androgyny is beauty is a site specific large scale installation that looks to examine the distinctions between beauty and glamour as constructed by hollywood during the silent film era. the installation will take place in los angeles with the visual imagery being crafted by combining publicity and movie stills and then intersplicing scenes from movies. the film that is going to be projected will focus on how the ideal of beauty became transformed into the ideal of glamour through the transformation of greta garbo. in this way, glamour is shown to be a non-organic ideal that does not exist naturally but instead must be constructed and is also androgynous and ambiguous in its nature. by projecting this film onto an urban/three-dimensional space, the aim is to show how the ideals of beauty and glamour are distorted in today’s society. the ideal of projecting these images in los angeles points to the early hollywood era. by using public space (freeway overpasses, subways, skyscrapers and other institutions of urban sprawl) and silent film, i hope to juxtapose the ideas of beauty and glamour with those of urban architecture in a performative way.
the underlying social context that i would like to address is that of distortion. it seems that while we live in a very visual culture, many have misconceptions about the nature of film, beauty, glamour, public space and performance. with this project i hope to expose the audience to the pervading sense of beauty/glamour that has been distorted over time. by reconstructing a narrative and placing it in the context of public space, the viewer is exposed to several different ideas of what beauty is and shown how glamour is not something that is organic but instead constructed as well as being dark and sensuous.
because this is a site specific installation, the audience is the people who live in los angeles. however, there are no restrictions on who is allowed to participate in the audience of this piece besides geographical location. i hope to elicit the idea of how beauty can be distorted through juxtaposition with urban sprawl. the main feelings that i want the audience to experience are the way that truly “beautiful” things can be seen in non-traditional ways and on things that are not beautiful. in this way, the non-beautiful thing becomes beautiful through inclusion. the idea of how beauty can transcend time (because of the use of silent era film) and urban sprawl is the main focus and the main crux that i would want the audience to understand and appreciate.
the problems and issues that i am looking to address with this project are the distinctions between beauty and glamour, the distortion of beauty/glamour in today’s society, how beauty and glamour are constructed and how the site of los angeles functions within this project. in this way, i hope that the audience begins to address how distorted the perceptions of beauty/glamour are and how pervasive these cultural ideals are in the western world. i hope that people learn to look around them and confront the ideal of beauty. i want people to experience transcendent beauty, as well as, expose them to silent film. the audience should find themselves immersed in a culture that distorted yet glamourous.
some artists works that are referencing different aspects of this piece are: cecilia barriga (her work with using silent films to create a “new” film with a different narrative), janet cardiff (using immersive techniques to transport audiences to different places) and krzysztof wodiczko (use of public space).
for design mockups please go to the 
prototype presentation
silent films
while completing this project, i would like to explore the following issues and ideas: performative intervention, public space and silent film (while silent film is not and issue or an idea but instead a substantive thing, i would like to expand upon the ideas of beauty and glamour that are present in silent films). by using public space (freeway overpasses, subways, skyscrapers and other institutions of urban sprawl) and silent film, i hope to juxtapose the ideas of beauty and glamour with those of urban architecture in a performative way.
within the realm of silent film, i want to explore the ideas of beauty and glamour that these films convey. the emotive qualities that these films bring to the forefront help to characterize the beauty and glamour that are prevalent in the viewing of them. by using silent films, especially actresses know for their beauty, this helps to set up the dichotomy of beauty that i am looking to investigate with this project.
with previous projects, i began a foray into using public space to inform my work. in this project, public space is a very prevalent issue that i want to explore. by using very public spaces that are created in urban sprawl settings, the other side of the dichotomy is set up. i hope to use freeway overpasses, subway stations and skyscrapers to create the project. in this way, public space (as an idea) creates the feeling of a performance.
performative intervention ties the two other concepts together. i am choosing to define performative intervention as the act of creating and joining two separate entities through performance. by having a performance of a silent film projected (or “performed”) on a entity in public space, the two parts of the dichotomy can be brought together and into focus.
the underlying social context that i would like to address is that of exposure. it seems that while we live in a very visual culture, many have misconceptions about the nature of film, beauty, glamour, public space and performance. with this project i hope to expose the audience to the inherent nature of beauty in silent films. their emotive qualities, as well as, the cinematography and depth of range on many of the actresses often leaves people with an understanding of what it is to see beauty and experience glamour. by reconstructing a narrative and placing it in the context of public space, the viewer is exposed to several different ideas of what beauty is and can be.
the audience is meant to be anyone and everyone. there are no restrictions on who is allowed to participate in the audience of this piece. however, the piece proposed will be site specific because of the need for a “concrete jungle” and how this forms a relationship with beauty is important. this means that people who are located in places of vast urban sprawl and urban architecture will be more likely to be the audience for this piece. the piece is not supposed to exist within the “beautiful” places. therefore, i hope to elicit the idea of beauty (perhaps in a platonic ideal) or what it means to see and understand beauty through using juxtaposition. the main feelings that i want the audience to experience are the way that truly “beautiful” things can be seen in non-traditional ways and on things that are not beautiful. in this way, the non-beautiful thing becomes beautiful through inclusion. the idea of how beauty can transcend time (because of the use of silent era film) and urban sprawl is the main focus and the main crux that i would want the audience to understand and appreciate.
i hope that people learn to look around them and find beauty everywhere. i want people to experience transcendent beauty, as well as, expose them to silent film. i think that using silent films and silent film actresses will help to illustrate the point that beauty is timeless and even though standards may change, things that are truly beautiful will always be considered beautiful. as barthes wrote in “the face of garbo”, “the face of garbo is an idea" platonic idea of the human creature (barthes 57).
some artists works that are referencing different aspects of this piece are: cecilia barriga (her work with using silent films to create a “new” film with a different narrative), janet cardiff (using immersive techniques to transport audiences to different places) and krzysztof wodiczko (use of public space).
my obsessions with beauty and urban architecture are guiding the design for this proposed project. in addition, the idea of what is beautiful and what is not and how to mesh the two into something that is signified as beautiful is also prevalent in my desire to complete this project.
http://www.post-videoart.com.http://www.the-artists.org/tours/video-art.cfm.http://www.vdb.org.
twitter
flickr
facebook
Equipment