Thick Skin: Mapping the Intersectional
Quarter 2
Landing Dialogues
Themes: Collage, Mapping, Overlay, Mixing/Collapsing of Space, Temporality
In Act 1, the focus hones in on the events and participants of the Ballroom subculture in Johannesburg. The event, Vogue Nights Jozi, is researched to find artefacts and rituals specific to this event in this city. It is also noted that the event exists within a larger timeline of civil and queer rights movements spearheaded in Harlem and New York. This act is an ongoing research dossier that will run throughout the research year. Its aim is to produce zines as archiving material for othered participants of urban landscapes.
Interactive Zine executable file is downloadable here (Windows only. Press H for controls when .exe file is launched).
Video of Multimedia Zine Scroll Through (Click for Sound)
Before the Ball with PARIS BLANKA
Quarter 1
Strange Fruit
Themes: Behind the Scenes, Ritual, Reversal, Voyeurism/The Gaze, Overlay, Queerness, Temporality
Act 2 is study of a specific identity, a male body who participates in the pageantry of the Ballroom subculture growing in Johannesburg. This short film uses the gaze as a tool to highlight how the use of public space varies depending on the body that activates it. This insertion of intimate, inside rituals into a public outside place also queries ideas of single use/programmable spatial identity, especially in a public space such as the street.
Project Images Taken on Set
Before the Ball with PARIS BLANKA [film]
Form Follows Fantasy Installation:
Quarter 2
Architectural Voodoo Dolls
Themes: Collage, Mapping, Overlay, Mixing/Collapsing of Space, Temporality
“Within these liminal urban spaces that blur the lines between our actual and imagined
selves, between what’s socially permissible or not, we may discover an alternate world.
The experience is shaped by the design, but most importantly, it’s shaped by us. [...] Here,
within this great experimental space of society and self, form follows your fantasy. And if
you’re lucky — between the flash of a strobe, or a heartbeat — it feels real.”
- Andrew Pasquier: 2019.
Form Follows Fantasy Video Installation
Fan + Fabric: Fluidity in Form
GSA Metro Floor Plan + Section (click image for more information)
Form Follows Fantasy: Installation Layout
Form Follows Fantasy: Installation Prompts
Act 3 is driven by observing DIY club scenes such as Vogue Nights Jozi and Pussy Party in Johannesburg, as well as Jersey Club and Footwork Parties in New Jersey and Chicago respectively. At these events, the people organising, promoting, dancing, as well as hosting these parties are also DJs during some part of the night. Besides them having these roles, they are also human beings who (may) need to use the bathroom, drink/smoke, and eat. Playing many facilitative roles during an event in the DIY club scene is commonplace, so being tied down to the DJ booth for upwards of an hour may not be a productive way to run an event or even enjoy the party.
If the equipment that assigns a person the “DJ” role is distributed all over the dance floor or club, how can that accommodate the key players in the DIY club/party scene in Johannesburg? How would this affect the landscape of the dance floor, as well as the entire venue?
This act is a less successful attempt at speculation. within the scope of the Major Design Project trajectory, but raises queries that can be addressed in future projects.
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The DJ Booth as an Institution
Quarter 1
Gravity Fatigue
Themes: Distortion, Expansion, Looseness, Gesture/Ritual, Territory
Metastasis of the DJ Booth
3D Renders and Images of Gelatine Models
Project Artifact Mechanism [film]
Project Drawings
Postcards From Otherwhere
Quarter 2
Recipe for an Atmosphere
Themes: Ritual, Overlay, Mixing/Collapsing of Space, Temporality
This act functions as an interrogation by filtering, mixing and sampling of the qualities of places where known electronic music subcultures currently gather and perform. Underground music genres such as Gqom, Chicago Footwork, and Jersey Club for example prompted the research into these particular venues and spaces, to develop Post Cards From "Otherwhere", experienced only for a night. This "Otherwhere" is accessible only through a particular subculture event, where above mentioned music would be played during a DJ set.
"Introducing: The Phantom of a DJ's Hands as an Extension of the Ear to Aid the Untrained Eye"
Quarter 1
Phantom Limb
Themes: Trace, tracking, stain, ritual, superimposition, portal
Act 6 sits as an experiment in tracing and archiving. The phantom limb prototype is created as a means to an end - a physical record of movements and gestures made by a DJ during a performance. The fleeting moments (heard) of an incoming melody overlaid onto the outgoing bassline of the current song is now visually traced using the principles of an iodine-starch test. The process of tracing as well as revealing was filmed and condensed into different sub-acts. The film is played accompanied by a short DJ performance by the author.
Process of Artifact Creation shown in 3 acts, a prologue and epilogue [film]
Revealing the Stain as Phantom, An Epilogue
The States of Dissolving Narrative (As seen in the 2018 film Suspiria, L. Guardagnino)
Quarter 1
Sewing Boarders
Themes: Cause & Effect, Translation, Narrative, Metamorphosis
Act 7 is an unsuccessful attempt at using shadow and installation to translate the relationship between cause and effect within visual narratives. This act involves looking at narrative becoming non-narrative, a picture becoming an illusion or perceived language a spell. Similarly to the plot of the film used a prompt, this installation seeks create shadow worlds (CMYK shadow) from real worlds (RGB Light), by actively creating the slip or in between that allows this phenomenon to be seen (the tapestry). The tapestry is made out of materials differing in opacity to symbolise the blur and fluidity between what is and what isn't as the film narrative progresses.
The States of Dissolving Narrative (As seen in the 2018 film Suspiria, L. Guardagnino)
Tapestry Installation Images