Final Major Project zine (no cover)

It’s an F world!

Isabella P. Michael

“Beautiful, free, serene, and happy human beings are only possible when it is permitted to have slaves who will perform the prosaic tasks of every day for them and above all else labor for them. “ Venus in Furs, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Final Major Project Academic year 2015-2016 graphic D

When I was trying to figure out what my Final Major Project would be about, I was trying to think what i wanted to present and what would help me later on with further studies or job hunting. I decided to go with “It’s an F world!” for two reasons. One because I am very interested in applied psychology and sexology via art and design and two because sex sells, and I wanted to “sell” it in a different, almost not very sexual, way! The “F” in my tittle is not exactly what everyone seems to think it is, although it is somehow kind of related to it. It stands for Fantasies and Fetishes.

Through different ways of exploration, I wanted to discover people’s fantasies and in way that wasn’t too explicit reveal them to the rest of the world, and in some cases even play with the viewers’ minds a bit. I gathered all my persuading skills and convinced some friends to pose for me, either performing their fetishes or someone else’s ( that I gathered by doing a mini anonymous survey). And in a way this project helped a couple of my friends discover their own fantasies and fetishes!

This project is being consisted my mini projects, such series of posters, zines, photos, interactive boxes, and videos. Some of those mini projects were made mainly in order to intrigue people’s imagination, maybe even test in a way how sexual their minds can work! It was been a very interesting process, with a lot of experimentation with materials, techniques, text and it is one of the projects that taught me a lot both about people and designing exploration process.

Hope you enjoy hat you are about to see!

The Alien Prostitute Explaining the feel...

It all started when I left the comfort of the studio room and entered other rooms in the university building. I had picked my final major project before the uni starts. I had start doing my research and thinking how I should present it. I knew it was edgy in a way but I was expecting the reactions I got.

The first time we gathered outside the studio table and discussed our project ideas; I was last! Everyone had great ideas, and even though I loved mine a horrible fear accompanied by cold, sweaty palms came over me. I looked at my tutor and said: “My project is about sex. Sexual fantasies and fetishes.” And as simple as that, the difficult part of coming out with it was done! Surprisingly there were not many reactions there. Only the occasional “But you’re so quiet!”, or “How come you’re doing a project like that?”, or my personal favourite “I wouldn’t expect a quiet girl like you to do a project about sex!”. Eeerm, thanks! Really appreciate it! I’ll keep it in mind and the next project might just be a manual on how to be a quite woman that doesn’t talk about sex!

Nevertheless, apart from those few comments I didn’t have any other reactions about it. While I was still trying to figure out if I wanted to screen print or just print my posters, a classmate of mine was using vinyl cutting for another project. When he took me to the vinyl cutting studio I just fell in love! The texture of the vinyl was exactly what I needed to make my project sexy! To make people to want to touch it, interact with it.. Spent hours in that little dusty room, listening to old jazzed waiting for my posters to get cut both in red and black vinyl, trying to decide which one I liked the most (which was the black one, of course!). I peeled some of the posters in that room, but since there weren’t anyone else with me it wasn’t much of a fuss as to what I was cutting onto that poor vinyl!

When i finally left that little room, I decide to avoid the studio and go to the library for more space to print the rest. Everyone was indifferent doing their work, till they actually saw what was next to me, what was on that peeled vinyl! Some guys were giggling to the view of the girl with the whip in her mouth. Some girls looked shocked or even disgusted at my furry “tailed” guy. And that’s when I started wondering; was it me that had the “problem” by doing a project like that, or was it them that didn’t thought by laughing at something related to sex would make it… I don’t even know what it would make it! So then I thought: “I have to do some draft printing for my sketchbook! Why not have some fun out of it?!” Nothing wow, really, just sort of flash my prints instead of trying to hide them, and see people’s reactions.

And that’s when I go back to the beginning; I was not expecting the reactions I got! Which they weren’t that bad, as they could be. I got very weird looks, and maybe a bit gender stereotyped in a way? The girls would give me that look like I was an alien from another planet, whether the guys were giving me that smiley look, like because I’m holding those papers with something sexual on them I must be an easy prostitute (to be polite). So I started wondering if my project was actually lowering my morals? But how? But why? We live in an era that even the water we drink is been advertised in a sexual way, so how could my project give the impression that I am an Alien Prostitute just because it’s related to sex?

In the end of the day, maybe I am… That’s why I can’t understand. And if you can’t either, maybe you are too!

The process of the vinyl From the beggining to the end... because an image worths more!

The vinyl rolls

The peeiling

The vinyl cutter

The scraps

What do you feel in the box?

Since my FMP is a bit sexual I wanted the mini projects to be quite interactive, considering that sex is all about the touch. I wanted people to be able to feel and think wishing the project’s boarders. With this series of wooden boxes people had to guess what item was placed inside, by only exploring with the touch of one fingertip! Not to be inappropriate, but I picked this size (that can only fit one finger) for a reason. And no, you dirty minded reader is not the reason you think! Fingertips are one of the parts of your body with the more sensory nerves.

I made a list of items, bought the boxes, convinced my dad to help with the drilling process (thank you persuasion skills!), and then what was left was to display them and record interesting reactions from people brave enough to explore the content of the boxes.

What part of the body you see?

The “Feather Project” was created more to intrigue the viewers’ sexual part of the brain. It is consisted of a series of very close up shots of body parts covered with a feather. Since the photos are quite zoomed in, the viewer cannot tell easily which body part hides under the feather! The concept turned out be successful, since when people were asked to guess the body part, they would give up after a few tries. Needless to say that the answers for most of the images where “buttocks” and “breasts”!

misabella.p@hotmail.com https://uk.linkedin.com/in/isabellamichaelp