This studio-based open-media course, taught by lecturer Catherine Telford-Keogh, challenges conventional ideas about the body by examining technology, culture, philosophy, and politics. Through lectures, discussions and art production, undergraduate Visual Studies students explored the fluidity and complexities of race, gender, sexuality, ability, materiality, and the non-human, in representations and investigations of the body.

Ella Hunter

Untitled
Single channel video
04:35

Ella writes: "This video considers the boundaries between self and other. Examining how the stoma moves — both with and independent of the body — highlights the uncanny and independent nature of bodily functions. I chose to pay particular attention to movements caused by my breathing and heartbeat, highlighting processes that are essential to a living body."

Jessica Rai

Bread Pile
Bread, saliva, blanket

Jessica writes: "For this work, I was interested in the idea of enzymes inside the body as living things. If these enzymes leave my body, are they still me or do they become a separate living entity? In this sculpture, I chewed on 118 pieces of bread, saturating each one in saliva, and installed them in a pile that alludes to the body. I explore the boundary that separates what is considered internal and external to the body by creating an animate sculpture containing my own fluids."

Ava Kaartinen

Ideal House
Digital image

Ava writes: "In this series, I explore the repetition of forms and objects present in children’s toys that participate in the construction of normative identity categories. In this photograph, I organize Barbie cosmetics, furniture, and cooking utensils that are used to construct the idea of the good 'housewife.' Though these toys seem innocuous, they present a limited set of options for imaginative play and lay the groundwork for particular formations of identity and desire."