As I have to reach out more to stakeholders the process of summing up what I am doing with the project is getting better, something I was really struggling with initially. Having the framework of the exhibition has given the next phase a grounding that makes it easier to explain and give context to all the research and interventions that have taken place so far. Here’s the latest attempt:
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The project has been developing and delivering workshops and interventions using art works and art making that fosters and facilitates difficult conversations around pornography and sex education. Working with parents and using examples of artists who investigate these themes we ask the question in a culture where porn has replaced sex ed, how do we make porn sex ed? With other audiences we use process art methodology to experiment with abstracting porn imagery whilst discussing our own thoughts and relationships to porn. In both cases the use of Art as a third party in the conversation breaks down barriers, fosters openness and vulnerability in a safe space and offers us all an opportunity to explore new perspectives and ideas in an accessible and creative environment.
Money Shot the exhibition is the next stage of the projects community action, inviting artists to explore the many avenues for investigation that this intersection of online pornograpy, sex education and collective internalisation weaves together and how this manifests in our contemporary landscape and as well as our private lives. As the project has progressed themes such as the relationship violent and misogynistic online porn has with the rise of sexual harassment in schools and educational settings have been raised repeatedly. Or the part large corporations, such as Mindgeek (who own and control most online porn platforms on the internet) play with the facilitating of human trafficking and filmed abuse of adults and children. Asking how this billion dollar industry lobbies itself into a self serving regulation-free money making empire and as it continues to do so how does this feed contemporary rape culture?
But equally this project looks at how to explore the positive sides of pornography, embracing sex positive, inclusive values and non-judgmental spaces that exist both online and irl and looking at porn through a different lens. The project explores the ethical side of porn production and content, advocating for participants to consider equity and safety that exists on both sides of the camera. Through a creative lens we can uplift communities, foster important conversations and facilitate collaboration with sexual health and educational experts. We can begin to ask how ethics, representation, consent and pleasure can be modelled in porn? What effect this could have on our un-institutionalised sexual education? And what lasting effect could this have on our collective culture and society at large?