The pop artist Dorian Electra employs a maximalist approach toward sound, set, and costume design to challenge the masculinities of our online-offline world. In a performance that is drag and more, the endless complexities of identity are unfurled.
The pop artist Dorian Electra employs a maximalist approach toward sound, set, and costume design to challenge the masculinities of our online-offline world. In a performance that is drag and more, the endless complexities of identity are unfurled.
How might props be used in a practice of more-than-drag to present the self, or multiple selves, complicating, expanding, or abolishing ‘boxes’ of identity construction?1 In their music videos, the pop artist Dorian Electra dawns the appearance of a wide range of cultural characters spawning from the merger of online and offline worlds, imitating their gestures and often poking fun at their absurdity to reveal their underlying normativity and insecurities.2 Through maximalist performativity, design, and dress, Electra plays with masculinities while questioning their own participation gender-norms.
They may be a sword-slashing, Mountain Dew loving, fedora-wearing “Gentleman” in one video and a joker-inspired “Edgelord” in the next. Both are ripped from some of the most toxic zones of the internet, adopted by large swaths of extremely online men. Electra becomes an amalgamation of multitudes, displaying and deconstructing the construction. The foundational misogyny and normativity of either come to the screen’s surface oozing sentiments of the humorous, uncanny and horrific. Both characters coming from Electra’s second album, My Agenda, they represent two recent outcomes of a practice that builds on the portrayal of masculinity in the first LP, Flamboyant. With My Agenda the act previewed in songs such as Flamboyant’s “Guyliner” is taken a step farther to manifest the full extent of online, masculine toxicity.
Design, both costume and set, plays a crucial role in Electra’s sublime ability to manifest the most ontologically revealing elements of their characters.3 The already mentioned fedora combines with a trenchcoat that drapes over a loose, short-sleeved button-up imprinted with a silver sword and cargo shorts that extend beyond the knee, presenting Electra at the end of a complete transformation into the idealised form of a “Gentleman”. A slick fit is enhanced by a katana that will end the life of any plastic bottle in sight, and Electra’s rendition reaches a level of purity unobtained by even the most ardent subscribers to this contemporary fetishization of chivalry.
Electra specifically refers to ‘boxes’ of identity & their conceptualisation of their performance being more than drag in the following interview: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jul/12/pop-sensation-dorian-electra-im-not-a-woman-dressing-as-a-man-its-more-complex
↑Dorian Electra identifies as gender fluid. I will use they/them/theirs pronouns when referring to them. Some of the characters they portray are presented as he/him/his and she/her/hers. So, I will use those pronouns when referring to those such characters.
↑For a glimpse into Electra’s love for fashion: https://youtu.be/rF1TEHBUJ84
↑This event examined and discussed the music video Apeshit by The Carters, also known as Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
→For the Record: Designing Realities examined the politics of production design in popular music videos during the Nederlands Film Festival.
→For the Record: Performing Gender examined gender roles and feminist positions in popular music videos.
→Part of the Porto Design Biennale 2021, For the Record: The Politics of Design in Music Video was a two-day programme of lectures and workshops on 23 and 24 July in Maus Hábitos and Casa da Arquitectura.
→Deep Decisions? investigates deepfake technology in music videos. A research project by KM Works.
→In this essay, Liselotte Doeswijk discusses a number of underexposed or underestimated – and often lost – experiments from Dutch television history.
→In The Eleventh Island, Janilda Bartolomeu describes how the medium of video enabled her to uncover hidden Cape Verdean histories, thanks to its ability to switch the “lenses” through which we view society.
→Music videos aren't what they used to be. Contemporary artists and their collaborating directors are breaking down barriers and reaching fans in exciting and experimental ways. Despite relatively low return on investment, the format continues to be crucial for the development of an artist's identity.
→Having an on-screen crush can be complicated. Even more so if that crush's actions conjure a long line of problematic appropriations of lesbianism. With Arianna Grande as a starting point, Rosanna Mclaughlin dives into the history of the entertainment industry's exploitation of lesbian sexuality.
→Coachella stands as one of the world's most well known and well-attended music festivals, but headlining does not mean all that it used to. In addition to live performances, artists are putting out prolonged, digitally distributed visual accompaniments to reach their audience beyond the span of two weekends in the Coachella Valley.
→The artist is on the stage, but who is behind the stage itself? Since the mid-90s the entertainment architecture firm Stufish has maintained a design practice shrowded in mortality, reaching for an afterlife through audience memory. In this article, employees at Stufish give a glimpse into the complex arrangement and assemblage involved in staging for Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
→The visual and the auditory bleed into each other beyond the music video. This exhibition at Kunsthal Rotterdam presented works of fine art that are inextricably tied to musical inspirations. A flourishing, artistic dialectic presented in unexpected ways.
→Musical artists operate in a paradigm that affords them an audience and platforms, which they can use to influence the tides of social change. Striking the balance between activism and artistry can be a nearly impossible task. When stretched too far, burn-out can cause both to fall by the wayside.
→The history of art is fraught with instances of erasure. What is not present, or what is pushed to the background, says as much as what is in focus. With their music video for "APESHIT", Beyoncé and Jay-Z take over the Louvre and draw our attention to what we should have seen all along.
→In Beyoncé and Jay-Z's artistic occupation of the Louvre for "APESHIT", they challenge the history presented by the museum and the art world writ large. Moving, dancing in close proximity to the colonial, they open up space for knowledge generation and new potentialities. The art museum serves as a point of contact between the material and social.
→A response to a pandemic that asks for social isolation, virtual avenues to clubbing attempt to create a safe space for song, dance, and hanging out. But these international, online gatherings are not without their complications. Should these Zoom parties continue to rage past the pandemic, the organisers will need to come to grips with issues of data insecurity and hate speech.
→Restricted to their homes, unable to host large on-set production teams, artists are devising new ways of shooting music videos during a pandemic. With a low-budget aesthetic or an increased focus on post-production, pandemic-proof music videos show that artistry does not stop even under the most isolating of circumstances.
→Rihanna's Unapologetic presents the listener with a pop album that, rather than swelling toward a break through, traverses the mild hills and valleys of a non-place saturated with melancholy. As Robin James explicates, how stars are expected to respond to and overcome grief is deeply racialised and gendered. Instead of pushing for a performed resilience, might there be something to be said for staying with that which oppresses?
→MTV made the music video a (brief) fascination of media studies. In the time since the channel's launch, this initial enthusiasm has faded. In Music Video after MTV, Korsgaard brings a scholarly lens to the academically neglected medium. A mountain of untouched history means there is much to be analysed.
→The music video is a melange of high and low culture, living before, in, and beyond the contemporary. As a medium, it can be a space for the manifestation of the not-yet or a reaffirmation of the established order. Recognising the complexity of the music video as a mode of cultural expression, this collection takes an appropriately multi-sided approach.
→The task given to designers of nightclub venues is to create a space that exists outside the everyday. This exhibition at Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein explored the history and contemporary state of nightclub design. Moving from the space behind the screen to that in front of it, how might design allow for participation in alternative realities?
→Television has been crucial for the proliferation of the music video. This exhibition at Museo Jumex in Mexico City presented an artistic exploration of the medium.
→Dance music, traditionally reliant on spaces of congregation, would seem to be ill suited for an increasingly digital world. However, artists and collectives are finding ways to utilise the affordances of an online environment for their ends. Creating worlds, these virtual pioneers are making a space for dance music across digital networks.
→Protests carried out over virtual platforms can have material effects. Then-President Donald Trump expected to find a sell-out crowd when he arrived for a campaign rally in June of 2020. Instead, over two-thirds of the venue's booked seats remained mute and empty.
→What are the ways in which the music video reflects and shapes our lives? Carol Vernallis traces the dialectic between lived reality and artistic expression via the music video. Paying equal attention to the visual and auditory opens up a web of relationality that reveals as much about us as it does the artist.
→In the second edition of their Video Vortex series, the Institute of Network Cultures expands its investigation into online video and digital distribution platforms. Sourcing contributions from across disciplines (including an article by For The Record research fellow Albert Figurt), Video Vortex Reader II presents a multifaceted study of the state and implications of online video beyond YouTube.
→Staging an arrest, adopting and amplifying a catchphrase, and dawning the outrageous are some of the ways Rap artists are finding inroads to relevance. Becoming a meme can be an immensely powerful tool for online marketing. Here are some of the artists that do it the most.
→Will popular video games such as Roblox and Fortnight become two of the hottest music venues on the planet? Rethinking live performances for a (post)pandemic future, video games give artists the ability to reach fans regardless of distance. In the interactive, virtual environment of the video game possibilities await to be explored, together.
→Part of the Porto Design Biennale 2021, For the Record: The Politics of Design in Music Video was a two-day programme of lectures and workshops on 23 and 24 July in Maus Hábitos and Casa da Arquitectura.
→This event explored design tactics for collective music experiences during the pandemic and beyond, in collaboration with Rewire festival.
→For the Record: Staging Realities examined the role of set and stage design in music videos and live events. In collaboration with IFFR.
→Part of the Porto Design Biennale 2021, For the Record: The Politics of Design in Music Video was a two-day programme of lectures and workshops on 23 and 24 July in Maus Hábitos and Casa da Arquitectura.
→Part of the Porto Design Biennale 2021, For the Record: The Politics of Design in Music Video was a two-day programme of lectures and workshops on 23 and 24 July in Maus Hábitos and Casa da Arquitectura.
→Deep Decisions? investigates deepfake technology in music videos. A research project by KM Works.
→In this essay, Liselotte Doeswijk discusses a number of underexposed or underestimated – and often lost – experiments from Dutch television history.
→In The Eleventh Island, Janilda Bartolomeu describes how the medium of video enabled her to uncover hidden Cape Verdean histories, thanks to its ability to switch the “lenses” through which we view society.
→Music videos aren't what they used to be. Contemporary artists and their collaborating directors are breaking down barriers and reaching fans in exciting and experimental ways. Despite relatively low return on investment, the format continues to be crucial for the development of an artist's identity.
→Having an on-screen crush can be complicated. Even more so if that crush's actions conjure a long line of problematic appropriations of lesbianism. With Arianna Grande as a starting point, Rosanna Mclaughlin dives into the history of the entertainment industry's exploitation of lesbian sexuality.
→Coachella stands as one of the world's most well known and well-attended music festivals, but headlining does not mean all that it used to. In addition to live performances, artists are putting out prolonged, digitally distributed visual accompaniments to reach their audience beyond the span of two weekends in the Coachella Valley.
→The artist is on the stage, but who is behind the stage itself? Since the mid-90s the entertainment architecture firm Stufish has maintained a design practice shrowded in mortality, reaching for an afterlife through audience memory. In this article, employees at Stufish give a glimpse into the complex arrangement and assemblage involved in staging for Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
→The visual and the auditory bleed into each other beyond the music video. This exhibition at Kunsthal Rotterdam presented works of fine art that are inextricably tied to musical inspirations. A flourishing, artistic dialectic presented in unexpected ways.
→Musical artists operate in a paradigm that affords them an audience and platforms, which they can use to influence the tides of social change. Striking the balance between activism and artistry can be a nearly impossible task. When stretched too far, burn-out can cause both to fall by the wayside.
→The history of art is fraught with instances of erasure. What is not present, or what is pushed to the background, says as much as what is in focus. With their music video for "APESHIT", Beyoncé and Jay-Z take over the Louvre and draw our attention to what we should have seen all along.
→In Beyoncé and Jay-Z's artistic occupation of the Louvre for "APESHIT", they challenge the history presented by the museum and the art world writ large. Moving, dancing in close proximity to the colonial, they open up space for knowledge generation and new potentialities. The art museum serves as a point of contact between the material and social.
→A response to a pandemic that asks for social isolation, virtual avenues to clubbing attempt to create a safe space for song, dance, and hanging out. But these international, online gatherings are not without their complications. Should these Zoom parties continue to rage past the pandemic, the organisers will need to come to grips with issues of data insecurity and hate speech.
→Restricted to their homes, unable to host large on-set production teams, artists are devising new ways of shooting music videos during a pandemic. With a low-budget aesthetic or an increased focus on post-production, pandemic-proof music videos show that artistry does not stop even under the most isolating of circumstances.
→Rihanna's Unapologetic presents the listener with a pop album that, rather than swelling toward a break through, traverses the mild hills and valleys of a non-place saturated with melancholy. As Robin James explicates, how stars are expected to respond to and overcome grief is deeply racialised and gendered. Instead of pushing for a performed resilience, might there be something to be said for staying with that which oppresses?
→MTV made the music video a (brief) fascination of media studies. In the time since the channel's launch, this initial enthusiasm has faded. In Music Video after MTV, Korsgaard brings a scholarly lens to the academically neglected medium. A mountain of untouched history means there is much to be analysed.
→The music video is a melange of high and low culture, living before, in, and beyond the contemporary. As a medium, it can be a space for the manifestation of the not-yet or a reaffirmation of the established order. Recognising the complexity of the music video as a mode of cultural expression, this collection takes an appropriately multi-sided approach.
→The task given to designers of nightclub venues is to create a space that exists outside the everyday. This exhibition at Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein explored the history and contemporary state of nightclub design. Moving from the space behind the screen to that in front of it, how might design allow for participation in alternative realities?
→Television has been crucial for the proliferation of the music video. This exhibition at Museo Jumex in Mexico City presented an artistic exploration of the medium.
→Dance music, traditionally reliant on spaces of congregation, would seem to be ill suited for an increasingly digital world. However, artists and collectives are finding ways to utilise the affordances of an online environment for their ends. Creating worlds, these virtual pioneers are making a space for dance music across digital networks.
→Protests carried out over virtual platforms can have material effects. Then-President Donald Trump expected to find a sell-out crowd when he arrived for a campaign rally in June of 2020. Instead, over two-thirds of the venue's booked seats remained mute and empty.
→What are the ways in which the music video reflects and shapes our lives? Carol Vernallis traces the dialectic between lived reality and artistic expression via the music video. Paying equal attention to the visual and auditory opens up a web of relationality that reveals as much about us as it does the artist.
→In the second edition of their Video Vortex series, the Institute of Network Cultures expands its investigation into online video and digital distribution platforms. Sourcing contributions from across disciplines (including an article by For The Record research fellow Albert Figurt), Video Vortex Reader II presents a multifaceted study of the state and implications of online video beyond YouTube.
→Staging an arrest, adopting and amplifying a catchphrase, and dawning the outrageous are some of the ways Rap artists are finding inroads to relevance. Becoming a meme can be an immensely powerful tool for online marketing. Here are some of the artists that do it the most.
→Will popular video games such as Roblox and Fortnight become two of the hottest music venues on the planet? Rethinking live performances for a (post)pandemic future, video games give artists the ability to reach fans regardless of distance. In the interactive, virtual environment of the video game possibilities await to be explored, together.
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