Sporno (first project)
My generation grew up with pornography, which was accessible and free. As an artist, I'm interested in how pornography influences our western society. Therefore I did my minor critical studies project about the pornification of female athletes.
Sporno deconstructs the pornification of female athletes. I used the representation theory of Stuart Hall to go back to the original meaning of the footage. According to the representation technique by Stuart Hall, meaning is constituted by representation; by what is present, what is absent, and what is different. A representation implicates the audience in creating its meaning. Power through ideology or by stereotyping tries to fix the meaning of a representation in a 'preferred meaning.’ Sports is a male domain, all about masculinity, athleticism, and strength. Females are still portrayed as overly feminine because we live in a heteronormative society; the “preferred” meaning is a woman with overly feminine qualities. Because “sex sells,” brands use the image of sex to sell products. Since pornography became the truth about sex, the same visual language is used. Due to midriff advertisement, the naked sexualized body became the most essential feminine quality. Cropping is a technique that the media uses to frame what they think is the 'preferred meaning.’ I used this method to frame the phenomenon. Therefore, the series and parody are both cropped on parts that are sexually intended. The audio in the Sporno toy is also made with the cropping technique but exaggerated. As a visitor, you feel like a voyeur in a public space.
Women in the sport-world ask for equal rights, but equal rights shifted to having equal money. They gain money and success by showing their perfect, overly feminine body, even more than their performances do. Therefore, they are depicted as objects of desire and not only as athletes
Sporno 1.0
My generation grew up with pornography, which was accessible and free. As an artist, I'm interested in how pornography influences our western society. Therefore I did my minor critical studies project about the pornification of female athletes. Sporno deconstructs the pornification of female athletes. I used the representation theory of Stuart Hall to go back to the original meaning of the footage. According to the representation technique by Stuart Hall, meaning is constituted by representation; by what is present, what is absent, and what is different. A representation implicates the audience in creating its meaning. Power through ideology or by stereotyping tries to fix the meaning of a representation in a 'preferred meaning.’ Sports is a male domain, all about masculinity, athleticism, and strength. Females are still portrayed as overly feminine because we live in a heteronormative society; the “preferred” meaning is a woman with overly feminine qualities. Because “sex sells,” brands use the image of sex to sell products. Since pornography became the truth about sex, the same visual language is used. Due to midriff advertisement, the naked sexualized body became the most essential feminine quality. Cropping is a technique that the media uses to frame what they think is the 'preferred meaning.’ I used this method to frame the phenomenon. Therefore, the series and parody are both cropped on parts that are sexually intended. The audio in the Sporno toy is also made with the cropping technique but exaggerated. As a visitor, you feel like a voyeur in a public space.
Women in the sport-world ask for equal rights, but equal rights shifted to having equal money. They gain money and success by showing their perfect, overly feminine body, even more than their performances do. Therefore, they are depicted as objects of desire and not only as athletes
Remake video clip.
Who doesn't know the Videoclip satisfaction by Benny Benassi where you see sexualized women working on a “construction site”. To show that this phenomenon also occurs in sports, I made a parody of this video clip using female athletes. I cropped existing video fragments in the same way as I did with the images. At the same time, the video fragments look the same as in the book: “ De volmaakte vrouw,” where images and videos of women, who are scantily dressed, are doing sports exercises that are intended for sex efficiency.
Remake videoclip.
Who doesn't know the Videoclip satisfaction by Benny Benassi where you see sexualized women working on a “construction site”. To show that this phenomenon also occurs in sports, I made a parody of this video clip using female athletes. I cropped existing video fragments in the same way as I did with the images. At the same time, the video fragments look the same as in the book: “ De volmaakte vrouw,” where images and videos of women, who are scantily dressed, are doing sports exercises that are intended for sex efficiency.