Lesbian secret swap continues in January. I am marinating on an idea about leaving secrets in envelopes under park benches (I'm thinking Parc La Fontaine, actually. Queer hockey is coming up....) and having people send in secrets that way.
Please submit comments, thoughts and opinions.
A big thanks to everyone who encouraged me to run this social experiment from the margins: We`ll see you at Interaction, January 29, 2010.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Step 8: Ethics
So, I had a few conversations about ethics in the context of this project. I have been a student at Concordia all semester, I should have had participants sign consent forms. Unfortunately, that was just not possible. I'd much rather get in lots and lots and lots of trouble, get kicked out of the programme and lose all my credits than get any single of my participants to sign anything. The point is anonymity. The point is trust. The point is getting queer girls to email secret swap on a whim. When they make a conscious decision to email in a secret, I believe their participation is essentially their consent.
Step 7: The Show
My inspiration to co-curate this show definitely comes from my background in the Social Sciences that was heavily influenced by the Fine Arts. Having studied Quebec culture extensively in undergrad mostly by looking at art (music, fine art, film, etc) and written papers on bands in the Montreal scene and studied the first female artists in Quebec, I have always wanted to expand my understanding of Quebec culture by engaging with art culture in Montreal. With a decade of community based activism heavily concentrated in women's and LGBTQ rights and issues of Diversity, I knew that this art show has the potential to expand my portfolio and launch me and my peers into the scene in which we aspire to work.
Step 6: The Display II
Secrets will be sent out using Concordia's Bluetooth device during the Interaction vernissage. When cellphones and blackberry's are set to "discoverable" can receive text messages. As a commentary on the use of technology to transport sensitive information like secrets to members of certain communities and circles of friends, lovers and acquaintances, this demonstration of interaction serves to challenge the lesbian community about the way they communicate with each other and what is considered to be "worthy" of sharing with peers.
Bring your iphone, blackberry or mobile to the vernissage to get in on the fun.
Bring your iphone, blackberry or mobile to the vernissage to get in on the fun.
Challenges
1. Positioning: It was initially difficult for me to formulate this project because I wasn't sure how to position myself in the context of the project. however, once I started understanding myself on the margins, and talking to peers about my subjectivity, while having new experiences within the community, I realized that it would be hard to solicit secrets from the community that I was both learning to be a part of and new to.
2. Posting: Craigslist actually took down my first post because it contained my project email address in it, and also because I advertised in a few spots on craigslist. This was not a part of the original plan but I started to worry that not enough people would see my ads and I wanted to improve my chances of getting responses back.
2. Soliciting Secrets: I did not get a strong response from my peers until I posted the third ad. In total, I only received secrets from 10 separate email addresses, although approximately 4 of those corresponded with me many times a day for about two weeks. Their submissions make up the bulk of secrets posted.
4. My secrets: When I was coming up with the concept, I had originally writen out as many of my own secrets as I could come up with at a time. I would consult this list for inspiration every time I would receive a secret so I could send a secret of equal caliber back to the participant. What I found was, I ran out of secrets. Some respondents did not receive a response right away because I wanted to send them "fresh" secrets, or actual secrets that I had not yet shared with anybody. Usually, because of my nature, I shared these secrets with friends and peers, maybe as a way to protect myself from the perceived judgement I might receive on the advent of their discovery of my secrets.
5. judgements: When I wrote to one of my participants with my secret, they commented with distaste and disgust for my secret. I wanted to express that judgement was not a positive response to ANY secret, let alone a sensitive one. I did not know how to respond without using one of their secrets against them, so I simply made a joke instead.
2. Posting: Craigslist actually took down my first post because it contained my project email address in it, and also because I advertised in a few spots on craigslist. This was not a part of the original plan but I started to worry that not enough people would see my ads and I wanted to improve my chances of getting responses back.
2. Soliciting Secrets: I did not get a strong response from my peers until I posted the third ad. In total, I only received secrets from 10 separate email addresses, although approximately 4 of those corresponded with me many times a day for about two weeks. Their submissions make up the bulk of secrets posted.
4. My secrets: When I was coming up with the concept, I had originally writen out as many of my own secrets as I could come up with at a time. I would consult this list for inspiration every time I would receive a secret so I could send a secret of equal caliber back to the participant. What I found was, I ran out of secrets. Some respondents did not receive a response right away because I wanted to send them "fresh" secrets, or actual secrets that I had not yet shared with anybody. Usually, because of my nature, I shared these secrets with friends and peers, maybe as a way to protect myself from the perceived judgement I might receive on the advent of their discovery of my secrets.
5. judgements: When I wrote to one of my participants with my secret, they commented with distaste and disgust for my secret. I wanted to express that judgement was not a positive response to ANY secret, let alone a sensitive one. I did not know how to respond without using one of their secrets against them, so I simply made a joke instead.
Step 6. The Display
The Communication Studies Graduate Diploma Programme
2009 - 2010 presents
Interaction
January 29, 2010
7 - 11pm
Corner of Duluth & St-Laurent
Interactions is a vernissage of intermedia. A broad interpretation of communication at the crux of digital manipulation, Interactions is a showcase of developed student works that embodies the bridge between the Montreal arts community and Concordia University. Using a variety of creative tools and inspired by texts featuring issues of copy right, protection, privacy, autonomy, surveillance, urbanity, and the mash up, Interactions seeks to disrupt face-to-face interaction paradigms and explain how current communication styles can be both beautiful and disturbing. Students pull apart interactions and explore ‘in’, ‘inter’, ‘interact’, ‘action’, ‘i’, ‘ions’ and ‘on’ to examine the intersectionality of theoretical and practical communication discourses. These artists, from the natural sciences to the social sciences, have gathered their collective work to investigate definitions of everyday and extraordinary interaction in the advent of new communication technologies and the World Wide Web. A departure from institutionalized and corporate definitions of art and media, Interactions offers the space to engage in a dialogue of investigative themes curious to the student and artist.
2009 - 2010 presents
Interaction
January 29, 2010
7 - 11pm
Corner of Duluth & St-Laurent
Interactions is a vernissage of intermedia. A broad interpretation of communication at the crux of digital manipulation, Interactions is a showcase of developed student works that embodies the bridge between the Montreal arts community and Concordia University. Using a variety of creative tools and inspired by texts featuring issues of copy right, protection, privacy, autonomy, surveillance, urbanity, and the mash up, Interactions seeks to disrupt face-to-face interaction paradigms and explain how current communication styles can be both beautiful and disturbing. Students pull apart interactions and explore ‘in’, ‘inter’, ‘interact’, ‘action’, ‘i’, ‘ions’ and ‘on’ to examine the intersectionality of theoretical and practical communication discourses. These artists, from the natural sciences to the social sciences, have gathered their collective work to investigate definitions of everyday and extraordinary interaction in the advent of new communication technologies and the World Wide Web. A departure from institutionalized and corporate definitions of art and media, Interactions offers the space to engage in a dialogue of investigative themes curious to the student and artist.
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