Working Title:

Aftermath: Sexual Assault 2021-2022

Aims and Objectives:

What does it feel like to hit your girlfriend? Why do people assault one another? How do we move on? 

Aftermath is a multimedia, cross continental, collaborative project investigating the experiences of perpetrators and survivors of sexual assault. It began through hearing the stories of my friend’s survivors and a feeling of horror. It progressed to research, and seeing a lack of spaces for perpetrators to talk without getting pushed towards further crime, as even a basic google search will show that perpetrators of sexual assault are encouraged towards crime evasion.

See below: confessing to google about hitting your girlfriend will lead to answers to the question ‘how do I beat my girl?’ which implies help/complicit responses to admissions of guilt as opposed to help or resources. 

Is there a way to explore this topic that can inspire hope? How do we mend as individuals and as a society? Can we find a communal space to think about these issues? What do rapists have in common with victims?Do rapists have anything in common with victims? Can art and digital tools help to create a space to heal and to learn?

3. Context (Including Historical, Contemporary and Theoretical Contexts):

#metoo

RoevWade Womens rights Marriage 

Forced Marriage Rape in history/ changes

Wokenation Leftist young people

Porn Chatturbate.Feminism. Misogynistic law. 

Covid Civil Criminal law

r/confessions (reddit)

Historical and wartime rape (1945 Red army raped over 100,000 women in under a week).

the four types of rape (sexual entitlement, revenge/power, fantasy driven, women hating)

• to demonstrate that you are aware of the field in which you are working
• to demonstrate that your proposed research will have distinct feature which will make it potentially
  original
• to form the basis of links with other research work to which you will contribute or on which you will build.

4: Methodology:

I will use a combination of staging and direct source material to create a documentary style digital artwork about the topic of sexual consent.

This involves interviewing victims and perpetrators of sexual assault and recording them digitally, then transforming their words directly into scripts.These words become written statements as well as scripts which are spoken, filmed and edited. The final product is shown digitally online and on film. Multiple transformations of the original data means that the hands of many different people shape the final product, the idea being that as little as possible comes from my own input, and the stories are as true as possible. Using multiple media forms means that the piece is an ongoing and evolving one, as many stories can be added as are needed, with the limitation being funds to pay actors, and time for editing (though using the actors as camera operators helps with this). The project can be built into multiple final forms through a collage of film, text and sound. 

To stay true to the multinational demographic of my interviewees, I will use actors from across the globe, filming the work from multiple locations and editing them together/streaming them together in a separate location as well as online. The project exists in space and across time zones and borders, thus investigating the topic culturally as well as individualistically. In total, the project will incorporate elements of interview, Film, Acting (becoming the other), Poetry and text.

The theory of the work is to understand different perspectives. All art is an empathy builder. 

5. Outcomes:

I would like to present this work using multiple screens in a gallery or other publicly accessible arts space. The videos can be in dialogue with one another, rapist and victim opposite one another or next to one another, in dialogue. 

I plan to create a site online to show the many forms of media the project took (images from the sketchbook, written interviews, poems) and to allow viewers to read the transcripts themselves, in the expectation that they will relate to at least one of the stories presented.

6. Work Plan:

1. Interview/transcribe/research 
2. Act, film, collate 
3. Edit 
4. Show 

Extra time needed for delays, reconsiderations, edits and ‘mistakes’. Financing and everyday earning also must be considered but this schedule shows 6 month blocks for each part of the project. Must learn editing, filming and digital sharing techniques as well as interviewing methods, data storage and organization, directing and audio mixing.

Project Independant/extra art Degree

2021 Monthly plan:

		Interviews conducted
	Adobe Lessons 101	Transcribing Begins
Degree Start	Private commissions/
Weekly reflections/blog and lectures	Painting work
Art investigation/lecture/art in context
-off for xmas-	Editing practice	Sending script out/source actors

2022 monthly plan:

Weekly reflections/blog and lectures	Adobe practice design work/editing/filming	Source Actors/send scripts/film scripts/ research other artists and filming techniques, shows, artists
Art investigation/lecture/art in context	Editing practice/design work	RECEIVE FILMED WORKS from amy, shauna, john, jasmine cousins
	Job Search/planning	Create network of people involved?/website for project
	Berlin Residency
	Find gallery to show work at /network	Edit film/ create promo /apply to shows
	Berlin Ends
Second Year Begins		Finish editing/experiment with final form
New year plan

7. Bibliography:

(This may destroy you) Michaela Coel, Phoebe Waller Bridge, Mae Martin (writer/director/filmmakers with intent to describe and understand sexual assault working in the media of film).

Charities/mens rehabilitation groups (men against violence) so far no reply to various emails, working in the charity sector. 

Sexual assault scientists. Women’s charities. Individual experiences (my interviewees). Alexandra Brodsky (Sexual Justice). Virginia Woolf.