<aside> 🔴 Summary: A project done for both Body EWAH and Cybernetics of Sex! Thank you Pauline for helping me debugging!!!
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I started the project with this sketch, which play into the idea of of oversexualised body parts (how thick red lips are often referred to as dick-sucking lips (DSL), what it means to have fuck-me-eyes, or how bruised knees immediately means that someone is on their knees a lot). There is something intriguing about this form of disembodiment, and how the machine immediately picks out my mouth and projected this set of text right onto it. Like a sticky label that cannot be removed. In a way, the way this sketch was programmed mirrors how we, as humans, were also programmed to specifically sexualise these body parts.
Ever since then, I have learn a lot more about bodily slangs .. more than I ever needed (especially if you were on Twitter this past weekend, I learned way too much about Nancy Reagan….). While it was fun to make this sketch, I also hesitated to expand on it. I do wonder what kind of messages I’m sending out, or whether I’m perpetuating or promoting these harmful labels onto my own body, and what I'm I trying to say by hard-coding "suck dick" onto every viewers' lips?
A short essay that live in my mind rent-free is A Trans Photographer’s body and images of it, which discusses the anxiety around body parts, particularly genitalia, and how does it feel to have your genitalia represents as a form of violence. On one hand, the use of slangs or insults like "suck a dick" reduces people into sexual objects, but on the other hand, I find it fascinating to learn about the myriad of creative and expansive ways that we have learned over time to have fun, to express our desires and to share the pleasures. My belief is that everyone have dick-sucking lips, every body-owning individual have the power and the option to reclaim and enjoy their bodies in their own way.
Another fun read on this topic is “This is not my hand, it’s a cradle made of avocado pits", which explores the idea of reimagining our relationships and our bodies, to have the agency to craft and create new narratives. (thanks Melanie for the ref!)
For the final project, I played with PoseNet and the concept of labels being programmed/hard-coded onto my body, but instead of using labels or slangs created by other people, I wanted to play around with my own words, my own vocabularies. I initially wanted to create a body-twister kind of experience, where each part of the body is assigned a word or a phrase, and the viewer is encouraged to play around with their gestures and poses to form a sentence.
But as I test out the sketch, I asked myself, why do my body have to make sense? why does it have a meaning? Instead of trying to form a sentence, I was more intrigued by the concept of reimagining my body parts, such as my arms are now "sunrays", and how viewing my arms this way make me want to stretch my arms out as wide as possible, so I can be the sunrays for everyone else :-)
I decided to playtest/workshop with a few friends, all from different timezone, non-tech, and very unwilling to move their body. Some of these friends I haven't seen in years, some I have never met in-person, despite being friends online for 10+ years. It was fun to perform bodily poetry/choreography with friends, hearing them asking about "what does it mean to have fluid, chewy right eye" or seeing them spinning around to demonstrate the idea of a "elastic band". It ended up becoming more of a fridge magnet/blackout poetry kind of content, where the viewer were just playing with the words and reimagining their body parts in new ways. All the words used came from a Love Letter I wrote for Cybernetics of Sex, which describe my desire for a "formless, fluid future".
“To not have authorities? Would be nice to be in a place where there’s no start or end, no top or bottom, so there’s nothing to compare to, nothing waiting to be measured. To not have to be so sure of everything, to be willing to let go, unravel, break down. To be ok with not knowing and understanding and sympathetic and apologetic. To be like water, formless, no titles, no structure. To be as deep as the ocean and as small as a puddle. Fluid, soft, a little chewy. “
In a way, by doing this choreography, I'm extending my love letter, my hopes and dreams, my well wishes to friends and anyone choosing to play with the choreography. Seeing them reading and playing and reinterpreting and performing the love letter using their bodies made me feel hopeful and warm, and I hope it stays with them! :-)
