First stage of conceptual experiment of 'Topology of Masculinities' project:
“Our place in the gender order constrains our acts, but at the same time it is our acts (and those of others) that place us in the gender order and that bring the different aspects of gender into being. While social structure and available resources provide constraints, it is people who decide just how constrained they will allow themselves to be”
(Eckert, McConnell-Ginet, Language and Gender, 2013, p. 263)
“To have a body is to learn to be affected, meaning ‘effectuated’, moved, put into motion by other entities, humans or non-humans”
(Latour, How to talk about the body, 2004, p. 205)
About
Topography of Masculinities is an interactive multi-channel installation that explores the affective dimensions of listening in the process of gender construction and performativity.
From the Etymological comprehension of the word Topography - τόπος (topos, "place") and -γραφία (-graphia, “writing”), and gender theorist Robert Connel comprehension of Masculinities as a wider palette of possibilities of performing masculinity outside of the Hegemonic Masculinity (as understood as pre-defined traits of masculinity), the work explores such the dimensions of masculinities as heterogeneous and the affective influence of sociocultural backgrounds on the performance and development of masculinities.
The projected material consists on interviews with 12 - 15 men aged between 20 to 35 years old, each from a different country and sociocultural background. It’s of greatest interest the outcome of quasi psychoanalytical process of elaboration on masculinity for each of these man, it’s parallels, divergences and contradictions, as an own heterogenic panorama of modern masculinities performativity.
The installation is developed in 4 different stages, in which each of them is based on a different stage of the intricacies of gender performativity and its affective feedback loop with its societal environment. It is taken into consideration as by on Spinoza’s comprehension of either affectus, the force of an affective body, and affectio, the impact it leaves on the affected body.
The participation of the visitor as an essential part of this cycle is intended to highlight the affective potential of such in the piece itself, considering the audio recordings to be collected will be buffered and also played on a feedback loop for future visitors. On a corporeal level, the occupation of the space by the visitor’s body is also an essential aspect on the functioning of the installation. On the happening of parallel visits, the piece also reacts in accordance, being the parameter that determines which - and if so - aspects of the stories told are going to be projected and experienced by the visitors.
It’s also of greatest interest the staging of visibilities that arise with the process of elaboration, either on the selected interviewed men and the contributions from the public.
Technical Details
4 projectors. 4 heat sensors.
For heat sensor is programmed a triggering of different projectors and its consecutive audio inputs. For each of the different scenarios of occupation - or absence of it - of the feedback loop area of the installation, and its 4 stages, consecutive projection scenarios are also triggered.
Keywords: Affect, Language, Gender, Expanded Cinema, Interactivity.