UNIT1
My practise is founded on my observations of power imbalances, particularly the phenomenon of socialised gender power imbalances.
During my research, I discovered: Since the 1960s, the research of feminist art has been regarded as the focus of research in the field of art and social science. Feminism is essentially a theory that opposes the concentration of gendered power. After being influenced bySituationist International theory and conceptual trinity theory of Henri Lefebvre on the relationship between space and power, I began to understand the correlation between female power and spatial distribution. Feminist geography and Situationist International theory explained my doubts in this regard and deepened my thinking. They believe that urban space is the embodiment of power relations, and artistic activities are the swords that stir up the power relations in space. As a provocative and dynamic art form that directly intervenes in public space, performance art is an excellent means to break the balance of space. Therefore, I hope to extract the daily behavior of women from the private space and display them in the public realm, to breaking the balance of the original power system in the space of patriarchy. Therefore, I started a series of performance practices that directly intervene in public space, aiming to break the gender centralization in social space through the socialized behavior of women.
Influenced by the concept of the metaverse and Lefebvre's third space, as well as the opposition to the decades-long domination of men in the digital technological space, I hope to find a balance of gender power relations in the digital space through my work.
Key words：Feminism Art; Space and Power Relations, Performance, Digital Space
1. Thoughts on artistic practice from the perspective of feminism:
Since the 1960s to present, in the discussion about the ontology of "feminism", the development of feminist theory has entered a new stage. Lesbian feminism and queer theory have appeared in the research scope of feminism one after another. The discussion on the ontology of "feminism" gradually went out of the scope of physiological gender.
The pursuit of equality is not limited to social, political and construction of the theoretical system, but also includes questioning of the social power distribution system from the perspective of gender.
Nowadays, feminism represents the care and respect for the weak under the power stratification system. Contemporary feminism could be understand as a theory of decentralization of gender power.
After research, the early feminist art works showed efforts to expose the traditionally feminine private space to the traditionally masculine public space. Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party, 1974–9, and Tracey Emin's Bed 1998 are two of the most iconic works of that period of feminist art.
With the development of feminism, the social issues concerned by feminist art have become more and more extensive. The occurrence of a series of sexual minorities such as LGBT become an important theme of feminism art since the 21st century. Feminist art and feminism have the same core of thinking about social structural issues, not just focusing on gender issues, but more discussion on the distribution of social power in spatial relations.
Thinking about the inner expression logic of the early feminism art going out of the private space inspired me to analyze the issues concerned by feminism from the perspective of spatial power distribution.
I think contemporary feminist art should break the stereotype of feminist works defined by the elements of the works, and think more about inequalities in social power structures based on gender or any way of power be hierarchized.
Inspired by early feminist artworks that made private space public and the gendered space mentioned in original, I decided to use spatial relations as a perspective to analyze gender power relations.
2. Spatial relationships are the embodiment of power relationships, and spacal activities can affect power relationships:
After studying the theories of thinkers such as Guy de Beau and Lefebvre, I found that: Space is not just a physical concept, but a social product of the power hierarchy. Situationism valued the decentralization of creation, and this is consistent with the essence of contemporary feminism against the centralization of gender power.
Criticism of everyday life is one major issue pondered by Situationism, and Situationist International theory develops an art form that interacts with social spaces through daily behaviors. Inspired by these, I decided to perform daily actions and to interact with the space to shake the originally centralized power system in the space.
Influenced by the concept of the metaverse and Lefebvre's third space, as well as the opposition to the decades-long domination of men in the digital technological space, I hope to find a balance of gender power relations in the digital space through my work.
3. Decentralization with performances abstracted from everyday behavior in metaphorical spaces:
Next Excerpt from Tropical Breeze, Mika Rottenberg, 2004
This work is the one that impressed me the most with Mika Rottenberg. In my opinion her work is influenced by Situationist International theory, changing the system of power in space through behavior. She organized a group of non-mainstream groups in society and designed a seemingly meaningless factory production line for them. In this assembly line, everyone is full of fighting spirit, and the space is full of meaning because of their work. The socially marginalized characters in this unreal space created by Rottenberg regain their rightful power, and in their fair interaction with the space and the installation, the power of the overall space is evenly distributed to each character in the story.
She focuses on the social rights of women of color and marginalized people, which is one of my main focuses. The narratives of her films often unfold with installations and surreal and metaphorical images, something I hope to learn from her and Shana Moulton's work.
The practice begins with the understanding of the Situationist International theory, and I try to question the centralization of power by interacting with social spaces（first space） through individual behavior.
In this work, I attempt to seek social shelter (by entering my student accommodation) without any electronic devices or ID. This helped me empathise with the feelings of elderly people seeking social shelter who have given up on integrating into modern life due to the complications of technology.
In this work, I get rid of all the tools to adapt to this era and become a simple "social individual", and this individual is difficult to be sheltered in the post-pandemic era and the big digital era, just like old man who hiding in a ruined building is also difficult to integrate into modern society and to be protected in this big digital era.
I am constantly seeking help and shelter in real social spaces in an attempt to stir up the current power hierarchy so that a simple 'social individual' can get the protection that he/she deserves.
Pierre Huyghe
The work of Pierre Huyghe and photography artist Bernard Faucon provided me with references to create metaphorical spaces（second space）. The space of both works has a kind of extreme surrealism but is based on the real society, they create an extreme space state to highlight the contradiction. This makes me deliberately choose to let the performers perform in a solemn and social environment in the work Iodophor hurts hurt. This also prompted my later works to choose to perform performance practices in a more extreme symbolic digital space.
In this work I draw on Mika Rottenberg's work on installations in performance. The installation of the work consists of two digital devices that broadcast each other live. The performers gradually join the ranks of THOSE watching one of the devices, and even the action of "squeezing" into the human wall appeared in the later stage, but this device only broadcasts the image of sidewalk in front of the camera of the other device.
I hope through this absurd behavioral narrative, to show the Phenomenon of concentration of interpretation power in some fields.
In this work I created a metaphorical space（second space） where power is gradually highly centralized, learning the elements of situational extremes and metaphors in the work of Pierre Huyghe and photography artist Bernard Faucon.
4. The practice of decentralization from a feminist perspective:
Feminist geography, as an emerging branch, focuses on the interaction between women and space, and more specifically the process and mechanism of women's role in urban space and local growth. In other words, this is a theoretical model that studies the relationship between women, space and power.
The main research areas on space of feminist geography include: body space, working space, dwelling space.
This part of the study of feminist geography, expressed in Lefebvre's theory, belongs to the subdivision of the first space and the third space.
I hope that I can discuss the power relations of the all three spaces mentioned by Lefebvre in my work.
Yield Point, Aki Sasamoto, 2017
Aki Sasamoto is, in my opinion, an artist who is very good at unfolding three spaces in one work. Her work in Pyeongchang includes performances and installations. In her works, she connects and activates the space (the first space) that the audience can perceive through the body, thus forming the display of the third space. This perceptible space is composed of very abstract and symbolic devices, and is a metaphorical second space.
For example, in her work Yield Point, she recorded the exact tipping point of collapse in her life, and used symbolic objects as installations. “I have empathetic bond with the droopy elastic band of a worn underwear.” She subtly blends life scenes with metaphorical scenes.
In Video work exploring the ghosts and winds-Do Nut Diagram, she depicts invisible ghosts, winds, feelings, etc. The created illusions are shattered one by one (the third space connected by performance practice).
In her works I can see the flexible transformation of the three spaces. This is what I hope to learn.
Do Nut Diagram, Aki Sasamoto, 2018
In this work, I combine feminist geography and Lefebvre's spatial theory, hoping to explore the centralization of gender power from three spaces in one work.
"Iodophor hurts hurt" is a performance that explores cultural positioning and personal identity.
Chinese characters are hieroglyphs. The symbol "女" represents women. In Chinese characters, there are many characters with "女" elements. Both commendatory and derogatory characters show the oppressed status of women in traditional society. Although these words have no feminine meaning in them now, they still carry the history of the status of Chinese women. This is my thinking about the second space. Chinese characters are a symbol of culture and history, as well as a symbolic space for women's power status. In this space, I disassemble Chinese characters, which is also a redistribution of power relations in the second space.
This redistribution action is performed by modern women in real space with their bodies, which is also a question of contemporary female's social and physical power (first space).
Women console each other and rewrite the cultural history of the centralization of gender power. The interaction of the nine women in the modern public space constitutes a surreal new power system, which belongs to the discussion of the third space.
5. Performing narratives in digital spaces:
My unit1 work: Camille, 2021
Today, when the concept of the metaverse prevails, the digital space has been developed. In the digital space, the second space (imaginary space) can be visualized to a greater extent, and the digital space has also become a collection of symbolic and conceptual spaces. And with the development of sensory technology, the second space is rapidly transforming into the third space (practical space), and the digital space has become an important place for community interaction.
Lefebvre's triadic dialectics of space opens up a way for us to connect "space" and "medium". This passage not only means that the third space is a spatial level based on the first and second spaces, but also means that the three spaces themselves are highly overlapping and inter-embedded. In modern urban space, digital technology connects the real space where people live and the virtual space that creates meaning and discourse. Castel believes that the emergence of virtual space and global network will eliminate the particularity of modern urban space, social functions and power can be reconstructed in virtual mobile space, and its logic will dominate the dynamic meaning of real local space. Ultimately, all spatiality will collapse into virtual space, forming a networked, ahistorical fluid space.
The digital space will become a symbol of the power relationship in the real space, and the real power imbalance problem will be more intensively presented in the digital space.
The above research inspired me to try to practice interactive performance in digital space through daily behavior, to question the phenomenon of centralization of power in reality and digital space.
Xenofeminism affirms the existence of biological genders, but gender is hackable. To liberate women from childbirth. Consider multiple factors other than gender in gender politics, such as race, class, etc.
XF (Xenofeminism) theory seems to me to be a combination of contemporary feminism with the rapidly evolving digital space and the idea that gender classes can be eliminated through asexuality in a space that has been masculine since its inception.
In the digital space, this website does not deny or cover up the identity of women, but chooses to build a feminine perspective interconnection system and build a new digital power space.
I am very glad to learn that feminism has developed so amazingly in the digital space, and it has provided me with two different ideas for practicing digital space equality:
1. Building a de-gendered digital space;
2. Creating a feminine perspective digital space.
Ed Atkins' work Death Mask 5 gave me some inspiration for building a digital space. The space in this work comes from a familiar life scene, but when we are immersed in this scene, we feel strange and terrifying. Ed Atkins takes the familiar scenes to extremes, creating an atmosphere that is both familiar and unfamiliar, making viewers suspicious.
I think this is also a practical approach to the third space, allowing the viewer to mentally interact with the space of the work.
Death Mask, 5 Ed Atkins, 2019
Shana Moulton's work made me realize the 'low fi' aesthetic really important to maintain the humour and exaggerated satire in the work.
After researching computational artists, like, Shana Moulto, Elizabeth Price, Ed Atkins, and Jennet Thomas, I am not satisfied with performing performance creation in the real space, and hope to create in the digital space which have broader possibility of allegorical construction.
I also did some digital space construction experiments using the knowledge of product design and the experience of interactive art creation.
My digital space construction practice
All these researches and practices have prompted me to form my current creative methodology.
6. My methodology:
1. Reflection:
Select the narrative theme and list the narrative points (the theme comes from the observation of the real society, from the perceptible first space and the third space of reality)
2. Construction:
1. Through the interpretation of real social phenomena, abstract the needs of the film Tell the symbols and construct a symbolic digital space (construct the conceptual space).
2. Construct a new interactive daily life. Pull away from daily behavior and perform symbolic performances to tell the power relationship of the new space (the performance interacts with the digital background, constructing the third space of the work).
3. Supplement:
Look back at the expressive elements of the first step, and supplement it with text and sound.
1. Reflection:
Taking the project Camille as an example, I hope to talk about the relationship between women's competition, mutual restraint, and mutual understanding under the patriarchy, as well as the disguised slandering emotions caused by women's desire for power in this gender-centralized system.
I also hope to add metaphorical texts to the performance narrative, like Cecelia Condit's work POSSIBLY IN MICHIGAN, to tell a grotesque story, metaphorical gender politics of injustice, and women's phobic ambiguity texts to enhance the audience's awareness of the second space (i.e. conceptual space), and arouse the audience's emotions and thoughts about intentions.
My unit1 work: Camille, 2021
2. Construction:
The choice was made to construct a feminine perspective digital space in this work, rather than de-gendered, because I wanted to highlight the paradox of the centralization of gendered power in this narrative.
I want to create an amusement park to symbolize the fake benefits that imprison women in a patriarchal society.
I arrange for the performers to do "unrelated" interactions with the symbolic digital space (the rotation of the background amusement equipment does not fully match the activities of the performers) to create a sense of absurdity.
Mind Map: select symbolic content
Digital sketch- amusement park
Shot with green screen
Shot with green screen
3. Supplement:
Reviewing the theme and mind map, I decided to supplement the expression with text and sound that are easily overlooked in the performance and image.
I've Been Afraid, Cecelia Condit, 2020
O Superman, Laurie Anderson, 1982
I see the magic of translating text into music in the work of Cecelia Condit and Laurie Anderson. The sounds in Cecelia Condit's work add interest to the work and point to its expressive intent; I especially appreciate the onomatopoeia of the mouth in Laurie Anderson's music. I also experiment with sound in my work.
My unit1 work: Camille, 2021
Exhibition
6. Development:
1. I will continue to practice my methodology and continue the style of my two works of Unit1.
2. I hope to materialize the world in my work, combining the current images with installations and live performances. It was also inspired by the construction of physical scenes in Shana Moulton's film and her exhibition.
Shana Moulton's film
Shana Moulton's exhibition
Currently inspired by a residency program, a relative specific plan has been formed：
Where Women Can Plant - This is a project I've been working on recently, which consists of a main film and four sub-films. This series of films take four social females with different identities as the protagonists, tells the story of their dilemma about where they can be "planted" in a surreal space. I abstract the daily behavior of the protagonist, reconstruct and rationalize these behaviors in the digital space, and construct a new narrative that is fantastic and a metaphor for reality. "Planting" occupies an important position in the narrative of the work. On the one hand, it is thinking about the growth status of women in the new technological environment. On the other hand, it also represents the thinking of the sensory subject on the living state of physical experience in the digital age. The overall style of the work will not deviate from my original creative style. I still use the mouth sound as the source of the bacground sound, I believe that such sound effects will have interesting chemical reactions with the natural effect.
I hope that the digital works can be integrated into the natural environment:
1. The screen showing the moving image is translucent and placed in the forest (moving images);
2. I hope to perform live (performance), and use the green background as a green screen. The real-time presentation of the performance is combined with the pre-made digital space and presented on one of the screens, making the scene the place where one of the story lines takes place. I will also guide the audience into the live footage and let them participate in the story together (interactive installations).