Body-oddy-oddy-oddy: Destabilizing the Surveilling of Queer Bodies

It is important for us to clarify as artists, that we feel strongly that this film comes from a queer point of view and a queer perspective. Rosenthal (as a member of the LGBTQ community) and Souther as a strong ally, are interested in disrupting hegemonic structures around what constitutes gay and queer aesthetics, which often privilege cis-white, explicit gay male sexual desire as opposed to more diverse and divergent points of departure. The bodies in our work are both fundamentally queer in their presentation (e.g. they lack any genitalia) and in their actions, and the use of our own scanned bodies is queered in the processes of making (although we recognize our own positionalities and privileges).

However, more fundamentally the work also subjects viewers to an experience of queer "fragmentation." Rosenthal describes this "fragmentation" as related to a kind of slippage, rather than traditional compartmentalization, where identity and body construction become unstable. By subjecting the viewer to sensorially intense fragmentation and sound, we destabilize normative viewing experiences and "queer" the space of the audience.

We feel that the sensorial nature of the work presents a perspective that renders queer experience felt in the body of most viewers that is vital to the transmission of of this psycho-somatic experience, although we also recognize that the nature of such experience may not include all bodies and all experiences. We are open to discussing potential forms of accessibility inclusion like audio description or interpretive sign language, or coated glasses to minimize light, if this makes the work more accessible to a wider audience.

Technical Statement:
"Body-oddy-oddy-oddy: Destabilizing the Surveilling of Queer Bodies" makes use of many innovative approaches to producing images and animation. We began with the use of flatbed scanners as imaging tools for textures from our own body, which became source material to for video synthesis to create complex textures that interwove our own skin and bodies. These textures are combined in a real-time system with 3D animated content that allows for a performative and responsive approach to making work that would otherwise be impossible utilizing traditional 3D animation methods. Audio is produced primarily with analog synthesizers, and at times controls the rate and morphology of the image.

Motion capture data from performances by both Souther and Rosenthal become strategies of performing through animated bodies in ways that allow for improvisation and play. It was exciting for us to create virtual sets that were aesthetic and also functional. All the 3D modeled cameras have virtual twins, as do many drones, that often feed what they see onto virtual screens, as well as becoming another perspective to view the space from. The synthesis of these various sources and approaches contribute to the visual, aural and conceptual sensibility of the work--but also to it's innovation technically. This combination helps further conversations about how we can create new and exciting approaches to art/filmmaking in the field.