Abstract

 

This creative research project is an investigation of the inherently political and
embodied experience of female subjectivity. These ideas are explored through
working directly with the body using video, sound, text, and installation. The
various media that I utilize for this project are intertwined with its conceptual
framework.

The female body is used as a focus point within the work in order to explore the
ubiquitous cultural and social role of gender, while video is used as a strategy in
order to prolong and multiply the presence of the female body, while also
suggesting its ultimate absence within discourse.

One of this project’s aims is expanding the notion of an embodied subjectivity, in
particular the effects of both cultural and personal trauma upon the body.
Installation is a method of making that encourages bodily interaction, and using
sound and video within installation are ways to engage the viewer on multiple
sensory levels. This effect of the work is central to the project’s aims, in order to
engage an audience not only in the political issues at stake, but also with how
these political issues might be experienced through and in the body.
The ephemeral quality of installation is also an important aspect of my research,
as I am seeking to work through these concerns in an engaged and iterative way
that proposes a dialogue rather than a specific message. The importance of this
position is that it allows the work to remain fluid in its political position.

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