(Photo courtesy of Finale Art File)
The Crisis of the Self-Authoring Subject
Interactive Intermedia (Freeform Circuit Sculpture)5.15 x 7.75 x 1.38 in / 13.08 x 19.69 x 3.5 cm
2022/2023
Excerpt from the artwork brief:
Women’s identities and choices are often influenced by the unspoken and spoken normative requirements we are expected to conform to (Anderson, et al., 2021; Butler, 1999; Mikkola, 2021). Over the course of our lives, we are socialized to think that we must fit our appearance, attitudes, and behaviors to make them so-called appropriate to our gender. A key aspect in the process of gender socialization is the internalization and performance of norms and roles (John, et al., 6).
The Crisis of the Self-Authoring Subject is presented as a freeform circuit that connects three 1.8 inch thin-film-transistor (TFT) screens and a dual button to one microcontroller. Its process borrows from hypertext fiction and interactive fiction in electronic literature wherein each step of the narrative would require the player to make choices in order to advance the story. Instead of a linear narrative, the work is composed of different situations. The situations in the work are based on lived experiences of women and girls. With the concept of Luce Irigaray's mimesis in mind, the work strategically uses second-person narration; since using the second-person point of view immerses the player into the protagonist’s position. In each situation, the player is subjected to the protagonist’s own complicity and is prompted to make a choice between two undesirable options either by pressing Button 1 or Button 2. The work is programmed to randomly pick one out of (at least) three possible outcomes for each choice; but all outcomes reject the choice made by the player.
