An Interactive monument for women

The majority of my studies at Gallatin are about media and how art can be interactive. So, when given this project, I immediately knew I wanted to create something that included interactive media. The next question was: how do you make a monument interactive? For me, interactivity is defined by having an audience change or add something within the piece, It’s not just pushing a button or following a path of options already selected for you.

This monument is a dedication to women, the unsung heroes of the world. But how does one make a monument to celebrate such a diverse group? I wanted a symbol that could emphasize the individual while uplifting a community. Representation for all women, no matter their sexual orientation or nationality. With this idea, the next question follows: where is the perfect place to build such a monument?

I thought back to our very first reading for this class, Carol Duncan’s “The Art Museum as Ritual”. Duncan traces how museums have been compared to religious or ceremonial places. She writes about how divine places affect viewers and consequently the art being displayed. I thought how my piece would draw on these traditions. The monument is a dedication, a place to honor and maybe even mourn, but I didn’t want it viewed in a vacuum like many art pieces in white cubes. I do not want it, “isolated on a wall and looked at through the aestheticizing lens of museum space..." like Duncan refers to. The answer was clear: this is no one place that encapsulates what it means to be a woman, there is no heritage site with years of history to build upon, women have strived everywhere. In every city around the world there exists an unappreciated woman, so this monument needs to travel, to grow with every city and every encounter.

Through these ideas I settled on a large sphere-like object, like a globe. It spins on an axis when pushed like the force women have to persevere through many injustices. Now, the next question that occurred to me was how do you possibly represent so many diversities of one gender? I thought back to Mireille Lee’s essay. And the quote from John Berger’s book Ways of Seeing: “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at”. I knew I wanted to push away from the traditional view of women in monuments and the female body in statues. Not all females look like that, and I wanted a design that would be inclusive to all women. I wanted a monument to honor the women without “ elicit[ing] uncontrollable lust on the part of male viewers” (Lee 103). This monument is not about bodies but minds and hearts (That was an unintentional reference to Joe in Little Women). Something that really bothered me in Lee’s essay was how many theorists argued about the female reception of Aphrodite’s statue. Were these ancient women humiliated by their sexuality or were they not? From this reading I found exactly what I did not want viewers to think about when they saw this monument. We should be proud of our bodies, sure, but it is such a small part of our multifaceted lives. Deciding I didn’t want to emphasize the body, I did want to highlight some similarity within all of us. Something that grounds everyone, connects each of us, brings us together, in love. It is innate in interactivity but forgotten in so many monuments: the importance of touch.

Thus, when you place your hand on the monument, another hand appears with a name and the lifespan of a woman. This could be a woman you know, or a stranger you don’t. This woman could have been a single mother, could have been a lawyer, a seamstress, etc. It doesn't matter what they did in the world, just being a woman is a feat on its own. There is a podium where people can add names and a hand to the monument, they can pick their own designs, colors, patterns, even a thermal image. This act of customization gives agency to the viewer and allows them to leave their own mark on a monument. Because of this, the monument is always evolving and with every interaction it is always a new experience.

When it comes to the piece itself, the materials are unlike most monuments. The inflatable sphere is the center piece, inside it has projectors that track movement when touched using Lidar touch technology. The colors and movement of the hands and names are pre-programmed and when someone adds a name on the podium, the computer adds it to the randomized list when being projected. I also had an idea of maybe adding a printer to the podium, so that you can have a souvenir when you add a name, like when you buy a star you get a certificate. The list of people can be from thousands to millions and thus, a website will also house the names and be a place if people want to research the person they touched.