Build from one of the Challenges: “Do We Exist // Do We Exist Together?”
Proposal: Sound AR Installation of “Do We Exist”
Description including goals and parameters:
“Do We Exist // Do We Exist Together” will be an audiovisual augmented-reality installation that aims to immortalize and commemorate feminist artists of color. Inspired by postcolonial feminist movements in the 1980’s, particularly the Dialectics of Isolation exhibition, this piece will shed light on the erasure of women of color in Western feminism. In the vein of Guerrilla Girls, we hope to expose the injustices of a racist society—make the invisible visible—through cultural discomfort. The experience of interfacing with “the other” would ideally stir transformation in the participants. It will raise the following questions: Who is systematically oppressed in Western feminism? How might we see through the lens of a woman of color? In what ways does Western feminism fail to address intersectionality? How can we ensure that the voice of “the other” is heard? What are the consequences of “otherness”?
The installation will feature 5 artworks by various feminist artists of color. The artworks will be mixed-medium and interdisciplinary in nature, each of which include a voiceover narration from the perspective of the artist activated by an AR marker. The AR marker will be an alarming and disconcerting visual, inviting the participant to investigate further. Think of it as an invisible museum—once the women are released from their existence in the ether, their stories, their artworks, their voices, will come to life.
User Journey
Expected Reaction:
1. A space to identify oneself as the other and recognize other women artists of color
Sound AR Script Example
I could’ve ended up in a ditch
but I’m here writing bad poems
thinking performances
smoking weed depressed
other women with exemplary lives
didn’t have the same luck.
2. Making The Invisible Visible
Do We Exist Together, is a Sound AR piece that was inspired by 1980’s feminism, but becomes an issue that’s very relevant with the times. It’s also a commentary on current issues of “otherness” that non-western feminists experience. White Feminism or Mainstream Feminism is the term for this, which is feminism that fails to recognize intersectionality of cultures, race and representation of the non-western woman.
This is apparent in pop culture, where often, white feminists are lauded for what they do that is progressive. But when it’s Beyonce, she is branded as an Angry Black Woman.
Aph Ko, creator of the webseries Black Feminist Blogger, explains that the label white feminism is “a giant step forward in identifying [marginalization], and root it out and combat it when it occurs.
“This one term opens up a lot of space for feminists of color to finally focus on their own communities instead of having to constantly educate white women or tell white women that they’re being racist” she adds.
UPDATED FINAL PROPOSAL:
Feminism as a movement has been linked to many important moments in history through art, politics, media and advertising.
“If we are to achieve the liberation of all women, we must rethink our feminist groups not as monolithic, but as a coalition of identities, and in forming this coalition we must actively refrain from centering privilege.”
We can survey issues on feminism in linear narratives:
- All brand, no substance “femvertising” of Pink Bic Ballpoint pens
- In the eyes of Guerilla Girls – a fight for recognition of non-western female artists
- or the prevalence of White Feminism that is pervasive media/pop culture feminists.
Or we can talk about it through COMPUTER-GENERATED POETRY ON TWITTER.
By Misusing a platform,
Our aim is to interject intersectionality by feeding words called a “SOURCE TEXT”
and adding “SEED TEXT” or words by famous feminists.
What does this poem look like? It will be diastic, it will be random.
It will bring to light a holistic narrative on feminism.
We trust that the repackaged words will sound brutally honest
and will be 100% better than the original.
A Quick Guide on Intersectional Feminism:
“Women of color have a complicated history with feminism
Feminism’s long history of perceived racism, combined with what some women saw as a lack of intersectionality at last year’s march, resulted in many black women and women of color refusing to attend.”
“Intersectional feminism,” which stands in opposition to white feminism, was coined by civil rights advocate and law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to help describe the experiences of Black women who not only face sexism, but systemic racism.
Process
A strong mission statement for many women artists of color was always about “Creating your own space to create. We’d like to borrow this and translate ART into COMPUTER-GENERATED POETRY.
- Relevance – born out of an idea of our previous SOUND AR homework
- A platform to “repackage feminist thoughts” to add intersectionality and form poetry
- Addressing intersectionality against the backdrop of linear narratives of feminism that were from 5-10 different personalities.
- Discomfort from the recognition of cultural differences as a starting point of transformation towards feminist subcultures coming together in the name of intersectionality and inclusion
Source text: Intersectionality for Beginners by Lydia Brown;
Seed Text: Words by Modern Feminist
Example twitter post:
social whole really them Sisters
and know who most which movements scholar
woman not human humanity human
is knee
that thirty speech
prison hurting publicly violence unalienated justice
then the practiced that
which each trying social whole really them Sisters
and know who most which movements scholar
woman not human humanity human
Process expanded:
| SOURCE TEXT | FEMINIST | SEED QUOTE | RESULTING POEM |
| Lydia Brown “Intersectionality for Beginners” transcript | Taylor Swift | So much love, pride, and respect for those who marched. | so non
many just become yeah leads society movements lives people trans going leading there as one and rooted nervousness justice people alone balancing exploitation freezes woman for that that front exists protest we phone thought multiple valid strange marches another existence forwards |
Process of diastic poetry:
reading in a random order through the Input Text cycling through the Input Text
matching by all characters in the Seed Text considering upper/lower-case differences when matching not adding Seed Text words to the output
capitalizing none of the words
adding newlines after every word in the Seed Text, replacing the Output Text
