Identity exploring- Intersectionality and queerness
Human cognition allows us to recognize the differences in each individual, making the beauty of body dynamics powerful and unique. In the video, I wanted to express a certain degree of chaos and thus embody a passive inclusion. It is as if countless particles are superimposed to become harmonious, and too much noise simultaneously makes it one sound.
Artist Statement
This project was completed in an experimental animation format, as well as an elliptical narrative way to express the theme and key idea. The main storyline is a self-discovery journey, along with the process that the character completes herself when she collects figurative body parts, which start from a pair of arms. The most part of the video is all about conveying the isolation, confusion, and overwhelmingness that minority groups feel in their exploration because they have a lack of role models and teachers. I use images and sound to convey the fluidity and uncertainty of identity. The noise in the background comes from the Universe, creating a vacuum where sound cannot be transmitted and one's own existence becomes solitary. The superimposition of various noises appears with the increase of awareness, and a balance is obtained instead when too many sounds are superimposed.
In addition, I chose quotes from Clare's article and made them into audio, "we are looking for teachers and lovers"(Clare) is almost the central emotion of this video, yet the ambiguity of everything prevents them from being heard clearly. These voices gradually become clear as the consciousness develops, and eventually, the ability to become angry is generated as the character gains more awareness. The clearest audio also symbolizes the beginning of making voice.
Mainstream frameworks of disability, in general, individualize, alienate, objectify people with disabilities and bifurcate people into disabled and abled. My goal is to amplify the voice of marginalized groups and superimpose it as a way to challenge the so-called mainstream and all exclusionary contexts.
For the materials supporting this project, Clare provides a practical perspective for my discourse on diversity and the non-necessity of labels. In addition, Mulvey's and Erickson's research brings an interdisciplinary dimension to this project. They allow me to express aesthetics within interdisciplinary and multi-layered representation, and also allow me to reflect on and advance the figurative representations used in the project. Kodi's and Husbands's article is also fundamental to my understanding of experimental animations, their argument on queer theory and non-binary research is fascinating and rebellious regardless of the medium.
Kodi argues that "Animation is an inherently queer medium." Besides the author's understanding of queerness as a gender politic, the article discusses the relevance of fantasy to queer theory and its disruption to orthodoxy as a form of artistic expression. Their article inspired the exaggerated metamorphosis and uncanny animation style envisioned in the project's conception.
In conclusion, the project is intended to convey a private emotional resonance for the purpose of spreading awareness. As well as presenting intersectionality, fluidity and uncertainty of gender and identity through visual and audio, it proposes a questioning attitude to gender binary and erasure. The discussion on media empowerment in Garcia's article says: "a critical view of videos produced by girls and women necessarily means recognizing, validating, and empowering them to define rape culture on their own terms." I believe that media empowerment is not only about rape culture. Producing this project and visually conveying the message of diversity is also a way of empowering both the masses and myself.
Clare, Eli. “GAWKING, GAPING, STARING.” GLQ, vol. 9, no. 1-2, 2003, pp. 257–61, https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-9-1-2-257.
Erickson, Loree. “Unbreaking Our Hearts: Cultures of Un/Desirability and theTransformative Potential of Queercrip Porn.” (2015).
Garcia, Chloe Krystyna, and Ayesha Vemuri. “Girls and Young Women Resisting Rape Culture through YouTube Videos.” Girlhood Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 2017, pp. 26–44, https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2017.100204.
Husbands, Lilly. “A Queer Thing, Indeed: Queering Experimental Animation.” Fantasy/Animation, https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/a-queer-thing-indeed-queering-exper imental-animation. Accessed 14 August 2022.
Kodi, Maier. “Louis Armstrong’s Flying Head, Clothing as Food, and Renegade Angels: Queering Animation through Fantasy.” Fantasy/Animation, https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/2018/7/5/louis-armstrongs-flying-he
ad-clothing-as-food-and-renegade-angels-queering-animation-through-fantasy. Accessed 23 July 2022.
Mulvey, Laura. 1999. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." In Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, 833–44. Oxford University Press.
Talusan, Meredith. “Trans Women and Femmes Are Shouting #MeToo — But Are You Listening?” Them, https://www.them.us/story/trans-women-me-too. Accessed 14 August 2022.
Used Materials:
Nasa - Song of Earth
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Raindrops