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Drawing the island
No full textA privately sponsored residency on Bowen Island BC, Canada. Solitary walking was part of the research process, and at the mid point , a drawing was made in specific locations. Some of these related to places where scenes from The Trap (dr Sidney Hayes 1966) were filmed
Chicken and Egg 2023
No full textChicken and Egg 2023 Painted Steel 1.5 x 1.5 x 1 m Temporary Public Sculptur
Singing with soot
Get PDFThis paper examines the act of singing with early phonautograph recordings as a method for exploring the intersection of sound, archival practices, and embodied experience. These phonautographs, which produced visual traces of sound on soot-covered paper in the 19th century, could not originally be replayed. However, modern digital technology has enabled their playback, allowing contemporary listeners to interact with voices from the past. This interaction serves as a foundation for a duet between the listener's voice and the archive, exploring the material, affective, and relational dimensions of sound. The study draws on queer feminist archival methodologies to interrogate the implications of interacting with unwilling, unknowing voices from history. It questions the fetishization of proximity in archival and artistic practices and considers the ethics of engaging with bodies and traces that cannot consent. Through the lens of personal and historical narratives, the paper addresses themes of transformation, loss, and recognition within voice and sound. The shifting temporalities of the recordings are linked to concepts of gender as fluid, time-based constructs, emphasizing the interplay between past and present in the embodied act of singing. By situating the phonautograph recordings within broader cultural and technological frameworks, the paper challenges traditional assumptions about archives and liveness. It proposes that singing with these traces represents a form of "deep listening," as theorized by Pauline Oliveros, fostering relationality across temporal and material divides. Ultimately, this work positions duet singing as a method of critical engagement with history, offering a transformative way of experiencing and interpreting archival voices
“Do you feel held?” Queering an infrastructure of empathy in Ari Aster’s Midsommar (2019)
No full textIn Queer Images: A History of Gay and Lesbian Film in America (2005), authors Harry M Benshoff and Sean Griffin argue that Queer audiences have been drawn to the Horror film in particular as a way to access and reflect their sense of identity and community and to reclaim their own narratives. Ari Aster’s protagonist in Midsommar (2019), experiences a major upheaval in her life and begins a journey of enlightenment which appears to offer her an alternative to the trauma of a heteropatriarchal trajectory. Dani (Florence Pugh) is taken in by the Harga community as one of their own: at first the lifestyle and philosophical changes are disorientating, however, she slowly becomes enveloped, treasured, and held dear by the community. In this paper, approached from the dual perspective of Queer Gothic Studies and Fashion Studies, we explore the alternative infrastructure of empathy and kinship offered by the Harga community, tracing the significant design choices in the set and costumes used to narrate queer becoming via an immersive sensory feast. Following David Halperin’s definition of Queer Theory (2003) as an inclusive signifier that seeks to dismantle identities and categorisation, we will offer a reading of Midsommar which celebrates how the accumulation of bold embroidery, runic symbolism and floral motifs parodies structures based in capitalism. Flowers bloom and contract, colours scream in their saturation, and clothes engulf: Our paper will contend that the queer appeal of this film extends beyond notions of perversion and excess in its effective communication of social critique via visually arresting design
[Spatial] Pedagogic readings of Queer Theory: Experimental Realism and opportunities for teaching and learning
Get PDFThis chapter aims to establish an understanding of approaches to queer theory via the teaching and learning of spatial design subjects in higher education. Introducing ‘experimental realism’ as a pedagogical approach to (speculative) spatial design subjects, the chapter will discuss the relational binaries of architecture and interiority through an understanding of identity discourse, and map the relationships between key interpretations of queer theory. In addition, it will consider the impacts that speculative design, diegetics/mimetics, and equitable futures could have on teaching and learning in spatial design. Ultimately the chapter aims to serve as a provocative catalyst for queer theory and queer pedagogy to be read spatially and/or architecturally: as Oliver Vallerand has written, “[d]espite most of the thinking about the relation between queerness and architecture taking place in the academic world, its impact on architectural pedagogy has been quite limited. However, to be transformative, the acts of queering space and of queering design should be thought about at the root, in design schools.” (Vallerand, 2018, p.141) In education specifically, the queering of archetypal architectural teaching practice, process and product may offer an opportunity to interrupt heteronormativity at its inception. Acts of queering in the educational context open up new avenues of thinking and practice that go beyond the narrow confines of identity politics, towards making space for equitable and desirable futures
Material afterlives: Fashioning menswear in the Blade Runner films
Get PDFWithin the first three lines of Philip K Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), we find the first reference to the character of Rick Deckard and his sartorial style. “A merry little surge of electricity piped by automatic alarm from the mood organ beside his bed awakened Rick Deckard. Surprised - it always surprised him to find himself awake without prior notice - he rose from the bed, stood up in his multicolored pajamas, and stretched.” Although Dick’s novel and the subsequent film adaptation know as Bladerunner (1982) have been a source of much academic writing from a Fashion perspective, most of the discussions have tended to focus on womenswear and the fashions of the female characters within the Bladerunner Universe. Interestingly, in Dick’s original novel we observe that within the initial introduction of the characters, the very first reference of clothing is used as a description of a garment worn by the male protagonist of the book, Rick Deckard. Beginning with Dick’s book but following on from the subsequent impact of the film, the fashion industry has continued to be inspired by Bladerunner (1982) and it has become a regular source of inspiration for many influential fashion designers such as Alexander McQueen and Raf Simons. For example, Alexander McQueen’s Givenchy Autumn/Winter 1999 Ready-to-Wear collection and Gareth Pugh’s Autumn/Winter 2006 Ready-to-Wear collection both draw on the Film Noir and Cyberpunk aesthetic present such as that seen in the character of Rachel’s with her forties inspired wardrobe and infamous fur coat. What is most notable here is that these influences and examinations tend to focus on the impact of womenswear and the female body through exploration of the characters from the original film such as those of Rachel and Pris. There is much less investigation offered through the exploration of the male characters present within the Bladerunner universe. Any discussion of menswear and the male bodies present within the book and the subsequent film are somewhat dismissed, with the fashion influence of these male characters largely ignored. In fact, their choice of clothing and the garments that they wear have clearly had a significant impact on menswear within popular culture and this gap in critical reflection from a fashion perspective is therefore a rich area of study to interpret and analyse. This discussion will therefore consider the impact of menswear within the Bladerunner Universe, drawing on the original 1982 film and concluding with Denis Villeneuve’s Bladerunner 2049 (2017) in which he reimagines the Bladerunner universe
Altered properties: Introducing a novel circular cellulose–based binder for printing textile finishes
Get PDFTechnologies for regenerating post-consumer cellulose-based textiles are heralded as one of the solutions in achieving a circular economy for textiles. These chemical recycling processes are often focused on the like-for-like replacement of environmentally impactful textile fibres with waste-derived man-made cellulosic fibres. Regenerated cellulose materials that are not suitable for the fibre process remain unconsidered in the commercial drive to up-scale circular chemical recycling technologies. Within this technological landscape connected to bio-derived cellulose-based textiles, there are synthetic binders that are conventionally used in textile finishing techniques such as printing. However, these form a barrier to a material’s circularity. This research shows how regenerated cellulose, obtained from post-consumer textiles waste, was introduced for the first time as a print binder in textile screen printing. The innovation resulted from applying a material-driven textile design (MDTD) methodology for new circular design practices in materials science. The resulting properties were qualitatively and quantitatively compared to three types of petroleum-based textile processes that hinder a cellulose-based textile material’s circularity: puff binder, plastisol, and thermoforming. The results demonstrated a significant reduction in temperature for textile finishing, as well as novel mono-material cellulose-based processes for fabric manipulation, textile print, and textile shape. The conclusions discuss the potential of these processes to benefit an increase in future circularity for finished regenerated cellulose-based textiles
Anamersion: Toward a postcinematic poetics of immersion
Get PDFThe contribution of my practice-led research is the development of anamersion, a postcinematic poetics of immersion, which attends to the immersive conditions of contemporary life forms. Notions of mutational convergences of bodies, environments, and technologies and their differential mapping and navigation are developed in dialogue with Unica Zürn’s figuration of (her) (female) body and its institutionalisation as one formation in her illustrated text The House of Illnesses, Kathy Acker’s conception of the labyrinth as the site where codes are made flesh, and Porpentine Charity Heartscape’s explorations of trauma in their computer games set in horror mansions, with special attention to the way writing, drawing, and algorithmic operations often co-constitute each other in their works and in my own practice. Bringing these predominantly pre-computational engagements to bear on technology-dependent forms of immersion in gaming and virtual reality (VR), my practice-led research provides an analysis of immersive, navigational, and environmental figurations through modes of drawing, moving image, and multimedia installation that respond to Wynter’s call for a New Studia, and Zürn, Acker, and Heartscape’s disruptions of anatomical, architectural, and textual figurations on its own terms. Developing anamersion primarily with reference to Sylvia Wynter’s thought and, by extension, that of Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, Louis Chude-Sokei, Denise Ferreira da Silva, and others, emphasis is laid on the ways in which the over-represented genre of the human, Man, continues to manifest in and as bodies, environments, and technologies today. Understanding anamersion as a form of what Wynter calls figuration Work, anamersive approaches map, navigate, and traverse such generic structurations from the implicated and immersed positions, which have the potential to be in solidarity with the Wynterian unsettling of the genre Man by challenging conceptions of technology which carry over post-Enlightenment monohumanism into derivative posthumanisms, which continue to reproduce colonial logics with deadly consequences. Anamersion, as analytic and poetics, thus presents a significant and original contribution to the fields of artists’ moving-image and postcinematic studies, which focus on the environmental and navigational trajectories of moving-image and immersive technologies today and elaborates how these can be refigured to produce generative detachments and exits from the linear developmental narratives that underwrite a violent world order. KEYWORDS: anamersion, immersion, post-cinema, postcinematic, moving image, gaming, virtual reality, navigation, mapping, drawing, figuration, humanism, genre, environment, body, hybridity, technology, Sylvia Wynter, Kathy Acker, Unica Zürn, Porpentine Charity Heartscape
Hand hygiene messaging design in the workplace: Views from the workforce—introduction
Get PDFAims:: The study aimed to (1) discover workers’ attitudes toward the use of novel video screens to improve hand sanitization in the workplace and (2) discover what workers’ preferences are for hand hygiene (HH) messaging style and tone and reasons for their preferences. Background:: Practicing good HH in non-medical office settings is vital to curb the spread of a range of common and infectious diseases. Despite this, workers are rarely consulting in the construction of HH messages. The qualitative views of users can provide us with the “why” rather than the “what” and can highlight areas of cynicism, concern and overall attitudes to HH. Methods:: A survey was completed by 520 UK workers concerning attitudes and views toward HH messaging and the use of a video-based hand sanitizer unit. Analysis consisted of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Results:: Workers were skeptical toward the use of digital technologies within HH interventions, and there were misgivings about the role that video could play. Results demonstrated a strong preference for positive and supportive messages. Educational and trustworthy qualities were well rated. Messages that emphasized surveillance, previously successful in a clinical setting, or guilt, were not well received. Visual approaches that utilized serious illustration were valued. Conclusion:: This study highlights how consulting workers before the design of HH initiatives is important in guiding the design process. The resultant user-centered criteria promotes the use of positive, motivational, thought-provoking, surprising, and visual approaches to HH messaging
The Al-Sadu tent divider, the veil and the materiality of privacy: The construction of Muslim women's self-identity through the printed opacity of soft dividers
Get PDFThis project explores the role that soft dividers, such as the al-Sadu Bedouin tent divider and the veil, play in forming notions of privacy and self-identity for Muslim women. As a critical and material investigation, the project draws on my lived experience as a Saudi female artist who wears the veil in and outside Muslim countries informed by practice-based research involving participatory work with Muslim women in Saudi and Britain. Soft Dividers, a series of printed textile artworks, addresses visibility and shielding to show how veiling and portable dividers support the formation and presentation of the self, enabling my participants to move within their own comfort zones across public–private transnational contemporary contexts. My project begins with an investigation of al-Sadu weaving, a deep-rooted Bedouin craft practised mainly by women, constructed to separate private from public and male from female zones in tented nomadic communities. My initial research into al-Sadu draws on Pennina Barnett’s theory of non-linear, non-binary ‘soft logic’. Dialogues and art practice involving non-judgmental haptic collaborations with groups of Muslim women led to a greater understanding of the situating of gender-based privacy in Arab socio-cultural contexts, as discussed by Fadwa El Guindi and Fatema Mernissi. My thesis offers an understanding of the relationship between the tent divider and the veil as a metaphor for spatial privacy by investigating aspects of psycho-spatial comfort zones for veiled Muslim women. By connecting al-Sadu with the veil, my research focuses on the veil and soft dividers as qualitative indicators of privacy and self-identity. I follow Richard Sennett’s theory of ‘thinking through making’, using scaled-up printed textiles to explore how the veil embodies a portable private space. I developed my research with another group of Muslim women, focusing on immaterial spatial aspects of privacy, observing sequence and movement through photography and video. I addressed my findings to reinforce my methodology with a third perspective, investigating the retail changing-room as a vulnerable and temporal private space in a public setting, collaborating with older Muslim women and exploring their lived experience to interpret ideas of individuality, as well as generational social conditioning. The final collaborative work, a fluid maze in which a two Muslim women, veiled and unveiled, navigated increasingly opaque soft dividers, further informed my investigations into psycho-spatial privacy and female identity. As an ongoing intercultural dialogue, Soft Dividers offers an original contribution to the understanding of privacy from the perspectives of Muslim women living in Saudi and in London. My findings challenge conventional notions of Muslim women’s subjectivity, and initiate a debate around the agency of women in their experiences of privacy. I demonstrate that the veil and my soft dividers offer a socially significant, psychological, and embodied practice that varied among Muslim women. Negotiating soft dividers, such as the veil, introduces a ‘potency of adjustment,’ allowing me to achieve a ‘period of equilibrium’ during my active participation, and show an understanding of Muslim women’s privacy on a material level, a physical explanation of movement, and, more broadly, the metaphysical interpretation of privacy