Three things SOphie

Sophie B

a piece of media (YouTube clip, film, TV show)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ConFe-wSLc

Sophie is showing the video. --Talk show with 3 women small talking to the host. Talking about wanting to be a model, or dating. UK accent. They wear sexy and tight outfits, red black and golden. Present themselves walking and talking. The host is over 60, female. Jaimie is introduced. He's from essex, saxophones playing, he's happy and waving to everyone. What do you do jaimie? IT stuff. He wishes to be a millionair by 30 but he looks like he has been 30 already. Oh god he's 19! A baby like the host says. Talking baby voices.He wants a blond girl, long legs. He's also obsessed with his own look. Gel in the hair and suited up. Generally talking about promiscuity again and again. Jaimie presents his 3 questions for the ladies:

   What would you do to shut me up? ... girl in golden dress wants to make stuff with his mouth tonight. Other girl says the same thing in a slightly more fake tone. Third girl talks about action man.
   What would I find on your website? ... surfing the internet is sad jamie! She has an SH for an S. Making slutty comments on LOG-INs. Second girl doesn't know shit about computer but knows how to make jokes on hard drives. Nr3 want to be teached the rights buttons to press.--
   
   Amazing.
   
    Sophie is obsessed with dating shows, the aspiration to find a partner. Fully naked programs, dating in the dark, trying to get to know people in shows. This particular show is called "Blind Date" and started in the 80ies.
    George wants to hear more.
    Nick: does interactions have changed within the years?
    Programs seem more serious now. Back then it was more like a joke, and nowadays they seem to be more into it. They even marry though a "scientific" match.
    Sophie seems interested in the british shows. Especially because there are so many. George thinks"First dates" are very well thought through and arranged. It is not a game show tough.
    Big chat about shows like the bachelor, exes on the beach, wow!
   Steve suggests "Better living though reality TV" - book, on the ideology of performance.
   

a text you are reading which has a useful relation to your work

Susan Bordo Unbearable Weight 1) presenter: describe, in your own words, what the text (s) you are reading are about. 2)note taker: make notes on the pad of what your peer is saying. presenter, ask: 3) Why this text is of interest to you? 4) What is its relation to your self directed research? 5) How can you turn the questions these texts raise into work?

Text:

   Susan B
   Unbearable Weight, 1993
   About the female body, references feminism in western culture, stereoutypes, starts with a nice poem that Sophie reads out. Delmore Schwartz
   Separation between body and mid/spirit. How the body gets in the way. Contains interesing examples of how to be feminine. How the female body is plants (passive), male active (animals). Temtation, guilt, shame, self love, diseases, eating disorders, historical references to the body, feminism, and desire.
   How does the text influence what you are doing? ...using it together with the game show research, to talk about gender stereotypes. Working with transcripts: downloaded or written. Trying to approach the topic on a more theoretical way though the book.

In the work I try to mix the different voices (male and female). Gender of speech patterns.

a work of art (by another) which delights or infuriates you
https://vimeo.com/176623677 

Video work by Heather Philippson
Makes extensive and dense video works, with her voice.
Video is played: 
-- Good news for people who like death. Nature, symbols. Clouds, color stains. Animals, humans. ways to think about death. Layers of images moving together, towards the viewer.--

-- A heart, water, a guitar playing, hearts everywhere, in the gym, in a hotelroom, on the grill. Sound and voice rhytmically cut. Moving collages with image and words. -- Sophie doesn0t like the installatios she makes with the videos. But likes the videos.

    Timur notes:
    VIDEO

Youtube video Blind date “Your secret is safe with us Hello number three Whats your name and where you coming from Doing part-time modeling CatWalk Golden dress Blond girl performing cat walk in a golden tight dress Lets choose just one of them Seat yourself down lad Guy speaking about his house, laundry, he is 19 years old “You are a baby” Going to a gym 3-4 times a week People laughing awkwardly Hair wax, crisp ironed shirt” “I like to spread myself around” “Hi girls” “Hi James” “What would you do to shut me up” “well jamie am afraid you got your match tonight” “Action speaks louder than words” “Be my action man” “Surfing the internet is quite sad” “I don’t know much about computers, but…”

Obsessed with dating shows in UK Find your partner Naked attraction program Dating in the dark Video is from the 90’s Watched it as a kid The todays dating programs seem more serious Married on first sight, based on science The bachelor UK Social psychology experiment, reality tv took over the methodology from social psychology Moving from a game, people making scenarios, very much about ideology of performance Everybody has to be on Responsibilization

TEXT Unbearable weight 1993 THE female body Feminism and western culture Stereotypes Starts with a nice poem Talking about the body and separation of the body and the mind body gets in the way examples how to be feminine temptation and guilt, shame of the body etc.. talks about eating disorders, starving, historical references to feminism

talking about gender stereotypes book is a reference using transcripts male and female perspectives

ART Heather Philipsson Extensive dance video works

“New ways to think about death” “Connecting hot threats of hot cheese with..” “Having heart is a condition not a confession” ok am done

The media I am using for my research is Blind Date. Blind Date is a British TV dating game show that started in the eighties until the early noughties. It is hosted by an iconic female Scouse named Cilla Black, who died in 2015. She is known for her cheesy one-liners on the show and she was one of the most highly paid presenters on TV. The show introduces three heterosexual singletons of the same sex to the audience. Cilla Black asks them with exclamation,

“What’s your name and where do you come from?”

Each contestant describes himself or herself in a desirable way, paying particularly attention to physical assets. One contestant in the example shown is a female wearing a tight golden mini-dress. She performs a catwalk impression exposing her long slender legs to the audience (her occupation is model). They are asked three questions by someone of the opposite sex which they can only hear and not see. In the example Jamie (single male) asks provocative questions allowing the girls to follow with suggestive and cheesy responses in order to persuade Jamie to pick them for the date. Jamie is only nineteen years old and referred to by the host as a “baby”. After three questions the singleton can chose one of three to go on the date. The losing contestants are revealed to the singleton and then shown their chosen partner. They are congratulated and rewarded with a mini-break or a holiday together. Once they return from their trip the couple must return to the show to give feedback on how the date went.

My fixation with these shows stemmed from the quantity of dating shows I have been exposed to in Britain since I was a child. Once seeing a handful of shows I was intrigued to search for more and this is where the fascination began. Today’s dating shows appear more serious in terms of the contestant finding a partner compared with Blind Date’s format. A point of research is how interactions have changed between these years. Science and algorithms are now used to predict people’s compatibility. There has been a shift from the game show format to real life match making. My interest is specifically British programs such as First Dates, Dating in the Dark, Naked Attraction and Married at First Sight all programs that are currently broadcasted in the UK. What I enjoy about the British shows is the humour and how I relate to these characters. These newer programs are not game shows but reality TV. This will lead me on to my next point of research Better Living Through Reality TV by Laurie Ouellette and James Hay.

The text I am using for my research is Unbearable Weight by Susan Bordo, 1993. The book is about Feminism in relation to the female body in Western culture. The book begins with a poem by Delmore Schwartz called the Heavy Bear. So far as I have read the book contains many examples of how the female body had been stereotyped and discussed in philosophy. Key examples that have stood out for me are: How to be Feminine and how the female body is compared to plants (passive) and the male to animals (active). There is a lot about the separation of the body to the spirit and mind and how the body gets in the way. Bordo discusses things that affect everyone who has body with a tendency toward feminist discourse. Some key topics are, temptation, guilt, shame, self-love/hatred, diseases, which affect the mind and body such as anorexia and bulimia and desire. A lot of what is discussed in the book relates to primal instincts of humans. Extreme feminist activists have used starvation, paralysis and muteness as a way of drawing attention to the discourse. I am interested in the relationship between control and destruction within these issues raised.

I think many of the ideas and themes in the book are visible in my own work. I am interested in unpacking emotional baggage, which can be seen as destructive, or inhibiting to life and work. As I work a lot from a personal female perspective, I often find myself looking toward feminist discourse with anxieties and insecurities about my own body and mind. I use an inner voice to express a neuroticism or angst in relation to guilt versus pleasure and in conflicting dialogue. This text interests me as it gives lots of examples of texts from other feminist perspectives and I am able to visualise some of it into imagery or spoken word through my own art making, predominantly video works. I am using transcripts from male and female perspectives to look at patterns in speech and also writing my texts from a personal or inner voice. I often record spoken word and then transcribe it into text, so me often it’s spoken before it’s written.

The artwork that interests me is video work by Heather Phillipson and in particular related to this research a work called Commiserations. She makes extensive and dense works with layers of photographic and animated visuals, text with a dense voice over and often found music. She speaks about Nature, Death, Love, Animals, Humans, Feelings and much more. I like her overwhelming emotional confessional position in the work and this is where I see some similarities to my own work. Although visually our works are very different and I think I always approach my work very differently from her I believe we have a lot of similar themes running throughout. In particular, the use of the voice in her work is something I am very interested in and that I work with myself. She is poetic in her language and captivating in her voice. There is also repetition that enhances certain parts of the text. She uses popular music in Commiserations such as Fleetwood Mac/Phil Philips - Sea of Love, Usher - Let Me Love You, Sister Sledge - He’s the Greatest Dancer. She talks about being trapped within feelings, which I empathise with and I’m sure many people also do. I like the way people can empathise with her work. There’s relatable personal elements that open her work to wide audience and makes it so successful. There is a roughness to her video making and editing which I think also features in my own work. There’s a sense of urgency to get material out there rather than to perfect its visual qualities.