May 10 & 11 5pm-9pm

Spring Show 2005

721 Broadway
at Waverly Place
4th Floor
South Elevators
New York, NY 10003

For additional
information email
itp.inquiries@nyu.edu
or call 212.998.1880

Unraveled/Recoiled
Author(s):	Gabriela Richard
Instructor:	Greer, Heather DuBois, Luke
Class:	Final Project Seminar Live Image Processing and Performance

URL:	http://www.gabriela-itp.blogspot.com/
Keywords:	black hair, black women, black people, blacks, African Americans, hair, curly, locks, dread locks, dreads, braids, afro, jerry curl, natural, kinky, coarse, nappy, straight, perm, straightened, relaxer, retexturizer, texturizer, curly perm, women, beauty, beauty standard, career, workplace, styles, styled, good hair, bad hair, wig, weave, extensions, box braids, corn rows, wavy, frizzy, black community, African American community, colonialism, slavery, emancipation, African American women, African American men, touch, hair texture, interactive, design, interactive installation, installation, projection, mannequin, mannequins, touching, braiding, relaxed, black art, African American art, African art, black documentary, African American documentary, black story, African American story, black history, African American history

An interactive exploration into the intimate and, at times, emotional nature of hair choice for black women, explored through touch.
American Black women have been grappling with their \"roots\" for the length of colonialism, and, unfortunately, despite the civil rights and \"black power\" movements, not much has significantly changed the prevailing beauty standards within the black community in recent times, especially when it comes to hair. While fads, such as the Afro, Locks and, even to an extent, the Jerry Curl, have had some short-term success with encouraging women to redefine what constitutes \"beautiful\" hair, the prevailing, socially-accepted standard still dictates that black hair stay as close to straight as possible, and one can only begin to question the psychological effects of such an acceptance. My thesis aims to bridge together the organic qualities of hair with the immersive experience of interactive video to delve into the psyche of a black woman, and allow the user to see the inherent political and personally defining nature of hair choice in the black community and the culture at large.

Personal Statement:	At a very young age, I became aware of how critical the definition of race, culture and beauty are intertwined within the strands of hair, in all of its forms, but, most apparently within the context of curly hair. As a daughter of a first-generation American, French-Canadian, white mother, and an African-American father, both, at the time, actively involved in the civil-rights movement, I was always finding myself caught in the cultural “hair” war, and how it defined my racial and cultural identity. My mother and my father wanted me to define myself as a young woman of color, and, while my skin color always left me open to cultural and racial identification, my hair, being curly enough to hold a solid afro, was my defining mantra toward black acceptance, and, as such, I was encouraged to use it to label my cultural classification. However, as blissfully happy as I was with my curly locks and their ability to hold such a commanding form, I was very unaware of the political significance of such a decision, and its social implications. While most children my age found themselves in similar states of blissful ignorance of social stigma, and chose to accept me, locks and all, it was those few incidents, when exposed to older children, that tore at my self-esteem and forced me to question my ideas of confidence and beauty, especially as it related to my hair. My first incident occurred when I was four or five with an older white child (probably eight or nine years old), who came near my daycare facility while my friends and I were playing in the yard, and singled me out to tell me how everyone “in the neighborhood” thought I was “ugly with that hair.” However, I became acutely aware that it was not just white little girls who found my hair hideous when, very soon after, I was told by women of color that I should accept my “prettiness” and get rid of my ugly hair. Of course, my immediate reaction was to straighten my hair and, thus, become socially embraced by my peers, who increasingly expressed the same ideas of beauty. I begged for a straight perm, which was frowned upon by my parents; they eventually gave into demands, but only allowed it to be done once or twice a year, which left me with curly roots and subsequent battles over beauty in the interim. This lasted well into my teens. The interesting thing was I found myself facing a variety of beauty standards and social definitions depending on my hair. I found that when my hair was straight or pulled back enough to not notice the texture of its kinkiness, I was perceived as culturally Hispanic as well as socially more attractive. When my hair was in braids, I would be perceived as culturally African-American, and socially mixed in terms of attractiveness. However, I found that, no matter what, curly was always perceived as offensive or ugly. In more recent times, this definition has changed somewhat, but no matter the circumstances, curly, and its offspring (i.e., locks, Afros, etc.) are always politically perceived, and forces the wearer to justify its usage, within and outside of the African-American community. Cultural acceptance has always been a hurdle for me because of my racial mixture, but, more noticeably, because of my choice in hair texture. I wish to uncover why hair is such a dramatic choice in the context of social definition, and to bring the often-unrecognized struggle (by those who must make the choice and those that don’t) to the forefront of consciousness.
Background:	Hair has a significant personal, political and cultural meaning within and outside of the black community, especially for black women, who, more often, are encouraged to embrace hair at a length that would require it to be styled in some form. However, through colonialism and slavery, black women learned to view their hair as representing beauty standards and ideals that were not hailed by the culture-at-large. Thus, the black community has been grappling with the meaning of hair texture and hair choice, and the divisions that it can cause. The only power that we have to overcome this parting in our communities, and in our culture as a whole, is to address it, and to become aware of it. Images have so much power, and can say so much without uttering anything at all, and, it is mostly through these images, that we, as women of color, have internalized our need to be different. Why is it that when we are afraid to make waves, the first thing we do is pull back our hair or flatten it out in some way, so that it is out of the way, not free to make all sorts of sordid statements? But it\'s just hair, right, so why is it so offensive? I\'m hoping that my project can do just this: through \"showing,\" I hope that those across racial and cultural lines will begin to see our story take form, and connect its relevance within the social and political fabric of our culture. It is, hopefully, through this connection that we can start to see change.
Audience:	The project is intended for a wide-audience, encompassing children, teenagers, and adults. However, most likely, teenagers and adults will understand more of the contextual meaning from the piece.
User Scenario:	The user will approach one of the handful of heads with various hairstyles (ranging from curly, locks, braids, relaxed, etc.) and will choose a hairstyle of interest to him. When that hair is touched, he will start to hear a story unfold on the projection in front of him. The video stream will mainly depend on the length of time user remains in contact with the hair. While he remains in contact with the hair, he will see and hear one of the many personal stories told by a black woman or girl about her experience with her hair unfold on the projection before him.
Technical System Description:	The project is being created with Max/MSP+Jitter, to trigger the videos through MIDI, which is attached to a circuit with a MIDI-out connection. The microprocessor (PIC chip) on the circuit will send MIDI data, which will vary according to which of the touch sensors (attached to different pins) is triggered by the user\'s touch. The touch sensors will be connected to a copper mesh embedded onto the \"skull\" of the mannequin head underneath the \"hair\" that the user will be touching. There have been other sculptural works featuring African-American hairstyles, but, of the ones that I have been exposed to during my process of researching the subject matter, none of them involved touch, in any form, of the works. Furthermore, they definitely did not involve an interaction when the work was touched. Many times the work was featured in environments or used material that discouraged the work to be touched. I was able to find one videorecording called \"Hair Piece,\" which is a short animation done as an artistic exploration into the topic. I was also able to find some photographers who have placed black hair at the centerpiece of some of their work (Lorna Simpson and J.D. Okhai Ojeikere are a couple of them). However, they are on the other spectrum of the artistic works that do not feature touch, in the sense that the medium does not allow touch as part of its deliverance of content (in its traditional use). There have been a few documentaries featuring the subject matter, especially in relation to the sociological impacts of hair choice in the black community, but all of them have intertwined the personal dialogues within the overarching discussion, and they were typically featured as historical research on PBS or within the library archives; these were not part of an artistic or interactive installation. (Unfortunately, for the purpose of research, I was not able to find any of them in the library archives for study during this project. I have previously watched the narratives on PBS or during conferences, but I have no way of incorporating them in this current research.)
Project References, Research and Literature:	African American Hair in Art: Sieber, Roy. Hair in African art and culture Ojeikere, J. D.. J.D. Okhai Ojeikere photographs Niedzialek, Terry. Terry Niedzialek, Hair sculpture and Its Roots Simpson, Lorna. Lorna Simpson: Works Pyschology of Touch: Dresslar, Fletch. Studies in the psychology of touch Montagu, Ashley. Touching : the human significance of Kusajima, Tokisu. Visual reading and braille reading Sociology of African American Hair: Blackwelder, Julie. Styling Jim Crow: African American Beauty Training During Segregation Pamela Johnson, et al. Tenderheaded : A Comb-Bending Collection of Hair Stories Ebong, Ima and A\'Lelia Perry Bundles. Black Hair : Art, Style, and Culture Ingrid Banks. Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, and Black Women\'s Consciousness Noliwe M. Rooks. Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women Mastalia, Francesco, et al. Dreads Ayana Byrd, Lori Tharps. Hair Story : Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America Noliwe M. Rooks. Ladies\' Pages: African American Women\'s Magazines and the Culture That Made Them Patricia Hill Collins. Black Sexual Politics Hair Styling: Collison, Michel. It\'s all good hair: the guide to styling Love, Toni. The world of wigs, weaves and extensions Gittens, Sandra. African-Caribbean hairdressing Bonner, Lonnice. Plaited Glory : For Colored Girls Who\'ve Considered Braids, Locks, and Twists
Conclusions:	While my project is still at a stage where it is forming many of its conclusions, a major theme thus far has included the fact that many of the artworks out there concerning this area of research do not include touch, or physical intimacy with the subject, which I think continues the process of alienation with the personal nature of the theme. Instead of the work being behind physical or otherwise imposed barrier, I feel that having touch at the centerpiece of the installation, along with the personal dialogue, allows the user to understand the issue on a personal, and, hopefully, deeply meaningful level, breaking down the current obstacles with the issue, and opening up the discourse within and outside of the community.