
Virtual reality technology can beautifully drown the spectator in an other-worldly, limitless realm, however still keeping their feet firmly within this physical existence, channelling the ideology of an ‘exhibition within an exhibition.’ ‘Virtual landscapes can also figure as liminal realms of transformation, outside of the world of social limits and constraints … not entirely imaginary nor entirely real, animate but neither living nor dead.’ (Morse, 1998, P185), this never-ending container gives metaphorical prominence to the gender thematic that penetrates the content of this show and the subjects that run alongside my art practice.
Moreover, this innovative tool, VR technology has revolutionised the exhibition space and transformed it into an art piece in itself. Taking the voice of Gavin Wade ‘art is exhibition.’ (Wade, 2003, P64), to a literal sense.
Sarah Cook, founder of Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss (CRUMB) emphasises this point further. ‘There seems to be emphasis on shows that combine different forms of creative expression and privilege content and issues other than the medium itself.
***As new media art entered the mainstream of visual culture over the past decade, curatorial practice in the field has naturally shifted towards the centre from a niche, separate territory. There seems to be emphasis on shows that combine different forms of creative expression and privilege content and issues other than the medium itself.
This exhibition looks to push this lexicon further by the situating of artwork within an online show.
The name of this show is LGR, the titling resonates from internet acronyms and text message jargon to translate to the ‘Little Girls Room.’
A CONSIDERATION ON HOW THE ONLINE SPACE MODIFIES FOR FEMALES
Feminism is a word that has inherited a derogatory understanding, through its historical periods of the 80s and early 90’s. It was ‘stereotyped as uncool … a time when collective activist movements made headlines.’ (Friedman, 2006)
The titillating nature and intrusion of the online space by the female hand is a notion to examine further, as it has created much dialogue and traction in recent times. ‘In embracing the digital world, they are allowing increased exposure to tough socio-political topics and closer connections to their supporters.’ (Sullivan, 2015). One could suggest Cyberfeminism is at force here, it can be described as the ‘beginning to explore and more importantly beginning to create new worlds, in part through and in conversation with digital technologies.’ (Hawthorne, 1999, P4). Feminism steered to the online in the early 90s with the production of new technologies and their exploitation by women. Thus this form of Feminism has built a platform of controversy, ‘for every feminist issue in the real world, the same issues apply in the cyberworld.’ (Spender, 1996)
Some argue and expose the cyber governance is forever
CONCEPT FOR EXHIBITION
The internet, the network of charged space that brought the world together and yet a dark shadow sets in over its presence. This online network can be exemplified in the beautiful image of Pandora’s box. In Greek mythology, Pandora accompanied by a box was sent from the Gods to Earth to spread positivity, love and knowledge, however she was told not to open the box and yet she became curious and denied their order and released from the box all the ills of the world a likened anecdote to the trolling infestations of the internet.
VENUE & PRESENTATION OF WORK
This curation journey has led to the using of ‘hackers, programmers and tinkerer-revisionists drawing upon their local culture,’ (Cook, 2010, KL 89-90). In particular, the VR video and technical specialist Michael Smith, subsequently, allowing this project’s reality to be ignited. With the view to create a virtual exhibition space ‘The LGR’ that glitches in and out of consciousness into a sultry, seductive – yet, orgasmic queer girly existence. The VR experience of this exhibition will inhabit a programmed system glitch at haphazard periods of the exhibition observation enforcing a ‘new mode of foreplay … we want what we cannot have; whatever the material we are aiming to access, the glitch makes us wait and whimper for it,’ (Russell, 2012,) a coded, euphoric orgasm which digitalises the physicality of the female body and the pleasure imbued by viewing certain masculinised images on the internet, a provocative quality within the cyber-ether.
The construction and staging of this show can be said to be in conflict by its connections with the legendary project, Female Extension. Cornelia Sollfrand submitted hundreds of female works as well as generating hundreds of identities to coincide with these works to a museum by using the html program Net Art Generator. Consequently, Sollfrand’s authorship of the work was in contention; commencing battle between the machine (software) and artist? Thus Female Extension is akin to The LGR and its use of the VR technology, Unity along with VR guru, Smith, acknowledging Sollfrank’s ‘the smart artist makes the machine do the work.’ (Graham, 2010, P32).
(Curatorial Outputs)
Cyborg
Artists
Signe Pierce:
Signe Pierce is described as ‘The Fresh Face of the Cyberfeminist Art Scene’ by the online magazine BUST, with her overtly use of feminine and highly, saturated, glamourous colour palette, other worlds are created, unthreading media and the cusp of a post-gender world with the use of the lens, fashioning visually decadent photography, video and performance art.
Figure (). Signe Pierce, ‘What is reality art?’ (A New Media Manifesto, Version 1.0)’, Video, 2017
The artwork ‘What is reality art?’ (A New Media Manifesto, Version 1.0) is a video artwork that embezzles many forms of digital technology and social networking systems such as Instagram, Snapchat etc. as well as its comedic but yet critical take on what New Media Art has become, claiming ‘reality is a medium that we capture on media.’ With CRUMB and New Media Art whiz, Sarah Cook stating ‘‘New’ entails keeping up with an expanding international artistic offering while also keeping informed about rapidly developing technology.’ (Cook, 2010, KL 71-72). The Green Box. Kindle Edition. One could suggest Pierce’s artwork and Cook’s definition flow harmoniously together.
Pierce examines pop culture and gender issues by the use of previous works contained within this work such as ‘Virtual Normality’ and ‘American Reflexx’, operating archetypes of femininity, probing at the mask of identity and with this gender and its groundings within society.
Interestingly, Pierce refers to her definition of feminism as encompassing all facets of queer identity and questions the predictable terminology of the term ‘feminist’; she is intrigued by the term ‘fem’ and it gendered undertone, implying to a bias even within the world of the queer.
SCARLETT SHANEY LANGDON
http://newhive.com/scarlettshaney/inreallife
A wonderfully, current photographer manifesting ideas on queer femininity, female identity and its performative quality, fastened with digital philosophies in artworks that are pierced together through zines and webpages.
Furthermore, the avant-garde creation, ‘In Real Life’ by Shaney, whispers at the sinister attributes that encircle the online, evoking the private yet carnal viewing experience taken by the online user. The surfer lands on an interactive art webpage parading clickable female artists, this is no coincidence as Shaney and other artists delve deep into their thoughts on female identity and its representation online, in conjunction with the staged, performative trait of femininity within cyberspace culture. We are another identity in the real, compared to the identity perceived in the virtual.
Figure (). Scarlett Shaney Langdon, ‘In Real Life’
Figure (). Scarlett Shaney Langdon, ‘In Real Life’
Figure (). Scarlett Shaney Langdon, ‘In Real Life’
Figure (). Scarlett Shaney Langdon, ‘In Real Life’
Figure (). Scarlett Shaney Langdon, ‘In Real Life’
MAISE COUSINS
PARKER DAY
Parker Day’s photography series ‘ICONS’ instils narratives of almost sordid 80s soft porn icons in crafting eccentrically bright displays of weirdly, wonderful characters and their marvellous personal tales, shot in a studio on a 35mm film, unleashing further glamorisation via props and costumes for her sitters. The artist purposively negates the preproduction method of Photoshop swelling the realistic and raucous nature of the thematic and the artwork. A doppelgänger of Cindy Sherman’s art practice, a troupe of Feminist self-portraiture through the medium of photography. Day’s aim is to unpick our identity and our discovery of it as well as the facades we apply, she exemplifies this by stating ‘I believe identity is a malleable construct that we have the power to dismantle.’ (Ginsberg, 2016)
Figure (). Parker Day, ‘ICONS’
Figure (). Parker Day, ‘ICONS’ (Display through Instagram)
The online impact of this series has been allowed through the display set up of ‘Now we have accessible platforms to reach a broad audience. We have access to great power’ (Curation through Instagram)
Introduction
This proposal will attempt to illustrate a strand of Feminism that is unusual in content, standpoint and presentation; examining how online spaces modify for women, in turn exhibiting an array of artworks from online platforms and digital technologies. Thus challenging the notion of contemporary art; as well as advancing the specific thematic of the show, hence questioning the typical feminist blockbuster structure, used continuously to exemplify the social and political struggles of women. This container of work aims to seek out the ambivalent hang ups of the online and curatorial outputs as well as its hybrid relationship with females; posing questions to the spectators, the art world and art curatorship.
In contesting these concepts, this exhibition request, intends to position this show in the unconventional space of the online in the form of a virtual reality environment, interrogating, the traditional, go to strategies of curation. The decision to situate this art show online, in particular in the evolving and limitless environment of VR is to firstly unpick the forever advancing phenomenon of digital technology and the online, and its relationship with feminism, coupled with the complicated nature of femaleness and space in the physical world. Lily Markiewicz furthers the latter by stating. ‘Space loses its neutrality and becomes territory, as a woman the definition of space is important. Space possesses a dual reality … Space, both in its physical and conceptual dimension … Women tend not to occupy space and to allow themselves to be made to feel small.’ (Deepwell, 1995, P64). Moreover, I am particularly interested in the paradox of women consuming a space which is not physical and tangible but yet is infinite and ethereal.
The keystone facet to this show is underpinned by the watered down ideology of ‘fourth wave feminism’ or what some would determine as strategic essentialism ‘which defends essentialist claims just because they are politically useful’ (Stone, 2004). Consequently, these selection of artists in LGR are reviving a political necessity reminiscent of Barbara Kruger’s “Untitled (Your Body Is a Battleground.)” Subsequently, their non-conformist works are diverging from the picture perfect social media applications and creating their own predetermined visual language through the gluttonous space of the online. Social media platforms allow a crafting of identity that appeal and become digestible to the male gaze. In particular, Instagram has been ranked as having ‘the most detrimental effect on young people’ (Cramer, 2017) by the application’s post production methods of filters, deducting the blemish of the woman’s physical essence making many women doubt their ‘lives and bodies … negatively influencing their body image and sleep patterns and fuelling a pervasive sense of FOMO.’ (Ruiz, 2017)
Virtual reality technology can beautifully drown the spectator in an other-worldly, limitless realm, however still keeping their feet firmly within this physical existence, channelling the ideology of an ‘exhibition within an exhibition.’ ‘Virtual landscapes can also figure as liminal realms of transformation, outside of the world of social limits and constraints … not entirely imaginary nor entirely real, animate but neither living nor dead.’ (Morse, 1998, P185), this never-ending container gives metaphorical prominence to the gender thematic that penetrates the content of this show and the subjects that run alongside my art practice.
Moreover, this innovative tool, VR technology has revolutionised the exhibition space and transformed it into an art piece in itself. Taking the voice of Gavin Wade ‘art is exhibition.’ (Wade, 2003, P64), to a literal sense.
Sarah Cook, founder of Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss (CRUMB) emphasises this point further. ‘There seems to be emphasis on shows that combine different forms of creative expression and privilege content and issues other than the medium itself.
***As new media art entered the mainstream of visual culture over the past decade, curatorial practice in the field has naturally shifted towards the centre from a niche, separate territory. There seems to be emphasis on shows that combine different forms of creative expression and privilege content and issues other than the medium itself.
This exhibition looks to push this lexicon further by the situating of artwork within an online show.
The name of this show is LGR, the titling resonates from internet acronyms and text message jargon to translate to the ‘Little Girls Room.’
A CONSIDERATION ON HOW THE ONLINE SPACE MODIFIES FOR FEMALES
Feminism is a word that has inherited a derogatory understanding, through its historical periods of the 80s and early 90’s. It was ‘stereotyped as uncool … a time when collective activist movements made headlines.’ (Friedman, 2006)
The titillating nature and intrusion of the online space by the female hand is a notion to examine further, as it has created much dialogue and traction in recent times. ‘In embracing the digital world, they are allowing increased exposure to tough socio-political topics and closer connections to their supporters.’ (Sullivan, 2015). One could suggest Cyberfeminism is at force here, it can be described as the ‘beginning to explore and more importantly beginning to create new worlds, in part through and in conversation with digital technologies.’ (Hawthorne, 1999, P4). Feminism steered to the online in the early 90s with the production of new technologies and their exploitation by women. Thus this form of Feminism has built a platform of controversy, ‘for every feminist issue in the real world, the same issues apply in the cyberworld.’ (Spender, 1996)
Some argue and expose the cyber governance is forever
CONCEPT FOR EXHIBITION
The internet, the network of charged space that brought the world together and yet a dark shadow sets in over its presence. This online network can be exemplified in the beautiful image of Pandora’s box. In Greek mythology, Pandora accompanied by a box was sent from the Gods to Earth to spread positivity, love and knowledge, however she was told not to open the box and yet she became curious and denied their order and released from the box all the ills of the world a likened anecdote to the trolling infestations of the internet.
VENUE & PRESENTATION OF WORK
This curation journey has led to the using of ‘hackers, programmers and tinkerer-revisionists drawing upon their local culture,’ (Cook, 2010, KL 89-90). In particular, the VR video and technical specialist Michael Smith, subsequently, allowing this project’s reality to be ignited. With the view to create a virtual exhibition space ‘The LGR’ that glitches in and out of consciousness into a sultry, seductive – yet, orgasmic queer girly existence. The VR experience of this exhibition will inhabit a programmed system glitch at haphazard periods of the exhibition observation enforcing a ‘new mode of foreplay … we want what we cannot have; whatever the material we are aiming to access, the glitch makes us wait and whimper for it,’ (Russell, 2012,) a coded, euphoric orgasm which digitalises the physicality of the female body and the pleasure imbued by viewing certain masculinised images on the internet, a provocative quality within the cyber-ether.
The construction and staging of this show can be said to be in conflict by its connections with the legendary project, Female Extension. Cornelia Sollfrand submitted hundreds of female works as well as generating hundreds of identities to coincide with these works to a museum by using the html program Net Art Generator. Consequently, Sollfrand’s authorship of the work was in contention; commencing battle between the machine (software) and artist? Thus Female Extension is akin to The LGR and its use of the VR technology, Unity along with VR guru, Smith, acknowledging Sollfrank’s ‘the smart artist makes the machine do the work.’ (Graham, 2010, P32).
(Curatorial Outputs)
Cyborg
Artists
Signe Pierce:
Signe Pierce is described as ‘The Fresh Face of the Cyberfeminist Art Scene’ by the online magazine BUST, with her overtly use of feminine and highly, saturated, glamourous colour palette, other worlds are created, unthreading media and the cusp of a post-gender world with the use of the lens, fashioning visually decadent photography, video and performance art.
Figure (). Signe Pierce, ‘What is reality art?’ (A New Media Manifesto, Version 1.0)’, Video, 2017
The artwork ‘What is reality art?’ (A New Media Manifesto, Version 1.0) is a video artwork that embezzles many forms of digital technology and social networking systems such as Instagram, Snapchat etc. as well as its comedic but yet critical take on what New Media Art has become, claiming ‘reality is a medium that we capture on media.’ With CRUMB and New Media Art whiz, Sarah Cook stating ‘‘New’ entails keeping up with an expanding international artistic offering while also keeping informed about rapidly developing technology.’ (Cook, 2010, KL 71-72). The Green Box. Kindle Edition. One could suggest Pierce’s artwork and Cook’s definition flow harmoniously together.
Pierce examines pop culture and gender issues by the use of previous works contained within this work such as ‘Virtual Normality’ and ‘American Reflexx’, operating archetypes of femininity, probing at the mask of identity and with this gender and its groundings within society.
Interestingly, Pierce refers to her definition of feminism as encompassing all facets of queer identity and questions the predictable terminology of the term ‘feminist’; she is intrigued by the term ‘fem’ and it gendered undertone, implying to a bias even within the world of the queer.
SCARLETT SHANEY LANGDON
http://newhive.com/scarlettshaney/inreallife
A wonderfully, current photographer manifesting ideas on queer femininity, female identity and its performative quality, fastened with digital philosophies in artworks that are pierced together through zines and webpages.
Furthermore, the avant-garde creation, ‘In Real Life’ by Shaney, whispers at the sinister attributes that encircle the online, evoking the private yet carnal viewing experience taken by the online user. The surfer lands on an interactive art webpage parading clickable female artists, this is no coincidence as Shaney and other artists delve deep into their thoughts on female identity and its representation online, in conjunction with the staged, performative trait of femininity within cyberspace culture. We are another identity in the real, compared to the identity perceived in the virtual.
Figure (). Scarlett Shaney Langdon, ‘In Real Life’
Figure (). Scarlett Shaney Langdon, ‘In Real Life’
Figure (). Scarlett Shaney Langdon, ‘In Real Life’
Figure (). Scarlett Shaney Langdon, ‘In Real Life’
Figure (). Scarlett Shaney Langdon, ‘In Real Life’
MAISE COUSINS
PARKER DAY
Parker Day’s photography series ‘ICONS’ instils narratives of almost sordid 80s soft porn icons in crafting eccentrically bright displays of weirdly, wonderful characters and their marvellous personal tales, shot in a studio on a 35mm film, unleashing further glamorisation via props and costumes for her sitters. The artist purposively negates the preproduction method of Photoshop swelling the realistic and raucous nature of the thematic and the artwork. A doppelgänger of Cindy Sherman’s art practice, a troupe of Feminist self-portraiture through the medium of photography. Day’s aim is to unpick our identity and our discovery of it as well as the facades we apply, she exemplifies this by stating ‘I believe identity is a malleable construct that we have the power to dismantle.’ (Ginsberg, 2016)
Figure (). Parker Day, ‘ICONS’
Figure (). Parker Day, ‘ICONS’ (Display through Instagram)
The online impact of this series has been allowed through the display set up of ‘Now we have accessible platforms to reach a broad audience. We have access to great power’ (Curation through Instagram)