APD W4 PLAY AND PLACE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgwDONLq5LQ

On this week’s topic of Play and Place, I decided to do something more experimental, something that is more playful towards thinking instead of doing. I made a 2d animation situated on a real-life footage of a spot in Carlton Garden which acts as an experiment to inspect how people are reacting to uncommon scenarios. The animation shows a woman doing physical exercise and taking her t-shirt off afterwards, an activity that is commonly done by men. Our norms, the social construct that we currently have is so deeply rooted with patriarchy and objectification of women. I wanted to try to tackle this issue by experimenting with my response. Although my response is very isolated in terms of publication, I keep in mind that my response is done in a way that can be applied/installed to the literal site. I was inspired by Julian Opie’s exhibition in the NGV, Australian Birds, where he brought the presence of animated birds into the nature using LED screens. Similarly, this response, if further developed, might have the opportunity to be installed in spaces as a social experiment.

Method

I took a video of a spot in the Carlton Garden, a place where I often see people doing all kinds of exercises. I thought that this place would be suitable for my response. After taking the video, I used it as a footage to be layered with hand-drawn 2d animation, to add my response.

My choice of gesture in the animation is chosen based on my consideration towards what activity is considered as ‘normal’ or ‘acceptable’ to men, that is not considered equally to women. And after thinking on different scenarios, I was interested in the bra-less movement that is getting more normalized. These thoughts brought me to the idea of topless, which is very common to men. Then when and where can these combination be applied to create an impactful response? One, the public, where we don’t often see scenarios that are not following the current norm. By having that different situation, it will attract people to find out. And so, the combination of these matters is clearly apparent in men going topless after exercising due to sweat and heat. Women also sweat and produce heat while exercising as that is how our body works. Then why should it be only men who can easefully take their shirt off and immediately feel the breeze? Using 2d animation I can create this response without the risk of having a real individual victimized. The woman in the animation has no identity except for showing a specific gender, female. It is not real, it is simply a depiction, a drawing. This security given by the medium is a crucial aspect when experimenting with a sensitive topic.

Context

After reading the weekly readings for place, and researching the topic for presentation, I was enlightened how there are more to just a space/place. In the reading Insight on Site-Specificity (n.d.), here are several aspects/definitions of a site, which are literal, functional, physical, cultural and discursive site (Parrish, n.d.). It is interesting how my response carries complex mixture of these definitions to site. I used a footage, which means the Carlton Garden, but also in intangible computer memory space. The functional site is my process of adding the animation into the footage, allowing the footage to have a new context and meaning. Next is cultural site, where clearly, the Carlton Garden is affected by all the norms and cultures of the people within the site. And this is the main point of my response. These days, the number of women going bra-less is rising, and feminism sure has been addressed and respected more. I believe in gender equality, and I am against patriarchy. Therefore, I am doing this response as an experiment on challenging the rules and norms within the site.

Reflection

In the production process, I had mixed feelings towards drawing bodies explicitly, as I am also used to the usual norms in the society. It was definitely an interesting experience, a quite radical response in my opinion, especially as I usually do not work with such topic. In another way, doing this response felt empowering as I was able to challenge inequality and objectification towards women, and to be able to get out of my comfort zone trying something new.

In terms of the response itself, it would probably have a stronger impact if I included a man figure doing the same thing, mirrored to the other side of the stone block. That way a comparison is created, and the intention to challenge the norm can be communicated more clearly.

References

Parrish S (n.d.) Insight on Site-Specificity, In: Opening Contemporary Art. Plymouth State University. p. https://opening-contemporary-art.press.plymouth.edu/chapter/site-specificity/.