THE BURDEN of SELFHOOD

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LINK TO FULL RUNTIME EXPERIMENTAL DOCUMENTARY VIDEO: (29:17)

https://uark.box.com/s/s57ntgvn1xnwnvepgnqwju1b3q35dz0r 

EXCERPTS FROM LIVE SCREENING and PERFORMANCE: (7:42)

The Burden of Selfhood is an interdisciplinary experimental documentary and performance exploring the intersection of feminism, identity and technology. By connecting research from cognitive science, music, poetry, video and performance art, we investigate the experience of viewing and being viewed as a gendered body. In our research, we analyzed over 100 YouTube make-up tutorial videos. These videos illustrate the drastic measures women (and some men) will take to augment and alter the landscape of their faces in pursuit of societal ideas of perfection. With an empirical lens, we invited research subjects to view sample videos while tracking their eye-movements and facial reactions. Following interviews with each subject, we performed thematic and linguistic analyses to construct data visualizations exposing effects of the videos on individuals viewing them. The original YouTube videos, eye-gaze data, data visualizations, and interview excerpts were integrated into a 30 minute two channel experimental documentary. The score consists of electroacoustic music using text-to-speech techniques, synthesized and pre-recorded human voices. A prepared piano called a “Disklavier” plays its own version of text-to-speech by translating human narration of original poetry into piano notes. The installation closes with a live performance where live video projection-mapping applies “digital makeup” onto a performer’s face in real-time. This idea of reshaping and augmentation points to the underlying desires of our source data: makeup drastically change our outer appearance in pursuit of acceptance and self-worth. The Burden of Selfhood aims to deconstruct these desires and reflect their complexities in an open-ended, interdisciplinary media experiment.

PROJECT TEAM BIOS

Fernanda Aoki Navarro is a composer who works with instrumental and electronic music, performance art and multimedia installation. She is engaged with promoting experimental music as a producer and curator of concerts and music festivals. She holds a PhD from UC San Diego and is a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. 

Stefani Byrd’s artistic practice includes video installation, new media, and interactive technologies. Her practice aims to shed light on the complicated nature of communication within a contemporary culture where social stereotypes often define our interactions. She holds a Masters Degree from UC San Diego. She currently teaches within the Experimental Media Art Program at the University of Arkansas.

Amy Rae Fox is an information designer and doctoral student in Cognitive Science at UCSD. Her research examines the relationship between external representations and cognitive activity, exploring how how representations of abstract concepts engender novel insights, pushing the boundaries of human conceptual processing.

Sarah Ciston is an experimental writer and media artist named one of San Francisco Weekly's "Best Writers Without a Book." She holds an MFA in Hybrid Literature from UC San Diego and is an Annenberg Fellow in Media Arts + Practice at University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. 

Heidi Kayser's interdisciplinary work interweaves sculpture with performance, fashion, photography, drawing and digital media and examines the relationship between body and self-image. A UCSD MFA Alum, she is currently Senior Learning Experience Designer at UCLA.