PHO704: Critical Research Journal – Jasmine Murray Photography

Week 11: Show and Tell

“I think social media can be anything that they want it to be. I think
that as long as you have got a strong vision from the base, social media is going to become an extension of that and it’s a great way for you to implement your ideas, but also see how people react to them.”
Barnett, M. [in] Pfab, A. (2017)

Listening to this week’s presentation has proved intriguing in regards to Barnett’s comments on social media which has resonated with my current stance and approach in usage, but in a sense his comment ties well to Ravetto-Biagioli’s comments that your social media presence is ultimately what you feed and input into it.

In the forums this week, we were asked to post a link to our CRJ, and comment on other peers, with suggestions. I largely received positive feedback on my reflections, my use of quotes and the detailed progression of my WIPP and the research that ties into it. I had one suggestion on adding the original image to an image edited in a prior week’s entry, which I have now done, as I agreed that it probably made more sense with a visual reference to the original version.

Figure 1 Murray, J. (November 2020) I thought to myself “she is prob a crazy cat lady with colored hair that prob looks like she smells like a yeast infection.” And here you are.

On thursday I had my last webinar of this module with Colin and as ever, it was very insightful in regards to last minute tweaks to my WIPP, including a final adjustment to Figure 1, replacing the yeast tin to a tube of anti-yeast cream. A previous tweak to the harsh lighting of the washing machine image, was felt didn’t work as well as the original execution, which was in line with my thoughts as I felt my eye was being drawn to the wrong area of the photograph.

**Figure 2** Murray, J. (November 2020) *The Mirror Hack’d*

I introduced to my WIPP a cover and introductory frame, as a lede into my work, to add contextualisation, and tie back to my previous work with the glitchy cover, which incorporates a cracked phone screen. I don’t feel my introductory frame which mimicks twitter subtweeting works despite an attempt to use a font (Arial) that closely aligned with what twitter uses, the spacing is not correct, and the colour palette of the font itself appears to be wrong.

Figure 3 Murray, J. (November 2020) Introduction

Whilst I largely have been thinking throughout this module that my choice of display for my current work in progress, may be more of a traditional choice, such as a zine or choosing the same as previous modules in choosing to display via the web itself, a direct response. However this week I’ve begun to think that my primary intent for my work may be to display in a guerilla style (in the style of Figure 4), displaying the work by turning the virtual into the physical, placing the tweets and my response into the real world in the form of stickers with a QR code in the corner of the white space where the tweet is displayed, below the main image which directs to either my website or social media encouraging those who scan it to leave feedback, subjecting the unexpected public to the same as the women who were targets of the original vitriol. This approach would also allow a participatory approach in that I could sell stickers for others to place in their own locality, a pop up exhibition that can be in various locations like a treasure hunt.

**Figure 4** Murray, J. (December 2020) *Guerilla Sticker Mockup*.

Ethically their may be some issues in opting a guerilla approach and placing my work in public places, especially if I haven’t sought approval to do so prior to installation. Historically this is why guerilla artists go by nom de plumés, like Banksy, Slinkachu or JR, or as a collective like Dysturb. I have looked in a previous module at the works of JR specifically the series ‘Woman Are Heroes’, where JR brings the images he has taken back to the community in a participatory nature, ultimately different in intent to my own.

**Figure 5** Slinkachu (2016) Shore Line (Honolulu, Hawaii)

Slinkachu arguably does the opposite of my intentions in that he places miniature sculptures in situ and leaves them behind after photographing them for others to enjoy and subsequently sells artist prints of his photos of his set-ups. A lot of Slinkachu’s works make a comment on consumer culture mirroring the real world albeit in miniature form, often with a sinister dystopian twist, like the beach being not a beach but a yellow line down the road.

Dysturb collective is closer in intent to my own, in that they primarily use the guerilla approach as a means of getting a message out that they want to communicate to the masses, placing large scale images onto the walls in cities to highlight the stories being missed in the noise of news. The images are usually combined with a short snappy headline to assist in the communication of the message they want to send, with their most recent installations providing commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic, showing a dystopian landscape not amiss from a 1980s sci-fi film such as Bladerunner.

**Figure 6** Dysturb Collective (2020) *Stay home in Paris, in front of the Saint Louis Hospital.*

Really, the most relevant of practitioners in relation to my practice in this field of display would be the Guerrilla Girls, who provide factual messages of inequality, yet often deliver this in a satirical manner to communicate to the masses, interestingly their decision to run the original 1989 version as an ad on the buses stems from being rejected by the public art fund, in an ironic sense them being rejected by the art fund, led to their work being shown to a wider audience, and allowed the message to go beyond it’s original audience to international interest due to their unusual method of display attracting the news.

**Figure 7** Guerilla Girls (2012) *Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?*

I would define my visual language as a construct of scale dolls melded with pseudo-realistic environments, to provide social commentary on how personal identity is created, framed and manipulated on social media. Within my images I explore the superficiality that individuals engage in online in relationships and identity via the circulation of self-fashioned socio-visual inauthenticity.

Other photographers, particularly Hayley Morris-Cafeiro and Amalia Ulman who’s work I admire, also comment on and satirise social media. Whereas Morris-Cafeiro makes personal comment on being judged online about her weight, via staged self-portraits and wearing online bullies words on clothing, Ulman dons alter-egos and personas to create fictional realities.

Also worthy of mention is Richard Prince, who also has used photography to comment on social media, however his work differs significantly in that he relies on rephotography, with the only alteration beign his addition of comments, some of a dubious nature, but laden with emojis.

References

Figures

Figure 1 Murray, J. (November 2020) I though to myself “she is prob a crazy cat lady with colored hair that prob looks like she smells like a yeast infection.” And here you are.

Figure 2 Murray, J. (November 2020) The Mirror Hack’d.

Figure 3 Murray, J. (November 2020) Introduction.

Figure 4 Murray, J. (December 2020) Guerilla Sticker Mockup.

Figure 5 Slinkachu (2016) Shore Line (Honolulu, Hawaii). [Online] Available from: https://slinkachu.com/work#/new-gallery-74/ [Accessed 01/12/2020]

Figure 6 Dysturb Collective (2020) Stay home in Paris, in front of the Saint Louis Hospital. [Online] Available from: https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/information-should-be-clear-accurate-and-accessible-to-all/ [Accessed 03/12/2020]

Figure 7 Guerilla Girls (2012) Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? [Online] Available from: https://www.guerrillagirls.com/naked-through-the-ages [Accessed 02/12/2020]

Bibliography

Barnett, A. [in] Pfab, A. (2017) Falmouth Flex: Week 11: Presentation – A Conversation with Maximus Barnett. [Online] Available from: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/671/pages/week-11-presentation-a-conversation-with-maximus-barnett?module_item_id=43431 [Accessed 01/12/2020]

Battersby, M. (2010) The Independent: Genius or vandalism? The guerrilla artists subverting our streets. [Online] Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/genius-or-vandalism-the-guerrilla-artists-subverting-our-streets-1954614.html [Accessed 01/12/2020]

GuerillaGirls (1985-2020) Naked Through the Ages. [Online] Available from: https://www.guerrillagirls.com/naked-through-the-ages [Accessed 04/12/2020]

Ravetto-Biagioli, K. (2019) Digital Uncanny. pg 52. New York; Oxford University Press.

Week 10: The Digital – New Possibilities

PHO704: Critical Research Journal

**Figure 1** Murray, J. (c.2011/2012) *Limes* (early instagram post)

I joined Instagram originally back in 2011 back when the primary use appeared to be snapping photos of food and coffee, back then it was a small friendly community where you could chat and make friends with strangers you’ve never met, I still keep in touch with the few who remain active today. I would say Instagram has changed beyond compare and become more and more commercialised in a way that follows the trajectory of fallen social media sites, such as Myspace and it’s music venture, Flickr and it’s stock imagery venture and Tumblr and DeviantArt and it’s artist venture.

Perhaps I’m simply cynical due to my practice revolving around commenting on the phenomenon of the internet, social media and identity, however I feel Instagram has become a place of inauthenticity, dominated by brands, influencers and bots. Despite Instagram claiming to crack down on inauthentic content, you can still easily purchase likes, follows and comments or even automate your account if you so wish and largely get away with it, with little to no consequences. You can even get bots to target your competitors that flag and report their content as spam so they end up shadow banned, by hashtag, geolocation etc.

In my opinion it’s more about who you manage to network with via real engagement of conversation and not the amount of followers or likes you attract to individual posts, or even how often you post.

So how am I using social media? For the past two years, I’ve gone from posting daily to far more irregular updates, in part due to not wanting to be influenced aesthetically too much by the stream of images in the feed, but also I’ve massively slowed down taking images, and like to reflect before I post. I occasionally post in stories sneak peeks of upcoming work, but largely spend more time interacting with other users networking. I also trend to rely on some automation in cross-platform posting, using IFTTT (though due to recent Instagram changes my current method doesn’t seem to be functioning).

“Almost one in five young men (18%) hold negative views about feminists and 14% see anti-abortion activists positively. And more young people agree (36%) than disagree (35%) that feminism has gone too far and makes it harder for men to succeed. Among young men, 50% agree while only 21% disagree.”
Carter, R. (2020; 42)

The changes going digital has brought upon us, has for my generation meant being uncomfortably being in-between being a digital native yet also remembering the world without the internet, without the instant digital camera. Web 2.0 hit when I was just stepping into my teenage years and arguably severely impacted how I and my peers saw the world around us. I’m hesitant to say I am “excited” by all the changes, as some of the changes digital has brought are not positive, misogyny is on the rise amongst some younger millennials and Generation Z (the rise according to most media outlets is correlated to the rise of Jordan Peterson), reality itself has become blurred with the creation of deepfakes, and privacy, a myth.

Has my practice changed and adapted due to changes the digital has brought us? I guess yes, as my practice as it currently stands frankly would not exist for me to comment on without the rise of web 2.0 and social media, and due to the topic at hand is a practice which is constantly in flux and evolution as different topics and developments come to light that I want to comment on. I would like to embrace digital changes further in regards to how I display my work in the future, last module I tried experimenting with virtual reality galleries, however I found them quite limiting in regards to what I wanted to try doing, and I feel it is perhaps something I need to look into further.

References

Figures

Figure 1 Murray, J. (c.2011/2012) Limes^{_{(early instagram post)}}

Bibliography

Barr, S. (2020) The Independent: Half of Generation Z men ‘think feminism has gone too far and makes it harder for men to succeed’ [Online] Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/feminism-generation-z-men-women-hope-not-hate-charity-report-a9652981.html [Accessed 24/11/2020]

Carter, R. (2020) Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust: Young People in the Time of COVID-19. A fear and hope study of 18-24 year olds. [Online] Available from: https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/youth-fear-and-hope-2020-07-v2final.pdf [Accessed 25/11/2020]

Wittenberg-Cox, A. & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2020) Forbes: Are Younger People Less Sexist? [Online] Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/avivahwittenbergcox/2020/08/07/are-younger-people-less-sexist/?sh=3401c13226de [Accessed 25/11/2020]

Week 10: Research & Project Development

PHO704: Critical Research Journal

My current statement of intentions:

The Mirror Hack'd
A commentary
On online misogyny
And those that post it
A critical response
Where the protagonist
Becomes the subject
Rather than the combatant.

**Figure 1** Murray, J. (October 2020) *Screenshot Twitter: “Doesn’t matter if she is in Midtown Manhattan or Mongolia, if she uses the internet she’s a slut.*

This week’s webinar, was interesting on several accounts, the initial discussion was on Instagram and social media in reflection to this week’s topic and forums. The overall take appears to be that Instagram should be used as a promotional tool, to curate content, sharing inspired work a bit like how earlier web 2.0 social medias functioned like blogs and tumblr as a vehicle of expression and networking with like minded individuals, instead of being too self-indulgent or hunting for likes homogenising your style to conform to the popular current trend.

**Figure 2** Murray, J. (November 2020) *I thought to myself “she is prob a crazy cat lady with colored hair that prob looks like she smells like a yeast infection.” And here you are.*

In regards to my actual work in progress I received highly insightful feedback this week, as the phenomenon of online misogyny, the manosphere and ‘incels’ seems to be largely driven by younger Millennial and Generation Z men whose power bases have felt to have been threatened, the comments themselves were shocking to an older Millennial peer. My choice of not straight forward misogynistic tweets, was felt to have aided the flipped narrative and humour in the images themselves. Another peer thought the doll depicted a confused weird individual, a manifestation of people making the comments, yet also not. However, I was advised that Figure 2 (above) might work better if I coloured his hair an exotic colour and incorporated a can of yeast into the scene (below).

**Figure 2** (November 2020) *I thought to myself “she is prob a crazy cat lady with colored hair that prob looks like she smells like a yeast infection.” And here you are*.

On prior advice in my 1-2-1, this week I have also documented the sets themselves (Figures 3, 4, 5), and each of the figures (Figure 6) I have been taking throughout this model (largely one specific male figure), taking these images made me realise that none of my sets have been fully explored or used as of yet, and I feel this is something I should exploit when I take this work forward into my FMP.

Figure 3 Murray, J. (November 2020) Set Details: The Living Room.

In the webinar, I realised certain terminology used in the tweets I had selected may need an explanatory *asterik or a glossary of terms section, as a lot use obscure manosphere slang commonly used by incels and MGTOWs (Men going their own way). For example the term ‘foid’ is largely unknown and until I started researching myself into the manosphere it wasn’t something I really understood either.

Figure 4 Murray, J. (November 2020) Set Details: The Bathroom

Glossary of Terms

Term	Definition
Femoid (Foid)	Slang insult used to describe women, the shorter form is ‘foid’ is now more common. Usually stands for: “female humanoid (organism)” or: “female android”. Often used to indicate that women aren’t fully human, and are sub-human, other or inferior.
Incel	Coined in the 1990s, as short form for ‘Involuntary Celibate’. A member of an online community of young men who consider themselves incapable of sexually attracting women, typically associated with views that are hostile towards both women and men who are sexually active.
Manosphere	A loose network of internet discussion groups, websites, and blogs that claim to be concerned with men’s interests and rights, often connected with an opposition to feminism and a dislike of women.
MGTOW	Abbreviation of: Men Going Their Own Way. A group of men under the manopshere, who identify as wanting nothing to do with women, yet spend the majority of time moaning about, you guessed it, women.
MRA	Abbreviation of: Men’s Rights Activist
Simp	Slang insult largely directed at men deemed to be doing anything for a girl (putting her on a pedestal) to gain attention or sexual favours.
PUA	Abbreviation of: Pick Up Artist

Figure 5 Murray, J. (November 2020) Set Details: Kitchen

In the webinar, the notion of new patriarchy, and the digital manosphere was in my portrayal dysfunctional and contradictory in it’s misogyny, I think if anything this is down to the fact that the manosphere encompasses multiple different tribes from incels, to MGTOWs and whilst all treat woman as object, they do so in different methods, however the intention is ultimately to “re-inscribes gender in a particular way and reinforces gendered, classed and racialized power relations.” (Locke, A.; Lawthorn, R. & Lyons, A. (2018; 8)

**Figure 6** Murray, J. (November 2020) *Figures*

I think Hogg, summarises my thoughts on what I have found during my trawls on twitter, he writes:

“For many men, respect for women is superficial. They may respect the women who are closest to them, but other women are different. They don’t see the contradiction in respecting one’s mother or sister, but sexually objectifying women in general.”
Hogg, R. (2016)

References

Figures

Figure 1 Murray, J. (October 2020) Screenshot Twitter: “Doesn’t matter if she is in Midtown Manhattan or Mongolia, if she uses the internet she’s a slut.

Figure 2 Murray, J. (November 2020) I thought to myself “she is prob a crazy cat lady with colored hair that prob looks like she smells like a yeast infection.” And here you are.

Figure 3 Murray, J. (November 2020) Set Details: The Living Room.

Figure 4 Murray, J. (November 2020) Set Details: The Bathroom.

Figure 5 Murray, J. (November 2020) Set Details: Kitchen.

Figure 6 Murray, J. (November 2020) Figures.

Bibliography

Bates, L. (2020) The Guardian: Men Going Their Own Way: the rise of the toxic male separatist movement that is now mainstream. [Online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/aug/26/men-going-their-own-way-the-toxic-male-separatist-movement-that-is-now-mainstream [Accessed 26/11/2020]

Cambridge Dictionary (2020) Manosphere. [Online] Available from: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/manosphere [Accessed 26/11/2020]

Dhrodia, A. (2017) New Statesman: Social media and the silencing effect: why misogyny online is a human rights issue. [Online] Available from: https://www.newstatesman.com/2017/11/social-media-and-silencing-effect-why-misogyny-online-human-rights-issue [Accessed 24/11/2020]

Dhrodia, A. (2017) Amnesty Global Insights: Unsocial Media: Tracking Twitter Abuse against Women MPs. [Online] Available from: https://medium.com/@AmnestyInsights/unsocial-media-tracking-twitter-abuse-against-women-mps-fc28aeca498a [Accessed 24/11/2020]

Dictionary.com (2020) Manosphere. [Online] Available from: https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/manosphere/ [Accessed 26/11/2020]

Dictionary.com (2020) Simp. [Online] Available from: https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/simp/ [Accessed 26/11/2020]

Hogg, R. (2016) The Guardian: Power, patriarchy, and men’s contradictory attitudes to women. [Online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/19/power-patriarchy-and-mens-contradictory-attitudes-to-women [Accessed 24/11/2020]

Lexico (2020) Incel. [Online] Available from: https://www.lexico.com/definition/incel [Accessed 26/11/2020]

Lexico (2020) MRA. [Online] Available from: https://www.lexico.com/definition/mra [Accessed 26/11/2020]

Lexico (2020) PUA. [Online] Available from: https://www.lexico.com/definition/pua [Accessed 26/11/2020]

Locke, A.; Lawthorn, R. & Lyons, A. (2018) Feminism & Psychology, Vol. 28: Social media platforms as complex and contradictory spaces for feminisms: Visibility, opportunity, power, resistance and activism. pg 8. [Online] Available from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959353517753973 [Accessed 24/11/2020]

Squirrel, T. (2018) A definitive guide to Incels part two: the A-Z incel dictionary. [Online] Available from: https://www.timsquirrell.com/blog/2018/5/30/a-definitive-guide-to-incels-part-two-the-blackpill-and-vocabulary [Accessed 26/11/2020]

Taylor, J. (2018) BBC: The woman who founded the ‘incel’ movement. [Online] Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45284455 [Accessed 26/11/2020]

Week 9: Presenting your Pitch

PHO704: Critical Research Journal

This week we presented our pitch to our clients. It was a very insightful experience even though a lot of the feedback we received were things I had already queried and worried over in our weekly chats (like the ratio and visual coherence). On reflection I agree with the clients that perhaps I should have been more assertive though whether it would have made any difference is another matter, as it felt as though I was the only one noticing the flaws, and no one wanted a conflict.

I found it really challenging, as the angle we took in the brief was wildly out of my comfort zone of staged studio work and I think this was reflected in the image I chose for the brief aligning in colour to two of the other group members colour palette, but wasn’t as personal in content as I would have wanted for my work. I do feel this brief has been a massive learning curve of experience to me. If I did this brief again I would use the studio, take my asthma medication and distort it with cotton wool as a metaphor for smog, the inhaler itself a metaphor for the the skyscrapers. Unsurprisingly, most of the group were not interested in meeting up for a debrief session, so it did not go ahead, so I was happy to receive such in depth feedback from Peta and Charlie.

Week 9: Research & Project Development

PHO704: Critical Research Journal

**Figure 1** Murray, J. (November 2020) *This is why women belong in the bin.* [Original non-tweaked edition]

In Week 8’s webinar, Figure 1 was mentioned as not fitting in with the other images in terms of hue, likely not helped by the fact I shot the image outside in natural light and not with flash. The image below is the newly tweaked version that has a more blue cast to the image and I feel this much better aligns with the other images in the series thus far.

**Figure 1** Murray, J. (November 2020) *This is why women belong in the bin.*

Last week and this week I have been preparing props and subsequently shooting the responses to the tweets I have found. I spent most of Week 8 building and troubleshooting how to build the ironing board and iron (as seen in Figure 2), finally deciding to use straws and wooden skewers for the base, foamboard for the top of the ironing board, taking the pattern from a doll website and the tip of a toothbrush as the base of the iron itself, following watching a youtube tutorial.

**Figure 2** Murray, J. (November 2020) *Close up of ironing board scene in Figure 3’s TV* – rejected angle

Figure 3, has been arguably the most complicated set build to date in terms of the details I wanted to include, such as homages to previous series in the photo frames in the image, to the yakhult bottle plant pot, the lollipop constructed book case and the books created from printed card stock using an old tattered copy of Stephen King’s Four Past Midnight to create realistic books. Unlike the kitchen, most of the ‘living room’ has been made from scratch using everyday items, the sofa is admittedly something I had already, having constructed it using foamcore and corduroy jeans during the series Unsocial Media_ (2019).

**Figure 3** Murray, J. (November 2020) *I remember going to Paris when I was about 12. Turned on tv, women stood there next to an ironing board. Says something in French for 30 seconds. Then takes all her clothes off. I agree, w*ay *better than US TV.*

The outcome of Figure 3 I feel has been quite successful in it’s flipping of the narrative, in that it forces the viewer to spend some time gazing at the scene to understand what quite is going on, mirroring the confusing tweet it responds to.

The next tweet I responded back to this week, meant finally I could use the bathroom set in a way I felt was successful. The tweet in question had me envision an old fashioned style toilet brush being held confusedly in the hand of the male figure as though he is unsure if it is a brush for cleaning the loo or whether it was something else like a whisk.

**Figure 4** Murray, J. (November 2020) *I would never say a woman’s place is in the kitchen unless she already had the bathroom sparkling clean.*

I lit the scene harshly in the hopes it would convey a murderous aura via the looming shadow, remininscent in suspense thriller flicks such as those by Hitchcock. The brush itself was made by bending a reusable drinking straw brush cleaner with pliers and then using heat shrink plastic to make a sleek looking handle.

The last image taken this week returned my figure to the kitchen set, in a rather literal flipped response to the tweet in question, with the male figure posed in a suggestively angry manner whilst restocking the fridge, carrier bag in hand. The images I’ve taken so far for The Mirror Hack’d replicate both natural light and tungsten one might find in a full scale set or room.

**Figure 5** Murray, J. (November 2020) *you’ll do as you’re told woman. Keep the fridge well stocked too.*

This week I had my second 1-2-1 tutorial with Colin, which was really helpful in discussing how I might wrap up my WIPP for this module, it was suggested given I have spent a fair amount of time it would be worthwhile to include in my CRJ or WIPP photos of how I built the sets/ the individual set pieces I have made during the module as a form of behind the scenes documentary.

I have discussed in the past module about gazes, particularly the male gaze, and how the gazes fit within my practice. Previously I have associated my practice as best aligning to the digital gaze, which is best described as an ongoing commentary on how we use and abuse social media and the internet, and envisioning the potential futures if we persist in the same behaviour. I largely agree with following summary Jones has written on this modern phenomena:

“Into the digital ether we release extraordinary amounts of personal information and too easily forget who has the means to view it. The ease with which fragments of a person can be spliced together, either by automation or by manual detective work is spreading. Digital footprints generate new conundrums of personal identity, inviting a contemporary notion of personhood based on data profiling: their aptness for health insurance, mortgages, pension schemes, job opportunities, supermarket goods, and so on.”
Jones, C.P. (2018)

However their is one type of gaze I have yet to discuss that was suggested in my 1-2-1 as relating to my work and that is the Girl Gaze, that is sometimes referred to as the Female Gaze. The Female Gaze is not clearly defined and seems to encompass a wide variety of views, I think Bains aptly summarises the overall opinion on what it currently stands for, saying:

“Without that evidence, we’re left to rely on something more visceral, something that tells us that what we’re seeing is subversive in some way, that it’s challenging the patriarchal world view in which we’ve grown accustomed to living.”
Bains, P. (2019)

Even Jansen, states that the female gaze is a broad gaze in comparison to the male gaze and that is not simply the reversal of the male gaze in function, in an interview she states: “It’s the whole system, the whole structure of presenting and sharing images” (Jansen, C. [in] Meier, A. 2017) This analogy is interesting, as I have largely felt that my work whilst sharing similarities with existing photographers who fall under the female gaze or girl gaze label, I haven’t felt as though my work had the hallmarks to truly be considered remotely as addressing this. Perhaps to see whether or not the work has a female gaze you have to be the outsider looking in as the viewer and not the maker to see it in it’s varied and nuanced form. Abbozzo in her essay Male and Female Gaze in Photography (2019) makes a connection between the female gaze and xenofeminism in that both allow our self-image to be constantly remodelled and re-envisioned.

Formento + Formento

In last week’s forum post, a peer mentioned the photographers Formento + Formento whose career has revolved around the topic of objectification, and since the arrival of the global pandemic have focused on a series called ‘Rubber Soul’ which depicts sex dolls in a variety of scenarios that comment on the changing impact the pandemic has had on relationships, what a post-human form of intimacy might entail.

The outcomes certainly contain their specialism of objectification and voyeurism, that makes you feel as though you are intruding on a private personal scene and that the dolls in question have broached the uncanny valley into being ‘almost’ human, yet not quite enough. The lighting arguably assists in broaching the uncanny, in that it is high-key cinematic, providing plenty of dramatic light and shade, and contrasts against other depictions of sex dolls by photographers who aim to humanise them in an largely innocent day-to-day sense, like with Simmons and Leigh or those who seek to reduce them to anatomical mounds of flesh like Wright. Instead Formento + Formento produce a sensualised and sexualised yet classy vision of what they think of sex dolls might be like if they held a consciousness.

References

Figures

Figure 1 Murray, J. (November 2020) This is why women belong in the bin.

Figure 2 Murray, J. (November 2020) Close up of ironing board scene in Figure 3’s TV

Figure 3 Murray, J. (November 2020) I remember going to Paris when I was about 12. Turned on tv, women stood there next to an ironing board. Says something in French for 30 seconds. Then takes all her clothes off. I agree, way better than US tv.

Figure 4 Murray, J. (November 2020) I would never say a woman’s place is in the kitchen unless she already had the bathroom sparkling clean.

Figure 5 Murray, J. (November 2020) you’ll do as you’re told woman. Keep the fridge well stocked too.

Figure 6 Formento + Formento (2020) RUBBER SOUL. [Online] Available from: http://formento2.com/project/?id=1554 [Accessed 17/11/2020]

Bibliography

Abbozzo, M. (2019) Male and Female Gaze in Photography. [Online] Available from: http://www.margheritaabbozzo.com/pdf/atti.pdf [Accessed 19/11/2020]

Bains, P. (2019) Fashion Magazine: What Is the Female Gaze, and Can It Reshape Pop Culture? [Online] Available from: https://fashionmagazine.com/culture/female-gaze-media-pop-culture/ [Accessed 19/11/2020]

Chellywood (2020) 1:6 scale doll’s ironing board with free ironing board cover pattern. [Online] Available from: https://chellywood.com/2020/02/26/dolls-ironing-board-makes-a-great-christmas-gift-free-pattern-chellywood-com-2/ [Accessed 18/11/2020]

GardenofImagination (2017) Youtube: Toilet Brush How to Make for Miniature Dollhouse. [Online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NWnTodJwOU [Accessed 18/11/2020]

De Cadenet, A. & Valletta, A. (2017) #Girlgaze: How Girls See the World. Rizzoli International Publications.

Heise, L. (2019) Essay: What happened to ‘Girl Gaze’? [Online] Available from: https://emulsive.org/articles/opinion/essay-what-happened-to-girl-gaze [Accessed 19/11/2020]

Jansen, C. (2017) Girl on Girl: Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze. London; Laurence King Publishing.

Jansen, C. [in] Meier, A. (2017) Widewalls: Selfies Can be Feminist – In Conversation with Charlotte Jansen. [Online] Available from: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/charlotte-jansen-interview [Accessed 19/11/2020]

Jones, C.P. (2018) Medium: Social Media and the Digital Gaze. [Online] Available from: https://medium.com/s/story/social-media-and-the-gaze-d107327a5c90 (and an earlier edition of the article is available at: http://www.chrisjoneswrites.co.uk/social-media-gaze/) [Accessed 20/11/2020]

Murray, J. (February 2020) Week 5: Gazing at Photographs – My Practice. [Online] Available from: https://jasmphotography.wordpress.com/2020/02/23/week-5-gazing-at-photographs/ [Accessed 20/11/2020]

Poetry, H. (2014-) [Online] Available from: https://holliepoetry.com/ [Accessed 20/11/2020]

Skymagenta Craft (2018) Youtube: DIY Miniature Doll Mini Iron – Easy! [Online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mQl-27qKg0 [Accessed 18/11/2020]

Week 8: Research (Woman as Object) & Project Development

PHO704: Critical Research Journal

“More recently, the mannequin is portrayed as having a more distinctive style and personality — an aesthetic aspiration unto herself. Hasbro International’s production of Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell dolls in 1995 certainly attests to this influence, as does Steven Meisel’s 2011 shoot “Body by Kloss” for Vogue Italia: the interpretation of physique is centered upon the model, and given her particular signature.”
Moroz, S. (2013)

**Figure 1** Murray, J. (November 2020) *Bitches be reading hella books and still be unintelligent*

In the webinar this week we were asked what we had thought of thus far in how we might finish our bodies of work, how we would position it, who the audience is, and how we might display it. I’ve mentioned in past weeks who my intended primary target audience is for the offenders themselves to rethink their language, but also feminists. I am still undecided on quite how I will display my work, whether a book format would work or because my work is a literal commentary on social media and the internet users that my work is best suited to be exhibited digitally via the web. I received a lot of useful feedback this week, beginning with Figure 1 where I was advised instead of having a book with visual literacy upside down (as seen last week) it might be advisable to change this is as it could be wrongly construed, it was suggested that Trump’s Art of the Deal may be an alternative option.

**Figure 2** Weegee (c1944) *Street Scene, New York City*

The violent non-benign depictions reminded a peer of Weegee’s crime and disaster photos (Figure 2), but in a way of making it my own. Another comparison was to High Fashion Crime Scenes (2003-2007) a series made by Melanie Pullen, which is based on mined vintage crime-scene images she had pulled from the Los Angeles Police Department and Coroner’s Office, re-enacting the scenes elaborately but with the victims professional models and actresses in haute-couture, a commentary on the glamourization of violence towards women, with the intention of forcing viewers to query their observations and values in the images they consume.

“Images of bloodied, bruised, and dead-looking models have proliferated in fashion magazine editorials and advertisements since the 1970s…”
Bryant, S.C. (2013; 3)

**Figure 3** Pullen, M. (2004) *Phones (from the series High Fashion Crime Scenes 2003-2017)*

The women in Pullen’s images are depicted with their faces largely obscured, largely sprawled flat on the floor inanimately, with a focus in most images on the shoes on the women’s feet. The staged scenes are lit in a cinematic style, with high contrast. Pullen’s images fit part of a wider vernacular found in high fashion images from the latter of half of the last century, as Bryant writes these images often show bloodied, bruised and dead-looking models. This obsession with depicting the female form as a femme fatal of death, or as vulnerable and submissive heralds back centuries, and a good example of this is John Everett Millais (1852) Ophelia, an artwork that has left a subconscious mark on my practice, along with other pre-raphaelite artists and something I discussed briefly last module. Ophelia in itself is arguably the source for a lot of the high fashion photography photographs that depict ‘dead’ women.

Pullen’s images remind me of Bourdin’s fashion photographs from the 1970s, in that both photographers tend to depict the lower limbs of female models, the upper body and faces missing, as well as both depicting the models lying down playing dead. Bourdin’s images were considered revolutionary at the time, but by today’s lens holds lots of ethical implications, around the male gaze, the sexualisation and objectification of the models in the images, whether Bourdin is depicting women as objects in bad faith or whether he simply sees the world around him in curves and lines.

**Figure 5** Bourdin, G. (1979) *Charles Jourdan*

Whilst researching Bourdin I was surprised to find he was a student of Man Ray’s, and this has made me rethink Bourdin’s vision and intent from outright assuming the images were done with a purely sexual intent to being questionable to whether it was more of a surrealist expression, especially given Bourdin’s adoption of mannequin legs in some of his images.

**Figure 6** Newton, H. (1987) *Legs looking out to sea, Monte Carlo*

Helmut Newton was another suggestion made during the call and again whilst I largely know of Newton’s fashion work being controversial in regards to his visual objectification of women, however like Bourdin I was surprised to find that Newton had worked with mannequins in his later work, unlike Bourdin I really struggle to look at Newton’s images and not see the objectifying nature of them, it could be because they are not colour images, but to me Newton’s images are a prime example of Mulvey’s male gaze, and whilst Figure 6 is arguably less so than say Newton’s series Private Property, it still reduces women to legs in high heels dehumanizing as a ‘sexual visual fetish’.

**Figure 7** Kaoru, I. (2008) *Landscape with a Corpse book*

Izumi Kaoru’s series Landscape with a Corpse (1995-2008) is another example like Pullen’s that depicts the models as ‘dead’, however the death is a ‘perfect death’ with no gore visible and visually and aesthetically has more in common with Everett Millais’ Ophelia. Unlike Pullen Kaoru is blunter with his titling stating the sitter’s name and the clothes brand they are wearing, making it obvious the photographs are intended to be consumed by haute-couture enthusiasts, yet Kaoru’s images like Pullen’s draws from a cinematic stylisation, but in a more glamourised way.

**Figure 8** Meisel, S. (2006) *“State of Emergency”, Vogue Italia September 2006*

Another photographer mentioned in the webinar was Steven Meisel, specifically the series “State of Emergency” , in relation to my photo Only thing I like to see is women on their knees not men. One of Meisel’s “State of Emergency” images (Figure 8) depicts an act of violence to the female model, with the male model playing the part of police stepping on her neck. Like the haute couture trope of the dead woman, Meisel’s enacts another common trope in fashion photography, violence against women.

**Figure 9** Klein, M. (2015) *Untitled*

When I was trying to find the image of Meisel’s I was thinking of, whilst using a search engine, it reminded me of another fashion photographer I have seen employ the woman as lifeless object trope, Steven Klein. Klein, along with the likes of Testino, Richardson, Mert & Marcus were visually present in fashion publications (be that the editorials or advertisements) I eagerly consumed as a teenager, then interested in media studies, in the mid 2000s and on reflection largely depict images that are peak male gaze hyper-sexualised, thin, lifeless models. Klein’s visual vernacular it appears hasn’t changed much over the years, and if anything Figure 9 is ultimately a very literal depiction of women as object with Klein photographing a faceless sex doll as replacement for human model.

**Figure 10** Aldridge, M. (2011) *I Only Want You To Love Me #4*

This leads me to Miles Aldridge the last photographer mentioned in relation to my images in the webinar this week, Aldridge’s images largely depict female models with a disassociated gaze, as though they are not present in the scene, merely ‘mannequins’ going through the motions of life in mundane suburbia. Like Bourdin Aldridge’s images are highly satured, bold in colour, however unlike Bourdin, Aldridge doesn’t tend to obscure, hide or distort his models to remove their identity, instead he plumps for a disassociated and disengaged cinematic gaze more akin to the works of Alex Prager in vision and aesthetics, and more reminiscent to a Hitchcock horror flick, albeit a version in which the moral and critique is on whether consumerism and materialism fills the void.

References

Figures

Figure 1 Murray, J. (November 2020) Bitches be reading hella books and still be unintelligent

Figure 2 Weegee (c1944) Street Scene, New York City. [Online] Available from: https://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/artists/65-weegee/overview/ [Accessed 12/11/2020]

Figure 3 Pullen, M. (2004) Phones (from the series High Fashion Crime Scenes 2003-2017). [Online] Available from: https://www.melaniepullen.com/high-fashion [Accessed 12/11/2020]

Figure 4 Bourdin, G. (1978) Untitled. [Online] Available from: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/guy-bourdin-exhibition/ [Accessed 12/11/2020]

Figure 5 Bourdin, G. (1979) Charles Jourdan. [Online] Available from: https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/4251/the-leg-works-guy-bourdin-eva-stenram [Accessed 13/11/2020]

Figure 6 Newton, H. (1987) Legs looking out to sea, Monte Carlo. [Online] Available from: https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/25127/lot/69/ [Accessed 13/11/2020]

Figure 7 Kaoru, I. (2008) Landscape with a Corpse book. [Online] Available from: https://www.beauxbooks.com/izima-kaoru-landscapes-with-a-corpse.html [Accessed 12/11/2020]

Figure 8 Meisel, S. (2006) “State of Emergency”, Vogue Italia September 2006. [Online] Available from: https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/37786/1/photo-vogue-festival-italia-is-exhibiting-political-fashion-images-tim-walker [Accessed 12/11/2020]

Figure 9 Klein, S. (2015) Untitled. [Online] Available from: https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/g5pj4j/ebrosh-embroidery-brooch-interview [Accessed 13/11/2020]

Figure 10 Aldridge, M. (2011) I Only Want You To Love Me #4. [Online] Available from: https://huxleyparlour.com/works/i-only-want-you-to-love-me-4-2011/ [Accessed 13/11/2020]

Bibliography

Bryant, S.C. (2013) “The Beautiful Corpse: Violence against Women in Fashion Photography”. [Online] Available from: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/70972243.pdf [Accessed 13/11/2020]

Moroz, S. (2013) Mannequins, Then and Now. [Online] Available from: https://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/mannequins-then-and-now/? [Accessed 13/11/2020]

Sadler, V. (2014) Huffington Post: Should We Be Amused by Guy Bourdin’s Photographs, or Appalled? [Online] Available from: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/victoria-sadler/should-we-be-amused-by-guy-bourdin_b_6247618.html [Accessed 13/11/2020]

Woodward, D. (2016) Dazed & Confused: How Man Ray changed the face of fashion photography. [Online] Available from: https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/33664/1/how-man-ray-changed-the-face-of-fashion-photography [Accessed 13/11/2020]

Week 8: Photography and its Fine Art Markets

PHO704: Critical Research Journal

Website

In the forums this week we were asked to post our portfolio website and 3 photographers whose websites I feel work well and resonate with potential clients. I chose the websites of Juno Calypso, Laurie Simmons and Haley Morris-Cafeiro, as all 3 opt for a minimalistic clean approach, with easy navigation, interestingly only Calypso has a logo remotely close to mine in being cursive, as both Simmons and Morris-Cafeiro opt instead for a sans-serif font in capitals.

My logo was brought up in feedback from peers on the forums and it’s given me food for thought as it’s something I designed back when I was doing my HND 7 years ago, before I had really decided where I fitted in photography or really what my actual style was. I think it’s probably something I ought to revisit and try out a less cursive version to see if it fits.

Another comment was about making my CV a downloadable PDF link in my about page which has been something I have been thinking about after seeing a couple of artists I admire doing similar, Ambar Navarro’s approach of a hosted google drive document is particularly inspired as it allows for easy quick change. I was glad to hear that all of the peers who commented to me found my website easy to navigate and found my images playful. It was interesting as well to find that peers found my CRJ equally easy to navigate in terms of layout.

WPP B

Figure 1 Murray, J. (November 2020) Slide Mockups

I have written the following to explain my intentions:

The inspiration for my work embraces Abbott and Brandt whose images capture the impact of urbanisation, along with Nakaya and Gormley’s art installations which communicate my anxiety of air pollution.

My eco-anxiety is around the negative effects of urbanisation, such as the rise of air pollution, something that personally affects me, as an asthmatic for example when I commute into cities such as London. Air Pollution has been a concern since the early 1950s, during the peak of the coal and steam driven industrialisation. However, despite air pollution improving from the smog of the 1950s, people in cities like London are still dying because of air pollution. The W.H.O. (World Health Organisation) estimate that air pollution kills 7 million people in the world every year.

The aim of my submission is to express the anxiety that urbanisation brings, with the continued rise of air pollution, its impact, both visually and environmentally. I want to highlight the challenge facing the world, a balancing act of economic development against a sustainable future.

To quote Kissi-Debrah, Santi & Company: “We can see when water is dirty. We can see when food is rotten. But we can’t see – not in the everyday – when air is polluted. Breathing is innate. We may not be able to see it, but taking a breath is the most precious action we take.” (Kissi-Debrah, R. [in] Santi, A. & Company 2020; 69)

This week for our WPP B group we decided for the pitch that we would each individually discuss our own image. We had a meeting with Anna on the Monday and she gave valuable feedback suggestions that we should focus on how it comes together as one visual body of work, unfortunately in the other meetings we had that week, the others did not want to compromise on colour, tone, or subject to create a more cohesive work, so I felt really restricted in what I could do to try to fit their images together through my own choice, I came to the conclusion I wouldn’t be able to use the studio as it would just further the differences between each image.

She also suggested our pitch should aim to be conversational, so I tried to keep my written piece as informal and largely stick to simple english, rather than espouse scientific words or waffling. I did suggest since overall decision was not to compromise by narrowing the topic that we should focus on the fact that ultimately eco-anxiety stems from increased population and urbanisation globally and it’s impacts. In a meeting we had after Anna’s feedback we discussed our target audience, stating we wanted to engage and interact with those who might find extinction rebellion alienating as a white middle class movement, yet want to reflect and think about the environment, it’s concerns and things they can feasibly change to make a difference. A group member suggested that a caption or a hashtag such as #myecoanxiety may help in tying together the campaign. I’ve found this week quite challenging in regards to the commission group as it felt as though I was one of the few who wanted to collaborate versus those with a strong personality who expected us to follow their way of thinking.

The guest lecture this week did give me some insight on how you might deal with a tricky sitter, it surprised me how sometimes the answer when shooting portraiture is to ask for what you don’t want if the sitter is particularly being tricky with you the photographer.

References

Figures

Figure 1 Murray, J. (November 2020) Slide Mockups

Bibliography

Kissi-Debrah, R. [in] Santi, A. & Company (2020) Three Things. pg 69. Birmingham; The Pound Project.

Week 7: Project Development

PHO704: Critical Research Journal

**Figure 1** Murray, J. (November 2020) ‘*This is why women belong in the bin’* from *The Mirror Hack’d*

This week I had a peer-to-peer webinar with Andy, De and Sioned. I had yet to shoot any new images this week when we met, however thankfully they had not seen my work until now, so I still received valuable feedback. Much like other people who have seen my WIPP so far the favourite image of the series is the one with the head in the dishwasher, as it is sinister and ‘gallows humour’. My use in colour palette and lighting choices especially in the laundry image was also well commended, as well as the overall concept.

**Figure 2** Murray, J. (November 2020) *‘Only thing I like to see is women on their knees not men.’* from *The Mirror Hack’d*

**Figure 3** Murray, J. (November 2020) ‘*Some women have no body shape at all, its like a head on a stick’* from *The Mirror Hack’d*

It was mentioned that my images might work well in a book format where the tweet was on one side of the page and the image on the other so the text was ‘bigger’, however the issue of small text, is possibly more down to the fact that I had just quickly put my images into a word document as preparation for the webinar.

**Figure 4** Murray, J. (November 2020) *‘Bitches be reading hella books and still be unintelligent’* from *The Mirror Hack’d*

In terms of research it was mentioned I might find it useful to look at domestic abuse/women’s aid charities advertising, and that I might find a Metro article from April about a wedding photographer who shot a lockdown wedding with dolls (Figure 5).

**Figure 5** Marsh, A. (2020) *The sunset shoot*

References

Figures

Figure 1 Murray, J. (November 2020) ‘This is why women belong in the bin’ from The Mirror Hack’d

Figure 2 Murray, J. (November 2020) ‘Only thing I like to see is women on their knees not men.’ from The Mirror Hack’d

Figure 3 Murray, J. (November 2020) ‘Some women have no body shape at all, its like a head on a stick’ from The Mirror Hack’d

Figure 4 Murray, J. (November 2020) ‘Bitches be reading hella books and still be unintelligent’ from The Mirror Hack’d

Figure 5 Marsh, A. (2020) The sunset shoot. [Online] Available from: https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/21/wedding-photographer-creates-hilarious-shoot-daughters-dolls-bookings-cancelled-12587187/ [Accessed 06/11/2020]

Bibliography

Abernethy, L. (2020) Metro: Wedding photographer creates hilarious shoot with daughter’s Barbies after all her bookings were cancelled. [Online] Available from: https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/21/wedding-photographer-creates-hilarious-shoot-daughters-dolls-bookings-cancelled-12587187/ [Accessed 06/11/2020]

Week 7: Research; Phillips, Sex Dolls, Objectification and the Uncanny

PHO704: Critical Research Journal

Valerie Phillips

“…seem to challenge the preconceptions of true beauty, finding it instead without manipulation and through Phillips’ lens which is, above all else, unfiltered.”
Coop, E. (2016)

**Figure 1** Phillips, V. (2014) *Hi You Are Beautiful How Are You.*

I’ve been catching up posting last module’s work to Instagram over the weekend, and have received subsequently some feedback that I might find looking at the works of Valerie Phillips. Although Phillips work is arguably better suited in a discussion to last module’s series e-maGen, Phillips overarching practice revolves around more recently (internet) identities and challenging gender norms, the latter of which The Mirror Hack’d discusses in depth, and the former something that arguably runs throughout my current practice.

**Figure 2** Phillips, V. (2013) *This is my drivers license.*

The work I am best familiar with of Phillips are Figures 1 & 2, due to the sitter being a fellow practitioner I have researched two modules back, Arvida Byström. Historically Phillips, has produced a series of books that focus on a girl at an important crux in their life, becoming an adult. Unlike my own practice where I adopt artifice mockingly to challenge the tropes I am commenting on Phillips instead opts to depict her subjects without manipulation, to highlight natural beauty, rather than refined artifice.

Sex Dolls, Objectification & The Uncanny

“…the sex doll always risks both the pitfalls of the uncanny valley and ethical censure. Sex dolls depict women just well enough for discomfort, while turning a mirror back unflatteringly upon the men who consume them.”
Clark, R. (2020)

**Figure 3** Moo, H. (1919) *Alma Doll (Heritage Images via Getty Images*)

This week I’ve been thinking around the concept of objectification through the vehicle of dolls. My current exploration within The Mirror Hack’d I’ve been using dolls, predominantly a male doll, as a vehicle to enact and depict the misogynistic messages aimed at women, reflected back, indirectly also commenting on the idea that “incels” should seek companionship from sex dolls. Largely when one thinks on objectification in dolls you end up either thinking of Barbie’s unrealistic beauty standards or sex dolls themselves that primarily exist for manipulation and the eyes of men. In extreme cases such as the Alma Doll (Figure 3) ordered by Oscar Kokoschka at the turn of the 20th century the result of having a sex doll ended”…in a unbelievable display of violent misogyny, well, that was perhaps pretty much inevitable.” (Frank, P. 2018) This leads me to the work of van Duyvendijk and Xu.

Marco van Duyvendijk and Xiaoxiao Xu

““I think they’re the epitome of patriarchy,” says Xu when asked her opinion on love dolls and what they might mean for society. “It insinuates that women’s bodies are only flesh and the existence of flesh is for men’s use.””
Xu, X. [in] Clifford, E. (2018)

**Figure 4** van Duyvendijk, M. & Xu, X. (2012) *Love Doll Factory*

Marco van Duyvendijk and Xiaoxiao Xu’s series the Love Doll Factory (2012) depicts the assembly and production line inside a inflatable sex doll factory in Zhejiang province, China, the images themselves provoke a sense of the eerie uncanny, whilst also being a commentary piece on the rise in popularity of sex dolls in Asia and beyond, how the premise is largely a sexist vision of woman as object of pleasure and desire.

**Figure 5** van Duyvendijk, M. & Xu, X. (2012) *Love Doll Factory*

van Duyvendijk and Xu’s series aligns with the messages found in the work of Laurie Simmons‘ The Love Doll, or Stacy Leigh‘s Everyday Americans who Happen to be Sex Dolls, however with both of these series Simmons and Leigh instead seek to humanise the dolls, by giving them personalities and a narrative. The Love Doll Factory is like a literal ‘meat’ market of plastic, and this connotation is perhaps closer to Sharon Wright’s (Figure 6) Skinning a Sex Doll (2015) a series which documents Wright and her husband dismantling a silicone sex doll to it’s wired shell, with the mounds of silicone flesh piled much like van Duyvendijk and Xu’s visuals in Love Doll Factory.

**Figure 6** Wright, S. (2015) *Skinning a sex doll*

Marcel Duchamp – Étant donnés and the Surrealists

“…the readymade’s parallel with the photograph is established by its process of production. It is about the physical transposition of an object from the continuum of reality into the fixed condition of the art-image by a moment of isolation or selection.”
Krauss, R. (1985; 206)

**Figure 7** Duchamp, M. (1946-66) *Étant donnés*

Marcel Duchamp’s Étant donnés is an installation piece that can only be viewed through a peephole, meaning you can never see the full scene or views of the installation, just the perspective that Duchamp wants the viewer to see. Étant donnés is almost a form of commentary on voyeurism and peepshows, and a readymade which seems to comment on the photograph being a means of selected fixed view, staged, a process of production. Duchamp’s installation is reminiscent I feel to Bellmer’s La Poupée in that the figure is fragmented, not completely seen with head, lower leg and one arm invisible to the viewer. The usage of a mannequin doll form in both Bellmer’s and Duchamp’s work can be associated to Smith’s observations that:

“Since the nineteenth century, dolls have served as commodities but also as objects of possession and obsession, love and lust.”
Smith, M. (2013)

The surrealist movement in particular adopted using mannequins, with Bellmer specifically using it to discuss themes of perversion through provocative depiction, this nature of surrealist photography seen from Bellmer to Ulbac (Figure 8) has led to theorists such as Krauss considering the movement to be a ‘fetishization of reality’ (Krauss, R. 1985; 69)

**Figure 8** Ubac, R. (1938) *Mannequin d’André Masson*

References

Figures

Figure 1 Phillips, V. (2014) from the photobook ‘Hi You Are Beautiful How Are You.‘ [Online] Available from: https://www.dashwoodbooks.com/pages/books/14623/valerie-phillips/hi-you-are-beautiful-how-are-you?soldItem=true [Accessed 02/11/2020]

Figure 2 Phillips, V. (2013) from the photobook ‘This is my drivers license.‘ [Online] Available from: https://www.dashwoodbooks.com/pages/books/13277/valerie-phillips/this-is-my-drivers-license?soldItem=true [Accessed 02/11/2020]

Figure 3 Moo, H. (1919) Alma Doll (Heritage Images via Getty Images) [Online] Available from: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/artist-doll-creepy-oskar-kokoschka-alma-mahler [Accessed 04/11/2020]

Figure 4 van Duyvendijk, M. & Xu, X. (2012) Love Doll Factory. [Online] Available from: https://xiaoxiaoxu.com/work/love-doll-factory/ [Accessed 03/11/2020]

Figure 5 van Duyvendijk, M. & Xu, X. (2012) Love Doll Factory. [Online] Available from: http://www.marcovanduyvendijk.nl/product/love-doll-factory/# [Accessed 03/11/2020]

Figure 6 Wright, S. (2015) Skinning a sex doll. [Online] Available from: https://www.shesalwayswright.com/toystories/2015/10/7/skinning-a-sex-doll-nsfw [Accessed 03/11/2020]

Figure 7 Duchamp, M. (1946-66) Étant donnés. [Online] Available from: https://www.toutfait.com/marcel-duchamp-atant-donnas-the-deconstructed-painting/ [Accessed 04/11/2020]

Figure 8 Ubac, R. (1938) Mannequin d’André Masson. [Online] Available from: http://www.artnet.com/artists/raoul-ubac/mannequin-dandr%C3%A9-masson-oOKd-IE3r5whYEnma37TaA2 [Accessed 05/11/2020]

Bibliography

Aron, N. A. (2019) The New York Times: What Does Misogyny Look Like? [Online] Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/style/misogyny-women-history-photographs.html [Accessed 04/11/2020]

Bell, J. (2014) “Uncanny Erotics: On Hans Bellmer’s Souvenirs of the Doll” [IN] Feral Feminisms. Feminist Un/Pleasure: Reflections upon Perversity, BDSM, and Desire. Issue 2 . Summer 2014. [Online] Available from: https://feralfeminisms.com/uncanny-erotics/ [Accessed 05/11/2020]

Burton, T.I. (2018) Vox: We’re talking about “sex robots” now. We’ve been here before. [Online] Available from: https://www.vox.com/2018/5/4/17314260/incel-sex-robots-sexual-redistribution-ross-douthat-history [Accessed 04/11/2020]

Clark, R. (2020) Post 45: Gag Reflexes: Sex Doll Slapstick and Fran Ross’s Oreo. [Online] Available from: https://post45.org/2020/01/gag-reflexes-sex-doll-slapstick-and-fran-rosss-oreo/ [Accessed 04/11/2020]

Coop, E. (2016) Dazed & Confused: Fifteen years of capturing girlhood with Valerie Phillips. [Online] Available from: https://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/33412/1/capturing-girlhood-with-valerie-phillips [Accessed 02/11/2020]

Frank, P. (2018) Huffington Post: The Creepy Tale Of An Artist Who Ordered, Then Decapitated, A Doll Made To Look Like His Ex. [Online] Available from: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/artist-doll-creepy-oskar-kokoschka-alma-mahler_ [Accessed 04/11/2020]

Krauss, R. (1985) The Originality of the Avant-garde and other Modernist Myths, pg 206. USA; MIT Press. [Online] Available from: https://monoskop.org/File:Krauss_Rosalind_E_The_Originality_of_the_Avant-Garde_and_Other_Modernist_Myths_1985.pdf [Accessed 05/11/2020]

Krauss, R. (1985) “Corpus Delecti.” October. 33. Summer, 1985, pg 69. Print.

Smith, M. (2013) The erotic doll: a modern fetish. New Haven & London; Yale University Press.

Xu, X. [in] Clifford, E. (2018) Huck magazine: An eerie look inside a Chinese Love Doll Factory. Sex for dummies. [Online] Available from: https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/an-eerie-look-inside-a-chinese-love-doll-factory/ [Accessed 03/11/2020]

Week 7: Who Buys Photography? II

PHO704: Critical Research Journal

Figure 1 Murray, J. (2020) Abandoned School

This is the site of my former lower school (the site itself has been location to the school for over 140 years), in 2018 the site was formally shut with the school moving into a new build across the road, since then the site has laid empty unused and has begun to turn back to nature…

The school has a covenant on it that it must be used for educational purposes, or it must return to the landowners the Southhill estate who handle all of Whitbread owned land.

On the forums this week I received some interesting feedback of a narrative different to my original intention, that I felt was quite interesting, in that they assoicated the images with the pandemic with the story as a metaphor for students missing out on their education.

Another piece of feedback suggested that my third image was my strongest, and whilst I agree due to the situation with Covid-19 in the UK currently, my access to the site is restricted and limited, I did not want to trespass to get the images, that would have been more interesting at the rear of the site (or where most of the play area is located). I wanted to explore the relationships between my memories and the reality of today to synthesise an historic record of the decay of the site, it’s features and fixtures, an epitaph trapped in time.

References

Figures

Figure 1 Murray, J. (2020) Abandoned School

Bibliography