Returning The Gaze – FESCH.TV

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

In her essay on “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” Laura Mulvey -feminist film theorist- exposes the asymmetry of social and political power relations between men and women. Mulvey claims that the male gaze serves to depict women as the object of pleasure for the heterosexual male viewer. Beside the world of cinema, during the fashion runway women are often subject to sexual harassment through various forms of ‘looked-at-ness’. What if models were to subvert this through the power of their gaze? To attend a fashion show is to be seen by others, as much as to see the event itself. But what would happen if the models in the fashion show were to stare back at the viewer? What uncanny feelings would this evoke? And what strategies of resistance would it promote? This installation is an exploration of this scenario, as the gaze of the model is directed back at the viewer enhanced through cyborgian presence.

‘Returning the Gaze’ is an cyber-physical robotic installation by Behnaz Farahi supported by Universal Robots for ANNAKIKI’s Milan Fashion Week 2022. A performer is wearing a headpiece inspired by a space suit. The headpiece has two cameras which tracks and captures the movements of the wearer’s eyes. The data is streamed to four monitors mounted on robotic arms giving the illusions of observing the viewers of the runway show. This project brings together robotics, design, feminism and critical thinking together in order to challenge the dominant status quo during a runway show.