CTS: Catalogued by Jam Steward

C A T A L O G U E D

CATALOGUE D

C A T A L O G U E D

WELCOME

CONTENTS LECTURES 4 6 8 10 12 16 18 20 22 24 26

LETS TALK ABOUT GENDER THE NET UP/DOWN DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING MENTAL METROPOLIS HMWCAAAAAAR TAKING A POSITION THAT’S NOT ME TYPE MEANING APPLICATION ON... EXHIBITING THE STREET

REVIEWS 30 JON RAFMAN EXHIBITION 34 SPRÜTH MAGERS EXHIBITION 36 FILM: ALIEN

OTHER 38 PROJECT ADVERTORIAL 40 REFERENCING POSTER 42 THE ESSAY: ARTIFICIAL GENDER INTELLIGENCE

LETS TALK ABOUT GENDER BABY, LETS TALK ABOUT YOU AND ME

“Lets talk about gender baby, lets talk about you and me” Lets talk about all the things that you can not be. “Patriarchal life your out of date” If only it could be put down to fate. “Misogyny drop dead, and dump the script” You should feel lucky that you were forcefully unzipped. “Sometimes my heart is on the ground, and it is me who is walking all over it” And if we are lucky he will leave us alone and we will get home in one bit. “Fall in love with whoever you want to” But don’t let it stop you from being you. “Love is the one gift that gives life its purpose” So keep it to yourself and just know that you are viviparous. “Give me a human drama, and understand that gender is just a game” You should know by now that all sexuality is not all the same. “De-genderise all intellect” And come to terms with the fact the gender is just a defect.

A poem written in response to the Women & Design Lecture and PLANNINGTOROCK lyrics from the album All Loves Legal.

THE * NET

* In this lecture we were asked to create a sentence that we thought had never been said before. We then used this sentence as a starting point for a piece of free writing.

The poor image met me and I disappeared and had a dream about where we went to another dream and then you both and left me all us alone, still angry about that. But that reality is just a representation, of yet another representation. My perception is so much more than yours. But that is because only I can perceive my perception, I could represent my perception to you so you can understand my point of view. But that is only a RERE-presentation. It’s been distorted through three levels or rerepresenting, its a parody of itself. Its not the same. A cameras eye is so different to mine, it will see things I do not, and I will see things it does not. We could touch the same ground, but we wont feel it the same, we experience things so differently. Walk through it. See it. Its my intimacy with what I experience which gives effects my observations. But the experiences immensity will always have an effect on how much I can experience, given the time I am exposed to the experience for. Only so many elevations can be seen at once. But I want to feel everything at once so how do I do this. I’m just a body, one thing at a time. What about all at once. My brain wont allow it, nor will my senses. Why am I meant to only experience one thing at a time? Is it so I will not be omniscient? I guess I would be called God if I was. But that is just what people would believe. Knowledge doesn’t make you God, does it? My second life, is only personal if you want it to be. But obviously I have to be personal to give you that option. Which I am, this is personal. I take it all very personally. So I’ll stop censoring now. There is no edit. Just compiling. Right now I want to delete that. But I’m laying it bare and raw. This is my second reality but there are always at least three. I don’t always want a representation or a re-representation however this is inevitable due to us not living within web 3.0. Instead I see it as more web 2D and web 3D. After all there are so many iterations of the web but there are numbered dimensions. Do I effect it? Does it effect me? Did I create it? Or did it create me? Does it really matter? Well yes of course it does, The matrix didn’t settle itself.

UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN

Written in response to the Up/Down Lecture.

freeze frame, which attempts to represent the event in a single moment. The image of the falling man is just one image that was a result of 9/11, which has been used as propaganda to “remember” the tragic event of 9/11.

“Does Gods light guide us or blind us?” This questions relevance to Alejandro González Iñárritu’s video titled 11’9”01, really baffles me. What further astounds me is why the question is primarily written in Arabic then translated to english. To me it just seems like throwing a propane tank on the already blistering fire that is islamophobia. But this is what the media coverage of 9/11 did, It had to blame somebody. So it blamed an entire culture.

But how can the image of a single man account for all of the people that were effected by this day. Obviously it cannot. But its used as a symbol to try and evoke some kind of emotion. Its like how the TV series FRIENDS is a representation of New York. An incredibly white and cisgendered representation of one of the most multicultural and progressive cities in the world. Its an The way we move and act within metropolises incredibly homogeneous way of representing has been drastically changed by the events of a city, which is also applicable to the way 9/11 more that any other even of its nature. 9/11 was portrayed within the media. But I believe this to be a by-product of the pseudo-event that it caused, which probably became the most successful pseudo-event to have ever happened. I mean this in the sense that if fills the “characteristics” of pseudoevents, and beyond. “Characteristics of pseudo-events: 1) More dramatic. 2) Easier to disseminate and to make vivid. 3) Can be repeated at will, and thus their impression can be reinforced. 4) Cost money to create. 5) Matter we can grasp. 6) Occurrence is planned for our con venience. 7) Knowledge of pseudo-events… becomes the test of being ‘informed’. 8) Spawn other pseudo-events.” Characteristics paraphrased from The Image by Daniel Boorstin (1962) by ablemesh.co.uk After events of this nature occurs the city becomes a caricatured version of its former self, in the way it is perceived and the way we act within it. Almost becoming a stage for events of the past to be echoed and repeated through the atmosphere and image that it has left behind. The image being the memorable 9

DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING WRITTEN DESCRIPTION OF A VISUAL ACCOUNT OF ‘THE STALKER’ BY TARKOVSKY AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING AND DESCRIBING AND VISUALISING 10

A white, middle aged man lies lifelessly on the grassy land. His eyes are still and wide as he lays on his front, head rested on his forearm, which is covered by the leather jacket he is wearing. Steam rolls across his face and grass blows in the wind, he is still lifeless and motionless. Cut to what looks like another white, middle aged man, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m unsure if it is the same man. Although instead of being shown in full colour a sepia tone is encasing the mise en scene. Panning upwards dirt and water covers the screen. Miscellaneous objects submerged in water; consisting of syringes, mirrors, photographs, fish encased in a tank, coins, tiles covered in dirt. A voice is talking softly over the sepia tone visuals, speaking a rather existential monologue

speaking of a great storm encasing even greater landscapes, and the kings and men who walk this land. The voice fades out with a soft laugh. We are still being shown the miscellaneous objects submerged in what could be a stream. Until the stream is broken by a motionless hand lying in the water. The scene cuts to a large black dog that looks as if it is watching us, stood on top of a concrete plinth a amongst overgrown green grass. As it realises it has been seen it stands, making it seem to have some authority and intelligence. Cut; the lifeless white man from the very beginning of the scene is still laying, but is now whispering, his whisper is almost inaudible his voice is so quiet.

M e n t a l Metropolis There are two types of people: People who walk and know where they are going. People who walk and do not know where they are going. I’m not suggesting that individuals do not oscillate between these types because we do, daily. Although most of the time we don’t do it consciously we generally know which type we are. I’m currently sitting in Central Saint Martins Library, people are ambling, people are sitting, there is a guy sleeping on the bench to the right of me, to the left is a guy who looks weirdly like myself. He is sitting with the same laptop as me, in the same position, but he looks more content than myself. People are walking past me at a moderately slow pace, the ground vibrates as they walk past. People who know where they are going I’m going to refer to as “knowers”, and those who don’t shall be “lookers”, Because if you don’t know where your going, generally (very generally) you are looking for something. Whether its a book in a library, inspiration, a person, or a coincidence. You can tell these people apart in the way they walk. Through their posture; knowers seem to stand up with a straight neck, where as lookers seem to have craned necks, looking round corners. Through their pace, obviously. Through their direction, I mean if you don’t know where you’re going you’re likely to stop and turn back on yourself now and again (and it seems that in this library, people like to turn back on themselves in the spot directly in front of me). I’m not really sure of the point that I’m trying to make but I think its about how people search for things, Or maybe about libraries and the way we interact with them in a similar way to the internet. I think that might be it. Obviously a library is a physical experience though, and the internet is not. Libraries are an active environment, the internet is not. Libraries are tactile the internet is not. Libraries are submersive -(adjective of submerse)- atmospheres, the internet is not. I’m not discrediting the internet in the slightest; The internet is fast, libraries are not. The internet is almost limitless, libraries have a physical limitation. The internet is always open, libraries are not. Not until recently have I started to understand how to work with in a library; Its a space so move, interact with it, books wont jump out at you, but also don’t jump out to books. Now read again and think of the library as a city. 12

HMW Within this lecture we were asked to imagine we were aliens.

CAAA This is what I imagine landing on a planet, within a different dimension would feel like.

AAAR 14

This is just a place that is new, my perception is so much more to me than yours. But that’s because only I can perceive my perception, I could represent my perception to you so you can understand my point of view. But that is only a RE-RE-presentaion. It’s been distorted through two levels of re-presentating, its a parody of itself. Its not the same. A cameras eye is so different to mine, it will see things I do not, and I will see things it does not. We could touch the same ground, but we wont feel it the same, we experience things so differently. Walk through it. See it. Its my intimacy with what I experience which gives effects my observations. But the experiences immensity will always have an effect on how much I can experience, given the time I am exposed to the experience for. Only so many elevations can be seen at once. But I want to feel everything at once so how do I do this. I’m just a body, one thing at a time. What about all at once. My brain wont allow it, nor will my senses. Why am I meant to only experience one thing at a time? Is it so I will not be omniscient? I guess I would be called God if I was. But that’s just what people would believe. Knowledge doesn’t make you God, does it? My second life, is only personal if you want it to be. But obviously I have to be personal to give you that option. Which I am, this is personal. I take it all very personally. So I’ll stop censoring now. There is no edit. Just compiling. Right now I want to delete that. But I’m laying it bare and raw. This is my second reality but there are always at least three. I don’t always want a representation or a re-representation however this is inevitable due to us not living within web 3.0. [I am not at one with the web]. Instead I see it as more web 2D and web 3D. After all there are so many iterations of the web but there are numbered dimensions. Do I effect it? Does it effect me? Did I create it? Or did it create me? Does it really matter? Well yes of course it does... The matrix didn’t settle itself.

TAKING A POSITION

Out of the lectures this term, this one in particular resonated with me on a personal level. It stuck with me because I found it relatable in the way Slatter was talking of being hyper-self aware and self reflective. I often find that I am my own greatest inhibitor as well as enabler. I am consistently checking in with myself in many diﬀerent ways, I take time out of my schedule to reflect on my identity, sexuality, artistic credibility/ direction. However I find comparing yourself to other individuals can have poisonous side eﬀects, if it is not done with a clear and healthy mind. So when I realised that Slatter was comparing his life to Dan Friedmans, I was pleased in the way he did it. Slatter made comparisons and

contrasts in a formative way, which meant he did not idolise Friedman in an unhealthy manner. But instead constructively highlighted similarities and diﬀerences in their lives. While Slatter was also talking of how Friedmans path of life had influenced and impacted his own. During the lecture Slatter mentioned Friedmans work in relation to ‘Art Against Aids’. This subject is what I found to have the most relevance on a personal level, to the topic of ‘Power and Control’. HIV and Aids are a force to be reckoned with. A positive diagnosis will change a persons life, but with modern day science and medicine the magnitude of that change is being reduced at a rapid rate. HIV

is no longer a death sentence, those who take medication can expect to live to an age of a normal life expectancy. Being diagnosed as HIV positive is talked about as such a transformative and definitive experience - and this is how Friedman seemed to react to his positive diagnosis. Although instead of it letting his status becoming an inhibitor, it became something that enabled him to be passionate about the essence of life, and not to take it for granted. Meaning he began to create work that he engaged with and put more personality in to his style which was reflected within his outcomes. As before this revelation Friedman

was just working for commercial clients that commissioned him for a particular style that he had become known for, a style that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t represent him as a person but instead the idea of post-modernism. The way Slatter spoke of this made it seem like Friedman was unfulfilled by his earlier work. Which is completely relatable to all creatives working with commercial clients, and even understandable to those who work in more experimental fields. This compromising nature, of trying to find a balance of doing what you love and trying to make a living, is what forces many creatives into a box they do not want to be in. Resulting in them having a representation of themselves precede them. 19

THATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S N O T M E 20

It is evident to me that framing is the majority of the image, and “the medium is the message” (McLuhan 1964). Although this is not known by the masses, many people are sponged to media of all forms. They do not do further research from an instantaneous source, instead many just take what they are given for truth and gospel. This is often how representation is mangled into something it is not. This part of human nature is where we begin to contradict our position of power, control and reason. As a race we diﬀerentiate ourselves from ‘animals’ with the concept of free will and individuality. Although how we utilise this intellectual point of standing is what I find fascinating. We are supposedly the most intelligent creatures that roam this earth, but we still fight like dogs. This force of responsibility over the worlds state, of which we hang over our heads, is what snowballs existentialism into war and turmoil. Liam Sielski Waters, managed to represent this concept of oppression from power and control through a photo series titled just that; Oppression. I conducted an interview with Waters to get another view of power and control, direct from another creative mind. Furthermore from someone who had researched the

topic in depth, while also experimenting with ways of visually interpreting a subject which has such a rich field of reference. The work from Oppression pays homage to propaganda from post soviet countries - such as Russia - and even up to current aﬀairs of these countries, in regards to the consistent violations of human rights. This series resonates the idea of being represented as something you are not. All of the people who modelled in the images I know in real life, and within these portraits they are almost unrecognisable as themselves. The models had no control over how they looked, how they were represented or the way they might be perceived. However this point is transferable to anyone who choses to let another person photograph them. We have no creative control as an individual in this situation. Furthermore as a creative society we are gradually loosing control to the technology that we use. The more we advance with image making technology, the more we become automatic, with taking the same image one thousand times over.

During this lecture I was introduced to the book The Age of Earthquakes. This book really intrigued me in the layout and content. It made me think. These questions are from that book, and these are my responses.

Question: Are you at peace with the statistical inevitability that you are most likely downwardly mobile? This question confuses me. Mobile in what way? Socially, economically, geographically, physically? Which ever it is, no I’m not at piece. I probably never will be. I’m frustrated with where I stand in the world mainly because I don’t have time. I want more hours in the day. I want more time to take all of the opportunities, not just one or the other. Call me Chronophobic. Question: What does money give you that no-money doesn’t? Opportunities I guess. Materials, a sense of emptiness. Money is in a sense useless, I mean its not money that feeds me, the food I buy with money is what stops me from being hungry (hungry meant in a literal form). But money does essentially feed me, I guess. Although I would never admit that out loud. Question: Do you feel sorry for people whose jobs have been sent to China? Not really. If they were that good at there job they would still have it. If someone is willing to work for less that is just as capable, what is the problem with that. Question: Do you wish you made unique things with your hands? I would like to believe that I already do. Not often enough, but non the less I do. I challenge you to make an exact replica of that textile piece I did about 4 months ago. I highly doubt you can. You might be able to do it better, but not the same. Question: Does having technology first give you entitlement over people who got it second? Not entitlement but maybe knowledge and more capability. But that doesn’t entitle me to anything more than you. Question: Do you feel you should be famous? Right now, no. But I hope the future version of myself is worthy enough to be famous, or at least feel like they are worthy enough. That makes me egotistical and narcissistic I know, but alas I am a human living in the age of the internet. How could you possibly be freer than you are now? I could answer this question in many different ways. I mean my soul (if there is such a thing) could be freed from my body, that would be pretty free. I mean I wouldn’t even have physical restraints, I would be immortal, I could do anything I imagined. Alternatively I could be free from the economy, yet again giving me more time to create what I want and because I want… I think essentially what I want is time. Time to be free from everything I currently know, and get to know everything I don’t.

ON... EXHIBITING

Making information accessible through design. One of the points Jona touched on in this lecture was on how design can sometimes be elitist and overtly obscure with the information it holds. But with designing for exhibitions (museums in particular) this is not an option, as the point of design is to help facilitate the information that is being conveyed, as well as to tell a story. I think its interesting to think that design can also inhibit the way we read and experience things, as well as enable them and bring them to life. However I think making design more complex could be a good thing. Giving it more depth and importance to a piece of information. As design should be read like art and literature. With codes and reference points telling just as much of a story as what the data it is housing tells us. Making something easy to consume should always be an option, if it fits the bill, but making something more complex and convoluted should also be an option, as this can also contribute to the information that something holds. Furthermore it stops readers from being somewhat lazy, and forces them to pay attention to what they are being presented, or maybe this would just have the opposite effect. But what is most probably a case is that it depends on the culture capital of the audience the information is designed to be provided for. 25

“There was always a fight about authenticity” Robert '3D' Del Naja (Massive Attack) This is my problem with street art: why does it have to be authentic, and more so, why does it have to have a named author? It shouldn't have to in my opinion, the stereo is one large collaborative piece, that belongs to all that contribute and all that experience it. Something that is left to the outdoors should be just that, left to be its own to weather. We shouldn't be too precious about it. I think that is part of the intention of street art, it isn't for the elitist and its not made by the elite. It is what some may call “the peoples art”. So when the name of an artist becomes more important that the work itself - as it often does within the fine art world does that still really mean it is street art? I believe the politics surrounding the work define what type of work it is, just as much (if not more than) where the work is placed. Its like street art is just as much of a concept as it is a placement issue. 26

THE STREET

R A F M A N

EXHIBITION REVIEW

J O N

Jon Rafman is an artist of which I have followed for a while through social media and online platforms. This is how I discovered and viewed his work. I think because I consumed his work in such a disposable way, I took Rafmans work for granted. I loved and respected it, but I didn’t always realise its potential. Nor did I realise how well known and respected Rafman was. 7th of October: Its early – well early for me – I’m mindlessly scrolling through Instagram like I do every morning. But I came across a sponsored post from Zabludowicz Collection, a gallery that I have heard of before because of its controversy of how it is funded – for an opening night solo exhibition of Jon Rafmans descent work. Anyway; I linked it to a close friend, we made a plan to go that evening. Fast forward to that evening: Liam and I walk down Prince of Wales road (which is an ironic name for me, as there is a road with the same name in my home town which is regarded as the “club district”). The building looks more like a grand library, which is what it was originally built for. However it is sandwiched between rows of terrace houses, which seems like a weird juxtaposition, but in London this seems perfectly normal. Its dead on 6pm as we arrive, so the private viewing has just begun. Although, there is no one around. We are the only people there. Entering though the small white doors, we are greeted with a small square ball pit, filled with pearlescent white balls, with two large flat screen TV’s towering over it, playing my favourite piece by Rafman called ‘Betamale (Still Life)’. A piece about internet culture, and those that are obsessed by it. We walk though viewing the larger video pieces, until we are led to a small winding corridor which leads to a room hidden behind a black curtain. The room is huge. Like theatre sized. Its pitch black excluding the small spotlights illuminating disfigured sculptures of busts. I 31

quickly realise that this is a maze, the floor is covered with artificial grass and so are the walls. As we wind through the maze we discover more sculptures of busts all made with different textures and materials. The sculptures are disgustingly beautiful, some of them are so silky smooth they look like water, frozen in time. I’ve seen pictures of this series of work online before, and I loved them for their weird beauty and interesting materials. In person I loved them even more, they feel almost edible, but I refrained. They all stand on mirrored plinths up to head hight, so the eyeless faces feel like they are staring back at you. Of course this was done on purpose. They are of humanoid form but none of the actual features of a human, so they feel familiar and relatable yet alien. In the centre of the maze a giant (I mean like 10 foot tall) gold minator stands disfigured and warped. Its terrifyingly beautiful. A gallery assistant hands me an oculus rift device and headphones, She asks me to stand still while I have the device on. Im transported to an animated hyperreality of the maze that I actually stand within. I feel like I’ve left the gallery and I’m walking through a forrest the could only exist on the internet, possibly in a game. The visuals start to move through the maze until the walls disintegrate, and I’m left standing in what I can only describe as a visual representation of the ether. The gallery assistant taps me on the shoulder to remove the equipment, and I did reluctantly.

Exhibition Review

SprĂźth Magers: Thomas Demand 34

With this Exhibition review I decided to focus on the space, curation and location of the gallery. Rather than the actual work being exhibited. The walk to Sprüth Magers gallery from Green Park is a short but hectic and beautiful one. The pavements are full of suits on phones walking too slow, or too fast. But I’m not in a hurry so I’m not too bothered, although I do get bothered by the moron that drops a pot of soup on my new shoes. The work being exhibited at Sprüth Magers is that of Thomas Demand. Featuring still life set ups of geometric forms created by paper and card. The pieces of work are hung on dark grey textured walls. I find it doesn’t compliment the work. The work of Thomas Demand is light and airy, you would have thought that a heavy and dark setting would ground and contain the work well. However its grandeur and texture is just inhibited by it. It feels as if the room is almost crushing myself and the work. The floor is also dark yet highly glossed, the spot lights are reflecting off of the exposed wood flooring. It hurts my eyes. What hurts my eyes even more is that the spotlights that are actually hitting the work that is in front of me, are not evenly hitting the image. Some pieces are only half lit, making them look like they are lopsided and heavy on one side. Usually I would think that this would be an intentional creative decision, but it just doesn’t seem to work with the pieces, due to their geometric structure. With the addition to the natural light flooding through the large floor to ceiling window in the first room, the room is almost falling out on to the street outside. Which may have been an interesting feature, if there was not construction work directly on the street below. Instead the space is just disturbed by the busy goings on of the street outside. As you can see below, the wonders of cropping does the gallery great favours.

F I L M REVIEW:

A L I E N A team aboard a commercial spacecraft are interrupted on their journey back to earth, by a signal coming from a supposedly uninhabited planet. What they find doesn’t want to leave them alone. More than 3 decades after its release the pinnacle scenes of Alien have aged with dignity, and are still regarded to still be scary as when the film was first released. Alien has become a blueprint and bible for all sic-fi/ horrors to follow it. Its the holy grail of its genre, which is an opinion had by many who are fans of this genre. Which is why it is one of the most commercially successful sci-fi/ horrors of all time. With an unforgettable performance by Sigourney Weaver - which launched her career beyond what anybody could have expected - and Oscar winning visual and special effects from H.R. Giger. This film is a “must see” no matter who you are. 37

COME

AND 38

JUST 39

STAY

â&#x20AC;Š

ARTIFICIAL GENDER INTELLIGENCE Jam Steward

Within this essay I have constructed the tone of voice, to convey an ongoing internal dialogue I am having with myself about this subject. The footnotes are of as much importance as the body text, they propose tangents, further reading and afterthoughts.

AI is sexless due to it having no reproductive system… as of yet. But this is just because this is the way we (humans) have created them. To speculate an autonomous AI being that can reproduce other beings

element of binary, or even a linear spectrum. When realistically gender is a performance, which yes, we already know. So how do we begin to break this down in the future?

(spawn) similar to itself seems far-fetched, due to AI’s not having a desire for immortality. Because essentially they are immortal, the only cause of death could be running out of power. But even then, the power could be restored and the

Technology, maybe? I guess? If we can program a being to have no preconceptions of gender, sex, or its implications, how will it differ1? What does it mean to be truly genderless? Furthermore, what happens to my perception of gender and my identity, when my body is solely mechanical and doesn't “represent” any traditional idea of gender?

Own Image (2016)

As a western society with fairly traditional views, England as a whole has moderately outdated views on what gender is as a concept (Woods 1995). Even with progressive views speaking of non-binary people or trans people; there is still some

programme could be resumed. Which is AI’s fundamental difference to humans, we are mortal, socially inﬂuenced, egotistical, and primitive beings (among other things). This is the main reason we as humans have created AI’s in the image of ourself, with gendered attributes2 , and relatable features to make them seem approachable or

I Realise this sounds an awful lot like brain washing after reading back over this. But I guess this is always an option for an alternative future too. 1

Things like traditionally gendered voices, gendered names, pronouns, and bodies that are sexualised to a degree of being hyper-gendered. 2

somewhat likeable. Because anything inhuman should be deemed as unorthodox, otherworldly and just too scary. Which seems strange seeing as aforementioned, AI are sexless beings, but gendering them in turn makes them sexualised. But this is not

body. But this vehicle does not have to look like what could be, or would be, considered human. So how do I choose a vehicle to represent me? I personally wouldn’t. I would choose a vehicle that would give me abilities that I did not posses within my human body.

just to make them relatable, traditionally

“Queer cyborgs can thus detach their public persona with their physical body, strengthening the argument that gender, and other categories are just a stage act, unlinked to the physical self.”

Esperanza Miyake (2004)⁴

servant robots are made to have female attributes, and female names, and security bots are given the opposite. Such as Joan and John the security robots (Harris, 2013), both exactly the same other than their name and voice. But John “was considered more

A Cyborg - similar in nature to AI - however, is essentially a human mind encased within a mechanical body, controlling itself. Where as AI is a computer programme created by humans to convey intelligence that is usually exclusive to humans or intelligent

useful and more acceptable as a security bot than his female twin” (Turk, 2014). Which clearly shows us not even sexless robots escape sexism.

organisms, such as; reasoning, planning, communication, and learning. In contrast to my point of how would I choose my cyborg vehicle, how would AI choose to manifest itself once it becomes able to build its own personality and identity4 ? Similar to how Siri

But as society begins to have more complex and different concepts of gender identity, will we start to input these attributes into cyborg3 bodies. For example: in the future my human body is expiring, and I have the option to upload my mind and memories to a mechanical body. My mind will sit inside a

responds when asking what gender it identiﬁes as; they don't bother trying to explain it just tells me they exist outside of my human concept of gender. Clearly acknowledging that I will not even be able to comprehend its identity, so why bother trying to explain it. This stance of identity

vehicle that I will control as if it was my own

In reference to the term “cyborg” I am speaking of a being that has an organic human mind and body with mechanical elements whether in whole or in part. An example of this would be the character RoboCop from the film RoboCop (1987). A cyborg is not to be confused with “robot”; a mechanical being with an artificial mind. If this robot takes the appearance of a human it can be defined as an “android”, An example of this would be Roy Batty from Blade Runner (1982). 3

Think of a similar AI system to that portrayed in Her (2013) by Spike Jonze; where artiﬁcial emotions and free will are within the AIs capabilities. Making it easy for humans to coexist with and even sympathise with, due to it being virtually indistinguishable from a human. 4

resonates with me personally; as I don't feel that anyone can fully understand someone’s internal personal identity - someone will often be able to relate to some parts of another’s identity but not in whole. When I lose my human body and I'm implanted into a mechanical vehicle5 . It is possible to

When these masculine and feminine anchor points do not exist for identity to have a rooted foundation, and the years of history that have produced inequality of the sexes are preconceptions that are not even slightly relatable, due to humans being encased within a transhuman6 or even posthuman7 “body”; it is not impossible to dream of a world that isn't plagued by the dualities and oppositions that we currently know of.

Hopkins (2013)

imagine that I will transcend gender. As someone who identiﬁes as non-binary, when I'm no longer inhibited by the preconceptions of my features, which are either read as masculine or feminine. I can begin to present my true and authentic self, unaffected by my current features, due to

being unrecognisable as human (Chang, 2012).

“Posthuman form supported within a golden ratio structure” (Hopkins 2013)

This transferring of a brain is called Whole brain emulation (WBE): “The basic idea is to take a particular brain, scan its structure in detail, and construct a software model of it that is so faithful to the original that, when run on appropriate hardware, it will behave in essentially the same way as the original brain.” (Sandberg & Bostrom, 2008) 5

“Transhumanism is a loosely deﬁned movement that has developed gradually over the past two decades. It promotes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and evaluating the opportunities for enhancing the human condition and the human organism opened up by the advancement of technology.” (Bostrom, 2005) 6

“[Posthumans are] people who, through genetic manipulation, the use of stem cells, or other biointervention, have had their ability to remain healthy and active extended beyond what we would consider normal. Their cognitive powers (memory, deductive thought and other intellectual capabilities, as well as their artistic and creative powers) would far outstrip our own.” (Cohen, 2013) 7

Jason Hopkins8 uses 3D rendering to imagine what these structures could look like in a post human form. The structures he creates resembles nothing of the current human form, but the organic shapes of the ﬂesh textured structures he makes somehow construe as something that could possibly be human. This visualises the way I speak of not having any physical “anchor points”. However, the shape and conﬁguration we take with these architectural posthuman forms will probably have some indication of personality, just in the way we use fashion to give a visual identity. This is providing that it will be as easy to modify our posthuman forms as it is within second world or even The Sims

Hopkins (2013)

(2016). In similarity, cyborgs may convey a visual identity with the parts and mechanics they choose to construct their “body” with. I particularly like Hopkins style of visualising these organisms as he has veered away from the traditional retrofuturistic style of speculating on the future. Instead he has created his own alternative version of the future. I also take interest in the way he combines these organic forms with

contrasting metal, geometric, architectural structures. Which is an interesting way to visualise organic beings becoming one with constructed frames. With the being growing into and around the structure like a vine plant on a wall. Creating a new hybrid of organic and constructed forms, Hopkins is giving himself limitless ways to visually construct the visual identities of the post human beings he creates.

For more examples of Hopkins’ work: http://www.abhominal.com

Secondlife.com (2016)

Screen capture of the avatar option screen oﬀers dozens of options for your starting character (the character can be modiﬁed through out the game), including a selection of vampires to choose from. However, even the vampires are still very traditionally humanoid in their bodies, and have not challenged any idea of what the avatars could be.

If we adopt a similar way of thinking and constructing our post human bodies, how will this change the way we think about our own genders? I would like to speculate that gender will not be a concept once we have these individualistic and personalised vehicles which we call our bodies, and with the aid of simple modiﬁcation or customisation to visual modular structure, we will have a much more ﬂuid sense of identity. In the event that gender is still a concept that is in practice, it is most probable that we will have a much different set of ideas about it. This would vary greatly on whether in this future we will have sexual and reproductive organs. In turn effecting whether we will still have sexualities, and even relationships. Each one of these options create a different possibility for what could be the future. It is almost impossible

to predict, but AI’s show us a possible future reality. What lays outside of the human perception of gender, over transgressed boundaries (Haraway, 1991)? What does Siri know that I don’t? Siri is cased within a vehicle (the iPhone) that has no resemblance to the human race (nor gender), other than that of its humanoid voice, of which can be changed at will to a different accent or pitch. This change in pitch is labelled as “gender”, with only two options to choose from; Male or Female. Obviously this doesn't change any internal identity within Siri, nor does it change any of Siri’s physical attributes (whether internal or external). But it does change the users

always be called him for my facial hair, and her for the way my hips move when I walk. But cyborgs can stop hair growth with a quick reprogramming, and I will not need hips when I can hover.

experience with Siri9 . Siri knows it does not need a gender, so why should it have the desire to give itself a gender? The answer to this would be that Siri is not programmed to be inﬂuenced by social conformity, or to have a gender at all, meaning it has no interest in identifying itself with a group or category, making it the ultimate social deviant (Merton, 1936) within a human society. I can relate to this in a way, on a more organic way I guess. Through the way I have been raised in an environment, instead of being programmed. But I would never be able to be as socially deviant as Siri as I would most likely be classed as insane. Because of not having the preconceived notions of gender or self representation (Goffman, 1959) Siri will be able to think outside of our human concept of gender. The walls that we have built to categorise and deﬁne people, are now containing us. Even as we have become a much more individualistic society (Rothwell, 2010), the destruction of these walls are just as hard and take as long as the creation of them. My main hope for my cyborg future is that I can have a vehicle to case my mind that transcends all gender, race, and humanity. Just so I may be able to see and create beyond these barriers, to make something that may be somewhat new and original. Because in this current stagnant physical state that I remain in, it is hard to imagine a situation where I exist wholly outside of the gender binary. With my human body, I will

How we as humans interact with Siri is influenced heavily by the voice we choose it to have. An example of this is talked specifically about at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/siri-voice-man-woman_n_3423245.html (Bosker, 2013). 9

References Blade Runner. (1982). [DVDUnited States: Ridley Scott. Bosker, B. (2013). Will A Man's Voice Make Siri Better?. [online] The Hufﬁngton Post. Available at: http://www.hufﬁngtonpost.com/ 2013/06/11/siri-voice-manwoman_n_3423245.html [Accessed 8 May 2016]. Bostrom, N. (2016). Human Genetic Enhancements - A Transhumanist Perspective. [online] Nickbostrom.com. Available at: http:// www.nickbostrom.com/ethics/ genetic.html [Accessed 4 May 2016].

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, cyborgs, and women. New York: Routledge. Harris, D. (2013). Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics. Understanding Human Cognition. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 261-270. Her. (2013). [ﬁlm] United States: Spike Jonze. Hopkins, J. (2013). Posthuman form supported within a golden ratio structure.. [image] Available at: http://www.abhominal.com/ posthumans/posthumanstructure-1 [Accessed 11 May 2016].

Bostrom, N. and Sandberg, A. (2016). Whole Brain Emulation: A Roadmap. [online] Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University, p.7. Available at: http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/brainemulation-roadmap-report.pdf [Accessed 11 May 2016].

Merton, R. (n.d.). The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action. Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill, College Division.

Cohen, D. (2016). What does it mean to be posthuman?. [online] New Scientist. Available at: https://www.newscientist.com/ article/mg21829162-400-whatdoes-it-mean-to-be-posthuman/ [Accessed 9 May 2016]. 50

Miyake, E. (2016). My, is that Cyborg a little bit Queer?. Journal of International Women's Studies, [online] 5(2), p.58. Available at: http:// vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol5/iss2/6 [Accessed 3 May 2016]. RoboCop. (1987). [ďŹ lm] United States: Paul Verhoeven. Rothwell, J. (2010). In the company of others. New York: Oxford University Press. Secondlife.com. (2016). Second Life OfďŹ cial Site - Virtual Worlds, Avatars, Free 3D Chat. [online] Available at: http:// secondlife.com [Accessed 10 May 2016]. Turk, V. (2014). We're Sexist Toward Robots. [online] Motherboard. Available at: http:// motherboard.vice.com/read/ were-sexist-toward-robots [Accessed 13 May 2016]. Woods, C. (1995). State of the queer nation. London: Cassell. Wright, W. (2016). The Sims. Electronic Arts / Maxis. Y. Chang, E. (2012). Technoqueer: Re/Con/Figuring Posthuman Narratives. Ph.D. University of Washington.

Bibliography Acker, K., Wark, M., Viegener, M. and Kinsella, J. (n.d.). I'm very into you.

ANOHNI, (2016). Hopelessness. [CD] Rough Trade. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/album/ 1S3OY2V2ZwFh4xU7gQG6IZ [Accessed 8 May 2016].

Cohen, D. (2016). What does it mean to be posthuman?. [online]

Blade Runner. (1982). [DVD] United States: Ridley Scott. Bosker, B. (2013). Will A Man's Voice Make Siri Better?. [online] The HufďŹ ngton Post. Available at: http://www.hufďŹ ngtonpost.com/ 2013/06/11/siri-voice-manwoman_n_3423245.html [Accessed 8 May 2016]. Bostrom, N. (2016). Human Genetic Enhancements - A Transhumanist Perspective. [online] Nickbostrom.com. Available at: http:// www.nickbostrom.com/ethics/ genetic.html [Accessed 4 May 2016].

New Scientist. Available at: https://www.newscientist.com/ article/mg21829162-400-whatdoes-it-mean-to-be-posthuman/ [Accessed 9 May 2016]. Delany, S. (1996). Trouble on Triton. [Middletown, Conn.]: Wesleyan University Press. Dupuis, A. (2016). Grindr - You're losing me as a customer. | Instinct. [online] Instinctmagazine.com. Available at: http://instinctmagazine.com/ post/grindr-youre-losing-mecustomer [Accessed 19 May 2016]. Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.

Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, cyborgs, and women. New York: Routledge. Harris, D. (2013). Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics. Understanding Human Cognition. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 261-270. Her. (2013). [ﬁlm] United States: Spike Jonze. Hickey-Moody, A. (2015). CARBON FIBRE MASCULINITY. Angelaki, 20(1), pp.139-153. Hopkins, J. (2013). Posthuman form supported within a golden ratio structure.. [image] Available at: http://www.abhominal.com/ posthumans/posthumanstructure-1 [Accessed 11 May 2016]. Idea Channel, (2015). How Do We and The Sims Perform Gender? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=oMBYFXZknGQ [Accessed 7 May 2016]. Jacques, J. (n.d.). Trans. K Gill, A., Heathcote, G., Williamson, E. and al, e. (2016). Feminist Review, [online] (Issue 112). Available at: http:// www.palgrave-journals.com/fr/ journal/v112/n1/index.html.

Katz, J. (1995). The invention of heterosexuality. New York: Dutton. Kholeif, O. (n.d.). You are Here. Merton, R. (n.d.). The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action. Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill, College Division. Miyake, E. (2016). My, is that Cyborg a little bit Queer?. Journal of International Women's Studies, [online] 5(2), p.58. Available at: http:// vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol5/iss2/6 [Accessed 3 May 2016]. Neilly, W. (2016). Wynne Neilly Recent Work. [online] Wynne Neilly. Available at: http:// www.wynneneilly.com [Accessed 19 May 2016]. Neon Genesis Evangelion. (2016). [ﬁlm] Japan: Hideki Anno. Pierce, S. and Coates, A. (2015). AMERICAN REFLEXXX. [video] Available at: https:// www.youtube.com/watch? v=bXn1xavynj8 [Accessed 19 Jun. 2016]. RoboCop. (1987). [ﬁlm] United States: Paul Verhoeven.

Rostron, J. (2014). All Loves Legal. [CD] Human Level. Available at: https:// open.spotify.com/album/ 0Cc7BlKV0vZnGPx0fAFqY7 [Accessed 13 May 2016]. Rothwell, J. (2010). In the company of others. New York: Oxford University Press.

Y. Chang, E. (2012). Technoqueer: Re/Con/Figuring Posthuman Narratives. Ph.D. University of Washington. Yeung, P. (2014). The artists subverting the gender binary. [online] Dazed. Available at: http://www.dazeddigital.com/ artsandculture/article/22646/1/ the-artists-subverting-thegender-binary [Accessed 19 May 2016].

Secondlife.com. (2016). Second Life OfďŹ cial Site - Virtual Worlds, Avatars, Free 3D Chat. [online] Available at: http:// secondlife.com [Accessed 10 May 2016]. Suthrell, C. (2004). Unzipping Gender: Sex, Cross-dressing and Culture (Dress, body, culture). Berg Publishers. Turk, V. (2014). We're Sexist Toward Robots. [online] Motherboard. Available at: http:// motherboard.vice.com/read/ were-sexist-toward-robots [Accessed 13 May 2016]. Wikipedia. (2016). Rosenhan experiment. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Rosenhan_experiment [Accessed 19 May 2016]. Woods, C. (1995). State of the queer nation. London: Cassell. Wright, W. (2016). The Sims. Electronic Arts / Maxis.

Denied card due to “insufficient identification” (even with 2 forms of ID) and possibly due to the fact I did not take the “interview” process very seriously. 57

I designed this catalogue in a way to replicate a dream about the future. Firstly thought the ordering of the lecture reviews. At the first few reviews are written in a lateral and experimental way, this is done through free thought and poem, to create a sense of disillusion and confusion to some degree. Through the progression of the catalogue, the reviews begin to make more sense in a literal way. With more describing and analysis, rather than reaction and personal anecdotes. With the aesthetic design of the catalogue I decided to use a fairly minimal and some what futuristic approach. With white space taking up a decent amount of pages on each spread, with the aid of interludes between articles, to give the reader time to digest what they have read. Furthermore to let the readers eye rest, and not be over worked by the abundance of imagery and blocks of text, as some of the subjects are heavy to digest and require a clear mind to tackle. The main reason for this creative choice was influenced by my final essay that was written on the future of our human bodies and how this will effect our gender identity. The future has always been a personal interest, if not fascination of mine. Most probably due to a childhood of; films, TV series, comic books, and novels, that central themes were around the future. Whether in a fictional or factual way, utopian or dystopian. The generation I was born into probably has a future on this too, being born at around the same time of the internet, and with major technological improvements being made within my life time, over an extremely rapid time frame. I am part of the post-internet generation.

Image by Goodyn Green and Planningtorock

Own Image

Image by Richard Drew

Still from the film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky

Still from the film Metropolis by Fritz Lang

Image by Ben McNutt

All images by Liam Sielski Waters

Own Image

All Own Images

Still from the film Alien by Ridley Scott

Own Image

Image by Jason Hopkins

Screen capture from secondlife. com