romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

Ethnographic Film

Caribs Leap/Western Deep 2002- Steve McQueen born 1969

Comprised of two films that are shown together as a three-screen synchronised video projection.

Caribs Leap is projected on to two screens that face each other, filmed on the Caribbean island of Grenada where McQueens (the artist) parents were born, this memorialises the historical event that took place in 1651, long story short, the local Caribs resisted European colonisation, the last Caribs chose to jump to their death rather than submit. It was said to have taken place on a cliff in the town Sauteurs it is now known as Caribs Leap hence the movie title. McQueen was inspired to make Caribs Leap after visiting Grenada for his grandmothers funeral, making the film more personal.

Western Deep was filmed in the deepest gold mines in the world in South Africa near Johannesburg, miners working 3 and a half kilometres underground can cause potentially dangerous health and lifestyle for the miners. The temperatures are high and the pressure even higher, the mines are dark and claustrophobic with the added loud noises and dust to make it worse, the most striking take from the film is the noise, mechanical equipment crashing and disappearing in the darkness. Art critic Thomas McEvilley describes the experience: “The message seemed to be that labour in a capitalist society is exploitation and humiliation.”

From the film I wanted to focus more on the exploitation of workers in the capitalist society, as although this was filmed in 2002 the exploitation of workers has been a constant for years even up until 2021. In order to make money employers will push workers to the absolute physical limits, not taking into account the wellbeing of their staff. I feel McQueens film conveys the similar vibe, miners doing hard and physical labour but being treated like cattle or being replaceable. The representation however is more on the positive side, showing the true situations of the miners, although it doesn’t look very bad on film you can tell from the noise alone that it isn’t desirable.

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

Ethnographic Film

Caribs Leap/Western Deep 2002- Steve McQueen born 1969

Comprised of two films that are shown together as a three-screen synchronised video projection.

Caribs Leap is projected on to two screens that face each other, filmed on the Caribbean island of Grenada where McQueens (the artist) parents were born, this memorialises the historical event that took place in 1651, long story short, the local Caribs resisted European colonisation, the last Caribs chose to jump to their death rather than submit. It was said to have taken place on a cliff in the town Sauteurs it is now known as Caribs Leap hence the movie title. McQueen was inspired to make Caribs Leap after visiting Grenada for his grandmothers funeral, making the film more personal.

Western Deep was filmed in the deepest gold mines in the world in South Africa near Johannesburg, miners working 3 and a half kilometres underground can cause potentially dangerous health and lifestyle for the miners. The temperatures are high and the pressure even higher, the mines are dark and claustrophobic with the added loud noises and dust to make it worse, the most striking take from the film is the noise, mechanical equipment crashing and disappearing in the darkness. Art critic Thomas McEvilley describes the experience: “The message seemed to be that labour in a capitalist society is exploitation and humiliation.”

From the film I wanted to focus more on the exploitation of workers in the capitalist society, as although this was filmed in 2002 the exploitation of workers has been a constant for years even up until 2021. In order to make money employers will push workers to the absolute physical limits, not taking into account the wellbeing of their staff. I feel McQueens film conveys the similar vibe, miners doing hard and physical labour but being treated like cattle or being replaceable. The representation however is more on the positive side, showing the true situations of the miners, although it doesn’t look very bad on film you can tell from the noise alone that it isn’t desirable.

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

Interview with David Udoh. Topic: Illustration.

David and I collaborated in creating some questions to ask each other about illustration, these questions where; 1. Favourite medium to use? And why? 2. Preffered style? 3. Style you’d love to try? 4. Medium you hate using? Me and David decided to use msg over instagram to ask the questions as this seemed easier for us.

Here are Davids answers to the questions-

David included some examples of his favourite medium which is water colour, the illustrations are his own work.

Again David included some of his own work for his preffered style.

Again some examples of his own work for style he’d like to try.

David didnt have an example for medium he hates as he avoids using it.

Overall interviewing felt a little strange but felt nice to get to know a friend a little better and share our work with each other, i think its a useful tool in terms of primary research and would be something I’d consider using for future projects.

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

The censorship of women on social media.

Deep rooted in our society is the attempt to control women, it goes back centuries. Women being told to act proper, lady like and quiet themselves, in fear of being unfairly labelled a shameful name. For decades this attitude towards women continued until more recent times, women have found new ways to challenge this outdated idea of womanhood. In today’s society women can proudly express their trues selves online, whether its speaking out about an issue they normally wouldn’t feel able to do or simply posting a picture of themselves. Although women nowadays have much more freedom then before, do they really have complete freedom? On social media women can post and write whatever they please, as long as it complies with the ‘community guidelines’, this is where the issues start to crop up. An alarming amount of women’s posts that get removed are to do with their appearance, if it doesn’t fit into the ‘healthy lifestyle’ or the objectified version of women. The culprit of this is usually Instagram and TikTok, along with most social media platforms having their own ridiculous guidelines.

Rupi Kaur the visual poet, had a menstruation-themed photo series which she posted to Instagram, to challenge the taboos of periods. One photo in particular gained some attention which resulted in it being removed twice, the image under fire (See Figure 1) was of the artist herself, fully clothed lying down in bed, with 2 small spots of bloods visible both on her trousers and the bed sheets. The post was then removed twice for violating community guidelines, Kaur challenged these removals and eventually the post was restored where you can still find it today. On the restored post Kaur writes how she “thanks Instagram for providing the exact response her work was created for, deleting a photo of a women who is fully clothed and menstruating, claiming that it goes agonist guidelines when the guidelines state that its nothing but acceptable.” (Kaur, 2015)

Although the post is back up and has been ever since, the fact that it was removed twice despite that there was nothing within the image that violated guidelines, proved how women are controlled to fit the common place ideals that have been ingrained into society. It’s surprising to see the amount of people who think this type of image shouldn’t be on social media, as if a women menstruating isn’t natural, it’s made to seem dirty which it just isn’t.

Figure 1. Rupi Jaur photographed by her sister Prabh Jaur, exposing a small part spot of blood, a part of the period series to break the taboos of menstruation. March 25th 2015.

Out of social media women are censored for simple things we might take for granted now, such as reading a book or educating yourself. Once women were ‘allowed’ to read and write books men started trolling and claimed that women’s novels were dangerously distracting, unrealistic and even damaging to their mental health; Men would often deem female writers insane or secretly male. Joan Acocella an American journalist comments on the book ‘The Women Reader’ by Belinda Jack (see figure 2) “Women seemed stupid therefore, they were considered unfit for education; therefore, they weren’t given an education; therefore, they seemed stupid” (Aocoella, 2012) this statement holds a lot of truth, women were never even given the chance to educate themselves and when they did they were called insane and made fun of.

Male writers retaliated by publishing ‘helpful advice’ for women, targeted to keep women in their place; but women fought back. Publishers in the 16th century would offer cheaper and smaller books that could easily be hidden from husbands, book clubs started to form among women, discussing what made men fear women reading do much? The biggest reason being that women would then start to gain their own opinion, unguided or unbiased and they would think independently, another form of women being censored to fit this ideal that had been created just to put them down. The fear of women gaining education is still feared in more modern societies today, for example Iran’s ban of women studying certain topics like English literature, a way of controlling women to do and act how predominantly men want them to act and being punished if they disobey these rules, similar to the community guidelines on social media but in a more serious way.

Figure 2. Front cover of “The Women Reader” by Belinda Jack, the book introduced frustrated female readers over many eras, exploring the differences between men and women’s reading tastes.

The social media platform TikTok is particularly a culprit of censoring and discriminating women, policing their bodies and removing videos with women with “abnormal body shapes”. Raeann Langas, a body-positive influencer with a substantial following on TikTok aims to show people that all bodies are beautiful, regardless of shape or size. Langas posted a video of her and a friend dancing on the beach in matching bikinis, (see figure 3.) a few days after she posted the video she realised that the video had been taken down for violating community guidelines, assuming the app didn’t allow those types of videos she didn’t feel the need to challenge it. But after some digging she found countless videos of women in bikinis using the same #bikini nut the only different was they were all straight-sized women. She says “It was alarming to me that they were clearly removing certain types of people and body types, not the mention a majority of these videos kept up were highly sexualised and would be considered inappropriate for certain viewers.” (Langas, 2020

Langas brings up a great point here, for a post to be “accepted” on social media it is overly sexualised and pretty much objectifies women. You see it on most social media platforms, for example if a slender, “in shape” women posted a bikini picture on Instagram it would get high praise from both women and men, but if a women with a bigger body and stereotypically “unfit” shape were to post the exact some picture, the response would be name calling and making her feel like she is less than, and in some cases the post gets taken down for “violating guidelines”, censoring women who express their true self because society has deemed their body type unappealing and not fir for social media.

Figure 3. Picture of Raeann Langas with her friend at the beach, spreading body positivity. Malibu California, 2020.

Despite this unjust censorship women have experienced for far too long, there is also a positive side to it. International Women’s Day always brings to light the achievements of women and gives them to opportunity to continue to challenge the status quo by changing the shape of society. Alyssa Milano the American actress, singer, author, producer and activist is known for many of her achievements but especially her #MeToo movement that sparked up in 2017, Milano asked women on Twitter to write ‘#MeToo’ if they had ever been sexually harassed or assaulted. In just a few short days tens of thousands of women had responded, one small outcry became an army or supporting women. (Protesting women after Harvey Weinstein arrest pictured below. (See figure 4)

The MeToo movement is just a small part of the victory for women, women having the right to be free, uncensored is shifting the social norms, especially on social media. From my own personal experience getting the upmost amount of support from women on social media is so uplifting, it makes you feel seen and listened to, not just other women preaching about her rights. The more women taken control and break down barriers on social media the more freedom we will get, no longer being put in our place for expressing ourselves, we will no longer conform to the misogynistic views and objectify ourselves for anyone.

Figure 4. Picture above is participants in the march against sexual assault and harassment apart of the MeToo movement in LA Hollywood, November 12th 2017.

The cases I have brought up all support the same opinion that I have about women and social media which is that, misogynistic, sexist and old-fashioned views that have for years censored women are now the very thing that are now giving us the power to take a stand and challenge the status quo. Recent events of women being attacked and sexually harassed are terrible and should never have happened, I feel as if people have already started to stop talking about it and only support it while its “trending” and once it’s done being in the spotlight we get censored again because people don’t really want to talk about the real issues, only talk about them when its gaining them clout, which I feel is the real problem with the social norms we have created. Although it may seem like every step we take we get knocked back three, but every small victory makes up a brighter and better future for women, we need to continue to challenge the status quo, breaking down the barriers and make people uncomfortable until we are heard. Censoring of women may never stop, but we can learn how to make the censorship our own and command what we can and can’t post, no more of being put in our place, more of claiming our rightful place.

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

Photo Essay

A photograph of a photograph

In the ever-growing world to outdo and grab the attention of people, we have found creative ways to do so. One way to do this is taking a photograph of a photograph because it makes us ‘cool’ and ‘edgy’, it is effective and gets you the likes you want. But it is so much more than just the likes or being different, you can capture memories and creature new moments. I’m interested in this type of photography; the next 5 photographs will speak more to this.

Figure1.

Selfie? This is a photograph taken on a SX-70 Polaroid camera (see figure 1) on Wednesday 2nd May 1979 by filmmaker and photographer Jamie Livingston. (Livingston, 1979) Although this image doesn’t have an official title, I think a fitting name could be “early selfie”, cleverly the photographer has let his friend use the camera to take what we would call, a ‘selfie’ using the reflection of his sunglasses. This is a fun way to begin the subject of photographs in photographs, obviously because this is exactly that. The first recorded self-portrait was actually in 1839, so the photograph is behind the times but still a very cool image. Being a polaroid, the photograph has an almost grainy texture, visible scratches giving the image a candid feel. The warm umber tones really creature a inviting an almost relatable image. Polaroids in general give off a nostalgic energy, all of Livingstons collection of over 6,000 photographs are polaroid’s, (1979-1997) this gives him that endearing quality that some photographers will never be able to obtain. Livingston is the perfect example of picture within pictures, he uses it a lot in his work, especially the ‘Photo of the day’ collection. (This photo included)

Figure 2. 

This a just a small cluster of polaroid’s from the ‘Photo of the day’ collection by Jamie Livingston. (See Figure 2) (Livingston 1979-1997) Once again falling into the pictures within pictures territory, all of these photographs were taken on the SX-70 polaroid camera, even the picture of all of these pictures was taken on the same camera. Picture-ception! The year this polaroid was taken was 1980, by this time Livingston had accumulated around 500 photographs apart of this collection. In Susan Sontag ‘On Photography’ she says photographs are evidence, to prove we’ve done something to people who we think might not believe us. (Sontag, 2005) Even if Livingston didn’t mean to do this intentionally, his many images of his images give off that he was trying to show people his polaroid’s because when you hear the title ‘Man takes photo everyday for 18 years’ you would think “no way!” “that sounds too farfetched” so Sontag is right, we use photos as evidence to prove what we’ve done with our lives, not only to boast but to look back on it ourselves and remember what we’ve achieved, the memories we created. It’s a twisted sort of reason to take the photos, but were all culprits of it.  

Figure 3.

Speaking of memories, this next image is one of my own. (See Figure 3.) I decided to pay homage to Jamie Livingston photography project ‘Photo of the day’ (Livingston, 1979-1997) I started posting a photo every day on Instagram, using a polaroid app. The image itself is actually a screen-shot of my Instagram photos, so again photographs within photographs. I chose these images in particular because there all really different from each other, but have their hidden meaning behind them that only I know about.  I’m currently on day 13 of posting and it’s a little more difficult than I thought. Livingston brings up the subject of ‘photo pressure’ in one of his polaroid’s, I definitely felt this pressure, I was thinking to myself “I don’t have anything interesting to post?” but over time I realised that it doesn’t really matter an the reason I want to post these phonographs is because I want to look back on the memories of that day, that’s the reason we take photos so we can remember moments in time. I was discouraged in the beginning because I didn’t get that many likes but then I realised that I don’t really care about the likes, I just enjoy having a project without pressure.  

Figure 4.

Pressure to preform and outdo yourself is always a nightmare, but it pushes us to do great things. This is another of Livingstons (Livingston, 1986) polaroid’s from the ‘Photo of the day’ collection. (See Figure 4.) The image is of an exhibition of some kind, I couldn’t find specifics but It speaks to the pressure to creature the perfect photograph, but as Livingston has stated before “The photo doesn’t have to be nice”, that’s a motto we could all adapt in our lives, not just for photography but for allowing ourselves to create art without hurting ourselves to get this unrealistic standard of photography. I chose this image because it captures the feeling of most art exhibitions, and of course it has more pictures within pictures. photography has such a special ability to be work and art, some people will go crazy trying to get the perfect shot, some will pay millions to acquire these photos, but some of the most special photographs are one we take in our everyday life, the ones of pets, friends and family. They have that candid feel to them that is so easy to recognise but so hard to re-create.

Figure 5.

The last photo speaks more to the power of a photograph. (See Figure 5.) This polaroid is from Livingston ‘Photo of the day’ collection (Livingston, 1997) sadly the year of his passing away, actually most of his photos from 1997 are of his friends and family, I can only assume because he knew he was dying and wanted to remember those special to him. It has a very homely feel to it, just some good friends in the kitchen (it looks like) enjoying their company together. Although this isn’t a picture within a picture, it is because I have now shared the picture with the readers. When you think about it most of the pictures we share, physical or online are now pictures within pictures. Its an amazing ability that photography holds, we all care so much about the pictures we take nowadays that we make people change the way they appear so that our photo looks ‘better’ so we can get some likes? We should stop caring so much and just take pictures when it feels right and not spend so much times living behind a screen. Be present in the moment with the ones we love.

Bibliography:

The Economic Times. 2018. World Selfie Day: Who took the first-ever selfie? [online] Available at: <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/world-selfie-day-who-took-the-first-ever-selfie/articleshow/64676143.cms> [Accessed 10 March 2021].

Sontag, S., 2005. On Photography. Arrangement with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, p.12.

Jaruseviciute, G., 2018. This Man Took A Polaroid Every Day For 18 Years Until The Day He Died, And It’ll Break Your Heart. [online] Bored Panda. Available at: <https://www.boredpanda.com/polaroid-photo-every-day-jamie-livingston/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic> [Accessed 10 March 2021].

Crawford, H., n.d. Jamie Livingston: some photos of that day. [online] Photooftheday.hughcrawford.com. Available at: <https://photooftheday.hughcrawford.com/> [Accessed 10 March 2021].

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Chosen Photo Essay Topic/Photographer

Man takes a photo everyday for 18 years, until he dies.

I remember reading about this story years ago and immediately being captivated by it. Its so personal and interesting which is reason Ive decided to write about it for my photo essay. His name is Jamie Livingston, a New Yorker who started a website with a collection of photographs he took on a Polaroid SX- 70 camera, starting in 1979 continuing to 1997 when he unfortunately passed away. He called this project “Photo of the day”, meaning each day he would take a single Polaroid photograph capturing that day. I found this so interesting as he work wasn’t really discovered until someone stumbled upon his website, by that time of course he had already passed away which made the photos that little bit more powerful. After Livingston’s death, his 2 close friends, Hugh Crawford and Betsy Reid put together an exhibition and website of all of his photographs available to the pubic, they called it “PHOTO OF THE DAY: 1979-1997, 6,697 Polaroids, dated in sequence.” The website has every Polaroid Livingston ever took, in year and date order, the first ever picture Livingston took was of his girlfriend at the time, on the 13th of March 1979. His last picture being of himself in his hospital, dying of cancer on the 25th of October 1997. It’s a truly tragic ending to a beautiful series of photographs over the 18 years, but it just makes the pictures so much more precious in my opinion. 6,697 Polaroids to chose from, trying to only pick 5 that I though could really give you the impact and respect that Livingston deserved, was a very difficult process but I think I’ve done him justice.

Ive included a picture of Livingston, one of the Polaroids from his project.

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My chosen photo from the exercise last week-

This is a photograph of me in 2004, the reason I chose this one is that I think it really shows how times have changed, the massive tv, the ugly carpet, its just all very old-school.   

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Selected Paragraph -On Photography by Susan Sontag

The paragraph I’ve selected is –

“To collect photographs is to collect the world. Movies and television programs light up walls, flicker, and go out; but with still photographs the image is also an object, lightweight, cheap to produce, easy to carry about, accumulate, store.”

This piece of text resonated with me because I completely agree, photographs have so much power in them, although they can be fragile (speaking in terms of a physical photograph, not a mobile one), being fragile makes them even more precious. Like in the text “cheap to produce” really stood out to me, the reason being is that, photographs are so easy to obtain nowadays that we take them for granted, where as a few years ago when we didn’t carry smart phones, a photo was precious to us, we kept them in albums and cherished every single one. Ill even admit half of the photos on my phone have no real purpose, I hoard them for no reason, I think a lot of people do, Its like we need evidence that we’ve done something with our life’s, but we forget to live in the moment. I’d like to go back to those days when photos had more impact.

The first photo that came to mind when reading the text was the vert famous “V-J Day Times Square” photograph in new York. (see Figure 1.) The reason I chose this photograph is because it has such a massive impact, the impact I think some photographs these days have lost. It’s a prime example of living in the moment, that sailor had never met that nurse before, a total stranger, overcome with joy with the announcement of the war ending. I think it perfectly ties in with the text, specifically “to collect photographs is to collect the world”, this photograph is a small collection of the world, a small moment in time which would never be known unless we had the power of the photography. 

(Figure 1) 

Bibliography:

New York Post. 2012. The true story behind the iconic V-J Day sailor and ‘nurse’ smooch. [online] Available at: <https://nypost.com/2012/06/17/the-true-story-behind-the-iconic-v-j-day-sailor-and-nurse-smooch/> [Accessed 18 February 2021].

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

1000 Word Essay-

The Stickman doodle, Overlooked and under-appreciated.

 The humble stickman drawing is constantly referred to as “just”, people say “I’m not good at art, I can only draw a stickman”. As if to say a stickman is nothing more than a pointless doodle, but doodles are amazing, they are the base of every great idea an artist has ever had. The word doodle originates from the early 17th century meaning simpleton or fool, For a long time now even the word has a negative attachment ingraining in us that it’s something bad, but if you look in any artists sketchbook, they’ll show you what they think to be the perfect or complete pieces, but shy away from their random doodles, but when you do look at those doodles, you’ll find that they are so fascinating and really brilliant. The question I’m trying to gain more knowledge on is ‘How and why is doodling so important?’. As it turns out there is quite few people with a similar question, from artist to doctors, or even just ordinary people who share a common thought. I think this really speaks to the importance of aimlessly drawing, it benefits everyone in so many different ways, it is crucial that we talk about this, to make people realise how it affects them.

     As an example, The ‘Thinking’ benefits of doodling, Pillay (2016) an article about the benefits of doodling, and how it actually improves the relief of stress and helps people focus. Within this Pillay (2016) explains that doodling random little things helps us get through the day to day, it’s almost like background noise, something to keep our hands busy, not only that but our minds. I think we have all drawn a little tornado at the top left-hand side of our paper, in class, in a meeting or just anytime we get a little distracted. But really this is our way of coping with be it, the nerves for a presentation or waiting for results. It keeps the brain active and allows us to calm our selves and concentrate more. Dr Robert Burns, the former director of the Institute of Human Development at the university of Seattle, Burns (2016) uses doodling to helps diagnose emotional problems that people may have, he calls it the “unconscious”, He thinks the doodles we draw on paper are similar to the reading off of an ECG. Many people think that the small things we draw are random and have no meaning, but they actually can tell us a lot. Its such an overlooked form of assessment, I really think people should pay more attention to it, it really could help.

     Moreover, another online article The benefits of doodling, (Vox Creative 2017) talks about how doodlers retain more particular knowledge than non-doodlers. “If your brain is expending just enough energy to draw, it keeps you from absentmindedly daydreaming – without totally taking away focus from the task at hand.” (Vox Creative 2017). This really resonates with me, as a child your often told to stop doodling on the corners of your book, but it was the only way I found I could concentrate and really take in any information that was given to me. I think doodling helps our brain multitask and concentrate, without this ability to doodle, or have an outlet our minds would wander much more often, nothing would get done. Doodling may not work for everyone in this sense, but some sort of creative outlet can be helpful.

             I thought Mr. Doodle was a really important to include    because his idea of doodling is to not take what you draw to seriously,    just be free and draw whatever you like, channelling that inner child when    you used to doodle on your text book pages. I think it really tied in well    with the previous two articles I have shared, the fact that actually    doctors have researched and proved that doodling benefits people, which Mr.    Doodle is living proof of. He is so obsessed with doodling, he literally    puts all his time and effort into doodling, he covers every available space    and just lives in a doodle world, I really like the contrast in his    philosophy compared to teachers who tell students to not doodle as its    untidy or not professional on their paper.

                                           A popular artist by the name of Sam Cox, better known as Mr. Doodle is a British born artist who uses doodles to populate almost any surface, as he calls it “Graffiti Spaghetti”. (MR DOODLE n.d.) I particularly love his work because its so simple and really has a huge impact, I’ve included a picture from Mr. Doodles Instagram (Cox 2020) which I feel really captures him.

 To summarize the points I’ve brought up, doodling is beneficial to us, it helps us concentrate and portion out work to ourselves in a way that doesn’t take the main focus away from the bigger picture. The few examples I’ve given, to me really supports the idea that doodling is important, more broadly even if doodling isn’t something some people find to be beneficial, some sort of creative outlet can and does help people concentrate, take information in and get things done. A lot of people are visual learners, me included, when I have a new project sometimes the best way for me to get an idea out of my head is to illustrate it, making a visual of it means I can see exactly what works and what doesn’t, allowing me to change it. Or on a phone call to calm my nerves I just scribble on a piece of paper. A more popular outlet is people listening to music while they work, this is the same as someone doodling on a piece of paper, they both help us retain knowledge, running background noise or interference, not enough to distract us but to keep our brain active and alert.

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

Joint Manifesto- Hairy Situation

Joint manifesto with; Eloise, Valerie, Marie, Lorena and Me(Romy)

HAIRY SITUATION 

Body hair - should we care? 

WARNING! 

This manifesto is a non-manifesto.

It is not a preach for change.

It is not calling out an existing norm and forcing a new tradition. 

What is this then?

It is a set of equations that can help simplify YOUR decision-making to support INDIVIDUALITY and PREFERENCE. 

This non-manifesto can be boiled down to 4 simple equations. 

If you:

have body hair + love it = do what you want

have body hair + hate it = do what you want

don’t have body hair + love it = do what you want

don’t have body hair + hate it = do what you want

Minding your own business:

Body hair is still associated with topics it should not be associated with. 

politics

gender

Mixing OPINION and FACT is a tricky business as there is a chance of imposing opinion AS fact. 

OPINION ≠ FACT

The blurred lines between OPINION and FACT leads to people following other people’s opinions as facts and that leads to following opinions you don’t agree with. For instance:

Shaving your legs when you don’t want to

Not wearing certain clothing to hide body hair

Wasting money on razors and waxing when you don’t want to

Time spent when one could be doing more enjoyable or productive things

Environmentally impacting the Earth by using disposal of razors. 

(Did you know the average person who shaves daily or near-daily uses 40-50 disposable razors annually)

OPINION VERSUS FACT:

Believe it or not many individuals believe their opinion is in fact, fact. 

This non-manifesto believes:

All opinions are valid

All facts are valid

Opinions are not facts

Facts are not opinion

                                “clean shaved woman means beautiful”

                                      “a beardless man is not a man”

                                       “hairy legs can’t be on display”

These are OPINIONS that are confused for FACTS. 

Body hair is ART! -(little bit of my part as well, Romy)

This manifesto exists to drive people to never conform to rituals that one does not like. 

You are in control. You can make a statement. You decide how to present yourself to the world. 

Your body hair is YOUR statement, it can be a weapon of self confidence, it’s taking ownership of your own body and refusing the preferences that someone else has set UPON you. 

Just always be sure it's your choice and no one else’s. 

Anonymous Anecdotes:

Anecdotal evidence suggests that promoting choice and following the previously mentioned equations leads to a healthier relationship with yourself. 

#1Growing up in a Latin household is getting used to sexist behavior's from all of your family members including your mom and sisters. From the age of 11 my parents and siblings have warned me that having any type of pubic hair was dirty. And nothing has changed to this day. As I go to the beach, I still feel the need to shave every single inch of my body. However, my brother always finds a way to judge the way I look, from finding a single hair on my armpit to squeezing my leg and commenting on how disgusting my cellulite is. This was obviously harmful to my mental health as I now never wear revealing clothing if I haven't shaved beforehand.

Issues here: shaving when she didn’t want to, opinions imposed as fact. 

#2 For most of my childhood, I wasn't really aware of my appearance. I chose the clothes that I enjoyed wearing (a lot of long skirts and wellington boots) and I didn't think that my choices would matter to anyone else. This changed when I started middle school, through teasing and comments from friends and others peers. I remember vividly the first time I was told I should shave, I was around 13 years old. My first reaction was surprise that it was an issue for anyone, then acute embarrassment since it became apparent that having armpit hair was undesirable and something to be ashamed of.  Years later, while I still shave my armpits, I regularly don’t bother doing it, and I never shave my legs. Not caring as much is definitely freeing.

Issues here: person knows of other people feeling unhappy with body hair. Toxic ideals AKA opinions imposed as fact. 

#3 ‘Even though I think body hair is perfectly natural and I have nothing against it, I always notice when a woman (or even a man) has a lot of hair under their armpits and I think “they must get teased”. Then I remember that there is no reason why it should make a difference to their life, or the way I perceive them.”

Issues here: person subconsciously assumes negatively about body hair despite themselves being open and supportive towards it. 

#4 A 14 year old found herself having to wear a bra inside her own place because her mother was jealous of the ‘attention’ she would take from her own dad.

The Art of Not Caring:- (My part, Romy)

This non-manifesto supports not caring about what others think of you if you do not VALUE them. 

This mentality is the biggest power you have over yourself.

This non-manifesto supports defending yourself when you need to and not defending yourself when you don’t need to. 

Analyzing people's OPINIONS TOWARDS YOU is empowerment. 

BORN THIS WAY… and that way… and this way…

One is not born with a set notions of what one should look like. 

Notions are learned and taught.

Some people are taught through IMPOSED OPINIONS a “proper way” to conduct oneself, body hair is part of that. 

It should not be. 

ENOUGH  WAFFLE, WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU?

So you have reached the end, thank you and well done. But why should any of this be of any significance to you?

It doesn’t have to, but it can be. 

You may disagree with everything you have just read. That is valid. 

This non-manifesto believes all opinions are valid. 

Even if you don’t agree with it, it agrees with you.

 I’m not saying every woman shouldn’t shave. I just want women to make informed decisions and ask themselves why they do it. It’s about self-worth and love. I don’t want there to be women shaving because they think they’re disgusting if they don’t. The fact that we’re making decisions based on toxic ideals really saddens me.”

Referencing:

Leaf score, The place for green. The environmental impact of shaving products. July 3rd, 2020

https://www.leafscore.com/eco-friendly-bath-products/environmental-impact-of-shaving-products/

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

“A Green Sun”

The manifesto I chose from the 100 Artist Manifestos book is called “A Green Sun” by Kōtarō Takamura in 1910, he is a Japanese poet, writer and sculptor born in Tokyo 1883 and died in 1956. Kōtarō talks about how he thinks people get stuck in a trap of a certain style of art, depending on where they are from or their ‘local colour’. He is passionate about his freedom in the art world, he is aware of of the infinite authority in every artists personality , he likes to think that each artist is a human being first and he likes to consider the artist feelings and appreciate their work. Kōtarō states while making art he does not think of Japan, he simply uses his feelings and thinks of his work ,not trying to make it the stereotypical ‘japanesey’ style of art. He talks about ‘local colour’ which from what I gathered is a certain style of art that pertains to a country or culture. He expresses that a lot of people who hold ‘local colour’ to a high regard and often disregard artists when they don’t use their ‘local colours’ in their work, for example: Monet didn’t try to make the ‘local colour’ of France, he only tried to recreate nature, meaning the public didn’t accept his colours, they didn’t even accept them as natural colours, because he used blue tones in his leaves he was denounced. If you look at his work now it’s actually very “French” or “french local colour”. A particular point Kōtarō that brought resonated with me was that a lot of people who hesitate to create art in a certain style as it may not fit in with the ‘local colour’ and then their work will lose all integrity, so instead play it safe and suppress any type of imagination or dreamlike tones that they feel inside. I chose this manifesto as it really connected with me, I agree completely with Kōtarō in his opinion to not judge a person by their background or how they ‘should’ be producing artwork. Instead embrace their work in which ever way they chose to make it and not make them feel bad or less than because they didn’t stay in the stereotypical box, or ‘local colour’.

References:

Wikipedia. 2020. Kōtarō Takamura - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kōtarō_Takamura. [Accessed 06 November 2020].

Obelisk Art History. 2020. A Green Sun, Kōtarō Takamura | Obelisk Art History. [ONLINE] Available at: https://arthistoryproject.com/timeline/industrial-revolution/meiji/a-green-sun/. [Accessed 06 November 2020].

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

New updated version of my map, titled - “The Trip”

For my map, I took inspiration from artist Francis Alÿs, from his project “Seven Walks”. More specifically one of the walks titled “Pebble walk” which was walking as long as it took to get a stone in your shoe. To put a more personal spin on this idea I decided to walk as long as it took for me to trip up, the reason being I trip up quite a lot in my platform shoes. I wanted a fun type of map so I decided to illustrate and use some photographs to depict my walk, the map it self shows me journey from start to finish, the shoes I wore and the place where I tripped. I really enjoyed making a map in the non traditional sense.

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

“Fear is the root of bad writing”

(my attemp on construcitve writing)

In the beginning of 2020 I set a task for myself to complete 3 illustrative pieces, this image is the first of the series. Its watercolour painting on cartridge paper of a panda eating his sorrows away in a bowl of ramen noodle, sitting in a café. The character in the painting is called ‘Panda’, original I know, He is a bear from the popular animated kids tv show ‘We Bare Bears’. The colours used in the painting are warm, setting a relaxed tone to the image. The brush strokes are detailed oriented, created with a fine tipped brush, making it an effective illustration.  

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

For this walk or derive, I took inspiration from my chosen artist form last week ‘Francis Alÿs’. In Alÿs project called ‘Seven Walks’ one of the particular walks was called ‘Pebble Walk’, in this Alÿs walked as long as it took until he got a pebble in his shoe, when he did, the walk was over. I wanted to create my own version of this but with a more personal twist to it, I myself am quite a short person, I like wearing platform shoes that add maybe 3-4inches to my height, it’s become my thing sort of. The only down side to this is I often roll my ankle or trip up quite a lot. So, I thought it would be a good idea to walk as long as it took for my platform shoes to trip me up or for my ankle to roll, (as safely as I can). My idea behind this is that, our appearance is so important to us that we are willing to put our own safety at risk in order to look how we like or feel like maybe other people would find cool and interesting, I find myself doing this a lot, I know the platform shoes could possible hurt me but yet because I think they are apart of me I choose to continue wearing them. Using the same base idea that Alÿs uses I ventured out in my platform shoes ready to see how my ankles would fair. It is a little difficult to walk and think about tripping up, without subconsciously making yourself trip up, but non the less I tried my best to distract myself and just enjoy the walk as it happened. I didn’t really have a plan of where I was going to walk I just went where ever I felt like it, which mainly consists of open spaces like parks. Slightly embarrassing when I eventually did trip up, going back to what I mentioned before about appearance, its sort of a catch 22, for example the platform shoes will to me, make my appearance better and “cooler” but they can also cause me to trip up and look like a fool, which would be the opposite effect I wanted the shoes to have in the first place. To respond to how Alÿs portrayed his results of his walks, I decided to make a post card of the area I walked in as my sort of map.  

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

Francis Alÿs is a Belgium born, México based artist. His work focuses on mainly architecture, space of art and social practice. He has a vast amount of performance art that reaches into urban tension and geopolitics.

Alys regularly engages in ‘paseos’ meaning a walk in a common space in Spanish speaking parks of the US. The piece I’ve chosen is called ‘Seven Walks’, over several years Alÿs walked the streets of London, this project was to show the everyday habits of the metropolis. Through his walks Alys maps different parks of the city, these being; Hyde Park, the City of London, the National Portrait Gallery and streets close to Regents Park. The subjects included in these walks ranges from a solitary fox to a group of Coldstream Guards. Alys ideas can sometimes be simple in nature with a more complex outcome, with Seven Walks, Alÿs decided to record a fox as it moved around the National Portrait Gallery, the sound of railings being drummed, watching the Coldstream guards find each other in the city and walking for as long as it takes for a stone to get in your shoe. This allowed us access to different visuals and hear different sounds that on a normal day we wouldn’t even think about. Each walk had a different title, these where; Guards, The Nightwatch, Railings, Ice 4 Milk, Pebble Walk, The Commuters, Sunny/shady and Knots. I realise this is 8 and not 7 but this is the list of works Alÿs produced. The reason I chose Alÿs projects is because I found it interesting how Alÿs thinks outside the norm and challenges what most people would think when it comes to ‘performance art’, meaning a lot of people seem to think art has to have some big meaning behind it, with an emotional back story, but to me art can be whatever it is that we want, which I think Alÿs is a prime example of. I think ‘seven walks’ really responds to the current brief of ‘keep walking intently’ and also really ties in with the ‘Theory of the Derive’. In some ways Alÿs is going on his own derive (paseos in his language) but I think its the same thing just done slightly differently. I particularly liked ‘The Nightwatch’ something about seeing a fox in an art gallery really is just enjoyable to watch, foxes are already hidden creatures we barley see, only at night time and even then its just a glimpse. Seeing the fox walk around the gallery is fascinating because I wonder what its looking at or what its thinking? Just like myself if I was in an art gallery, but I know the fox had no comprehension of the fantastic art on the walls, to him they could be ordinary things in the world. I love how Alÿs approach in this project made me think about those sort of things that I otherwise never would have imagined. I’d like to incorporate this type of thinking in my own project of the derive, I think it would benefit how I present my work and in which way I do so.

References:

Francis Alÿs - Wikipedia. 2020. Francis Alÿs - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_ Alÿs [Accessed 15 October 2020].

Art Exchange. 2020. Francis Alÿs: Seven walks - Art Exchange. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.artexchange.org.uk/exhibition/francisalys-seven-walks/. [Accessed 15 October 2020].

Seven Walks | Artangel. 2020. Seven Walks | Artangel. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.artangel.org.uk/project/seven-walks/. [Accessed 15 October 2020].

[romymdxcontexualstudiesfirstyear]

First week of contextual studies.

For this week we were told to go on a short walk or a “derive”, this means to go on an unplanned journey whether its in a built up area or somewhere open. The whole point is to let yourself been drawn into an area by the attractions or the encounters that lead you on this unplanned journey. I consider myself to be a very oragnaised and planned person so I found this a little tricky to fully just let go, but I gave it a good try.

My journey was short, but enjoyable non the less, It was raining, quite a bit but I enjoy the rain sometimes, it makes the world look different. While on my walk I kept in mind the piece of text I read titled “Theory of the Derive” by Guy Debord, the text was complicated and confusing at times but it did help me understand this type of unplanned journey a little bit better. I tried to keep drifiting as much as I could, I was drawn to a church (as ive shown above) it stood out to me because it was the tallest building in the area, it had a very alluring presence to it, its odd as I find people behave different when in the visinity of a church. This refers to ‘psychogeography’, certian places can make us act differently, I think a good way to look at is “drifting in the city, without feeling lost’. People can so easily pass through the same city everyday but never really stop to look around and consider the environment around them. On my walk I felt like the buildings and weather around made me feel comfortable, the mixture of old classic looking building along with the rain made the world feel quieter, which made me comfy. I think this represents that depending on building structures (e.g- how old they are, the colour of them or the emediate weather around you) can effect the attitude of people, my attitude meaning acting more respectful when around the church, even though I myself am not religious there is always a sort of mutual respect. The weather can also change my attitude as in, not really wanting to stay outside for that long, obviously its raining but there’s also a comfortability in that feeling, of being cozy indoors. To sum up, I think actually going on a “derive” is a little bit harder than I thought but I realised that an unplanned journey can be quite enjoyable and looking at it in terms of a “derive” can make you look at your surroundings differently and question them.