‘story-telling is indicative of a recent development in socially engaged site-specific art’ (Till, 2008, 102) using our book we’re engaging the audience by using stories and or narratives, which activates ones social memory for example the audience will engage emotionally by relating it their own lives and experiences.
I was responsible for the sexuality narrative; I wrote a storyline that involved sexual assault, gender dysphoria and transvestism/transexuality. I used to separate storylines; I gave the audience a choice whether to take the journey of a female or a male struggling with gender identity. I used factual diagnosis of gender dysphoria and definition of transgender, this allows the audience to understand the difference between the two terms and engage with the story. I utilised one of the long case clocks, which had an Adam and Eve image above the dial, so I decided to incorporate religion into the narrative to depict a social stigma about how gender dysphoria could be seen as sinful. This exploration of controversial topics pushes the audience to have a more engagement rather than passively looking at the artwork. I added a task at the end of this narrative; this was to give the audience an opportunity to actively participate in the story and allows us to see their thoughts and ideas that have been developed through the journey. The sexual assault section was described in quite an explicit and crude way and therefore I added in a trigger stating ‘sexual assault’, this ensured anyone who dislikes or would rather avoid reading about this topic could easily avoid it. Moreover I created an alternate route with censored version, which could still engage the audience that would rather avoid reading about such a graphic version of sexual assault. I have used this story to make the audience question how gender works in society and how different forms of sexuality are accepted.
Works Cited
Till, E, K (2008) Memory Studies: Artistic and Activist Memory-Work: Approaching Place-Based Practice. University of Northampton: Sage Publications.
Image used: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/833170/images/o-ADAM-AND-EVE-facebook.jpg
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