Product Testing
pre-millenial "GenDissent"
version 1.0
GenDissent
2.0
was tested elsewhere, click link to see schemata.
| In the Autumn of 1999, I teamed up with a local company, diSmart Conductions, to help them assess sexual identities, using a focus group from Troy, NY. diSmart was product testing their "GenDissent" pre-millenial headcleaner set, while I was attempting to disinform people about gender identity, and of course to make some fast cash. | ||
| I helped diSmart produce the soundtrack for a a video to disseminate the memes for their ethereal pre-millenial headcleaner set. The video displayed various representations of gender, masculinity, and femininity from the mass-media, chopped up and hopefully somewhat deconstructed. The soundtrack featured subliminal "headcleaning" messages, urging the user to question the representations of gender that s/he is presented with in the U.S. mainstream. |  |
The video was accompanied by images of a computer animation (which at that time had not yet been incorporated into the video), props such as a lavender wig and corset, images of super-gendered males and females (from magazines) that customers were encouraged to take, or put up on the walls (and alter with scissors, markers and tape, if so desired), posters of gender-related reflections of mine, and me, dressed to kill. |
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Persons who came to watch this sparkling new thing!
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The diSmart survey was filled out by many.
The survey questions were roughly as follows:
| Name: __________________ | Address: __________________ | Occupation: __________________ |
| Sex: __________________ | Race: __________________ | Gender: __________________ |
| Please Rate the Product Performace: 1 - 10 @ # % |
Please Rate Your Own Sexual Identity: 1 - 10 @ # % |
Oral Sex: spit/swallow |
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Comments: ______________________________________________________
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| The Computer Animation portion was a surrealist exploration of gender through a gendertwisted dungeon and swinging watch. The watch swings back and forth and was edited into the video to signify the media's attempt to brainwash persons into particular gender roles. The dungeon starts out with a non-gendered green eye reflected in a mirror, then moves swiftly past stone walls and lacy curtains (and a hermaphrodite) to alight on images of a super-gendered male, then a super-gendered female, then a female in a "man's" suit, and a male in a "woman's" dress, then at the end focuses in on a set of weights with a feather boa twined around them. Click here to see animation stills. |
 (animation link) |
And finally, the WALLS, customer decorated:
