{"id":21687,"date":"2016-10-05T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T14:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=21687"},"modified":"2016-10-06T11:18:59","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T15:18:59","slug":"angela-washkos-cinema-of-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2016\/10\/05\/angela-washkos-cinema-of-cruelty\/","title":{"rendered":"Angela Washko&#8217;s Cinema of Cruelty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><em>Content Advisory: The following contains references\u00a0(including an embedded video)\u00a0to sexual assault and\u00a0misogyny.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-04-at-10.33.01-PM.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21688\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21688\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-04-at-10.33.01-PM-400x297.png\" alt=\"Angela Washko @ UCSD\" width=\"400\" height=\"297\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-04-at-10.33.01-PM-400x297.png 400w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-04-at-10.33.01-PM-250x186.png 250w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-04-at-10.33.01-PM-768x570.png 768w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-04-at-10.33.01-PM-500x371.png 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/files\/2016\/10\/Screen-Shot-2016-10-04-at-10.33.01-PM.png 847w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">At the end of the panel following Angela Washko\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calit2.net\/events\/popup.php?id=2663\" target=\"_blank\">artist talk<\/a> at UC San Diego\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/calit2.net\" target=\"_blank\">Qualcomm Institute<\/a>, there was time for two questions. The first came from a man in the audience who jumped to the mic in order to frame the artist\u2019s work in the inevitable deluge of AR, or augmented reality technology (think holding up your phone and seeing a Pokestop where another passerby might just see the local Walgreens). The audience member, a computer scientist from UCSD, wanted to know what would happen once we \u201cthrow away this technology that we\u2019re tethered to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Washko had begun the evening with a presentation about her work, starting with <a href=\"http:\/\/angelawashko.com\/section\/300206-The-Council-on-Gender-Sensitivity-and-Behavioral-Awareness-in-World-of-Warcraft.html\" target=\"_blank\">her performances<\/a> in World of Warcraft, wherein she goes to some of the most popular areas in the game to perform certain actions or ask other players about issues like abortion and feminism. I found the piece both charming and troubling: at one point, Washko\u2019s avatar orchestrates a conga-line type dance party in a field where orks and trolls frolick in harmony while acting like chickens (just trust me, go to 25:00 in the video below). During the WoW interviews, the situation was a bit less whimsical. In\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/creativetimereports.org\/2014\/11\/20\/angela-washko-feminism-world-of-warcraft-gamergate\/\">Washko<\/a>&#8216;s words:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">I realized that players\u2019 geographic dispersion generates a population that is far more representative of American opinion than those of the art or academic circles that I frequent in New York and San Diego, making it a perfect Petri dish for conversations about women\u2019s rights, feminism and gender expression with people who are uninhibited by IRL accountability.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RDa06AjGtUI?rel=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">She finished her talk with her most recent project, <i><a href=\"http:\/\/angelawashko.com\/section\/437138-The-Game-The-Game.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Game: The Game<\/a><\/i>, a choose-your-own-adventure type, compiled using only footage and quotes from pick up artists&#8217; how-to books and DVDs (the DVDs are prohibitively expensive so that those seeking only to critique the PUAs avoid doing so; per Washko, \u201cI got a grant, so I bought them\u201d). By this point, the audience was already familiar with both her preferred subjects of interrogation and also the extremely brave way she places herself at risk for the sake of her work. For her <a href=\"http:\/\/angelawashko.com\/section\/409417-BANGED.html\" target=\"_blank\">UCSD MFA thesis project<\/a>, Washko convinced notorious pickup artist Roosh V to agree to a video interview. This was around the time during which #gamergate was garnishing a great deal of media attention and Roosh V had dedicated a section of his site\u2019s forum to the type of mysoginist discourse that accompanied the hashtag on other various platforms. That Roosh V would agree, then, to be interviewed by a self-declared feminist and artist is a testament to Washko\u2019s persistence; as part of the negotiations, she sent a photograph of herself to the PUA, allowing herself to be judged worthy of Roosh\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">While Washko\u2019s interview with Roosh is itself an important piece, the first clip from <i>The Game: The Game<\/i> that we saw was from a different pick up artist who goes by \u201cRSD Julien\u201d. In this clip, Julien begins by explaining that placing the word \u201cnow!\u201d at the end of any declaration sets you up as an Alpha amongst Betas (\u201cAfterparty. Now!\u201d, \u201cCab. Now!\u201d). Admittedly\u2014ashamedly\u2014I found myself chuckling. A serious-looking man yelling \u201cnow!\u201d, declaring this would get him laid, the camera cutting between a head-on and side shot. It looked like a <i>Real World<\/i> audition tape. My lighthearted reaction quickly receded, however, as a significantly more troubling shot played on-screen: a hidden camera captures Julien forcing kisses onto an unwilling victim, shaming her into leaving her friends to get in a car with him, and finally carrying her away off camera. At this point, I was embarrassed for having ever chuckled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">During the panel after Washko\u2019s presentation, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bratton\" target=\"_blank\">Benjamin Bratton<\/a> asked the artist who <i>The Game: The Game<\/i> is for, \u201cwho should be playing this?\u201d Her answer was simple: men. Femme-presenting women, she noted, experience the goings on from the narrative on a daily basis, they need not be reminded. Men, on the other hand, usually end up playing the game twice, \u201cto see what actually happens if they try and go along with the pick-up artists.\u201d Immediately, I began to consider John Rauch\u2019s Cinema of Cruelty, an adaptation of avant-garde playwright, Antonin Artaud\u2019s Theatre of Cruelty, a mode of performance which assaults the audience, garnering great affect from their subconscious. In <i>Sensuous Scholarship<\/i>, Paul Stoller, writing about both Artaud and Rauch, notes that, \u201cIn a cinema of cruelty the filmmaker&#8217;s goal is not to recount per se, but to present an array of unsettling images that seek to transform the audience psychologically and politically\u201d (120). Washko\u2019s work did just that; the anxiety being produced by her work in that room was palpable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">And so we return to the first question asked of the artist: \u201cwhat happens when AR takes over\u2026the game is everywhere\u2026when we are autonomous and the possibilities are endless?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Not unsurprisingly, the question was fielded first by panelist Jurgen Schulze, another computer scientist and professor at UCSD, who presented a utopian vision of being able to paint the characters we wish to see on the individuals around us. We will make our worlds whatever we want them to be. Bratton followed up with a refreshingly realistic view (albeit in the same obfuscating jargon with which he <a href=\"https:\/\/mitpress.mit.edu\/books\/stack\" target=\"_blank\">writes<\/a>), describing an AR-laden world \u201cwherein whatever form of cognitive totalitarianism you happen to subscribe to becomes literally the perceptual platform by which you sort of work through and then the incommensurability of the gamifications of interaction becomes that much noisier.\u201d This felt more like it. Afterall, Washko had already explained that 55% of female avatars in WoW are actually played by men who often say that they prefer to look at a woman\u2019s backside running around rather than a man\u2019s. Imagine, then, these men with their AR goggles, painting whatever fetish they wish all over the town, reproducing an already overbearing sense of ownership over the objects, places, and\u2014of course\u2014people around them, but this time, with a convenient and dualist explanation that \u201cit\u2019s just a game\u201d or \u201cit\u2019s all virtual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Fortunately, the second audience question left us on a much more productive note: a graduate student asked Washko to discuss the various points of entry and venues outside of art or academic circles in which she has performed her WoW actions. Her response\u2014that she considers the performance of her work in WoW itself as \u201coutside the art-world context\u201d\u2014was a quick one, but it was the question that left us with a critical reminder. Throughout her work, Washko has continuously used her body\u2014be it a photograph, avatar, or her actual presence in a space\u2014to facilitate and gain access to critical discourse within and surrounding technologically mediated spaces. One need only look at her Twitter mentions to even begin to understand what sort of sacrifice this represents. Panel moderator Ricardo Dominguez (who is also an activist, professor in the Visual Arts department at UCSD, and one of the founders of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Electronic_Disturbance_Theater\" target=\"_blank\">Electronic Disturbance Theater<\/a>) noted at one point that \u201ccode and algorithms carry with them histories and other types of scripting that we\u2019ve dealt with and that we have to deal with daily.\u201d Instead of dreaming about what might be once we don\u2019t have monitors or keyboards as intermediaries, Washko has worked for a decade on bringing these histories and scripts to the fore. She has taken them, written them into assaults on her audience\u2019s senses, and drawn attention to a critical and continuous discourse, all at the risk of her own safety and wellbeing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Gabi Schaffzin is a PhD student in Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego. You can find more of his work\u00a0at his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.utopia-dystopia.com\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a> or on his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/GabiSchaffzin\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a> timeline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Content Advisory: The following contains references\u00a0(including an embedded video)\u00a0to sexual assault and\u00a0misogyny. At the end of the panel following Angela Washko\u2019s artist talk at UC San Diego\u2019s Qualcomm Institute, there was time for two questions. The first came from a man in the audience who jumped to the mic in order to frame the artist\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[323,9967],"tags":[14101,2324,36529,10688,36530,4058,3661,36532,36527,3728,3732],"class_list":["post-21687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-commentary","tag-ar","tag-augmented-reality","tag-bratton","tag-gaming","tag-pua","tag-ucsd","tag-video-games","tag-vr","tag-washko","tag-world-of-warcraft","tag-wow"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2071"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21687"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21721,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21687\/revisions\/21721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}