Steves notes - January 18, 2017

12:00 Paula [What are you working on?]

Have been working on found footage. Miss universe, miss America; zooming in on the face at the moment when they win. Ideally I would like them printed on glass or on aluminium. It is a moment that turns into something else that interests me, on the edge between joy and crying. It has everything that interests me: very strong emotion; the staging of gender; and over-performance, which is so strong it becomes absurd; (it also has campy qualities); It feels like staged emotion but it is real [an authentic performance]. Vulnerability; the idea of the construction of the self and self-presentation. They are totally normative but they stand for the opposite from my point of view. I cannot look at them without seeing them through the lens of drag queens and the high performance of gender which becomes absurd in a positive way. They seem to scream “get me out of this role”. [what is the difference between 'real drag' and 'beauty contest drag'?] It is a question of intention and ... I am putting something on them that is not there [<unpack this it is a complex and important issue]. The beauty contest are very restrictive: you can’t be married; you can’t be pregnant (the lifting of the restriction of race is recent); there are age restrictions. The aim is to objectify oneself to the extreme. The piece has a political commentary which I am happy with. [<unpack and explain this more]

[P, shows pictures in eye corridor and of circle set ups]

Something I want to work on further: in relation to the sensibility of treating images and also the content. This is the first piece with found objects (found images), it felt like a big step, even though it is still serial; [what was the plus? ] You skip a whole process of working and having to deal with the intended and unintended results. There are so many images out there. I like appropriation and also using real people; something with a strong bind to reality and a link to society. Also aesthetically everything was there that I was looking for. ["re-mediation": ask Steve to send text on this]. [What did you do to remediate?]: I took out the things that signify “beauty pageant”. They are affective. I would like to explore this more. I expect the circle to be like in the school yard; I feel intimidated by the images. A group of normative girls surround you but they are not in their best shape. It has a fun factor. I enjoy them in a happy, absurd way. [< this can be explored more,: you seem to enjoy their discomfort and feel pity for them at the same time]

[ What does the different arrangement give me? The different configurations have a different affect] Yes, you can decide to enter the circle; in the corridor it is more imposed on you. The circle is more intense because you make a decision to enter it. [but the corridor in more coercive/ manipulative; Think about the different affects in the different set-ups more] In the space of Eye the pics fit the format of the movie poster. This is the wall where movie posters are hung; It may be that they have evidence of the movie posters. [unpack this]. People don’t know what they are looking at. [Maybe not display the title, allow the pictures to stand without any textual clues] The women seem to be announcing something bad; the movie posters also speak of things to come; the images also have a spiritual quality [ecstatic?]; there is some redemption and catharsis to them. [look at anthropologists on the subject of beauty pageants - the pageant as ritual]. [Where do you want to take this?]

Other stuff: Filming my mother. Over the past years have been studying psychology and sociology (mothers and daughters) Currently getting closer to my mother and getting a lot out of getting closer to her; looking for a new sensibility and vulnerability. Getting my mother to perform. Music we both enjoy. We make a track list. She doesn’t like still images but she likes performing in video. Feels like a rich history to work with and relate to [<explain the history in detail please. Please describe this project in great detail. Relate it to previous work and your usual methods] Would like to work with her and not about her. She was from the first generation of self-sufficienct women. She sings and draws. [make tutorial with Katerina Z] [set achievable aims ahead of the next methods class]