Who is Breathe?

“Breathe” is part of my textual trafficking project. The extension of my digital body, my algorithmic self-portrait. A story teller, who translates and narrates the story of queer/trans/non-binary bodies.

‘Breathe’ as my Motion Capture avatar —aesthetically related to the concept of “body without organs”—designed as part of my PhD research entitled ‘cosmopolitics of the body’. This research deals with the performativity of queer/trans/nonbinary bodies in exile, diaspora and refugee camps.

Breathe in RealTime Motion capture Animation  (2020-2021)

Chapter zero (work in progress)

Facial motion capture

“Phenomenology of the third body” (2019)

The performance lecture Phenomenology of the Third Body reflects on the creation of this avatar as part of this research. It poses several philosophical and psychoanalytical questions in relation to the performative role of VR and MoCap avatars in queer-feminist activism and art today.

The main part of this research deals with the notion of Untranslatability: for instance, the lack of sufficiently precise words to address transgender or queer people in Persian language. In this experiment the avatar realized as a new form of (alphabetic) coding language. It is considered as a third body for political intervention in order to distribute and perform the translation of those linguistic and cultural lacks which otherwise won’t get permission to be published and expressed in Iran. In fact, the avatar is an instrument to multiply, conceal and protect the identity of the performer.

The perfomance lecture took place on Thursday, October 17th 2019, at the Helmhaus in Zürich. Phenomenology of the Third Body is a cooperation between ZHdK PhD candidate Kamran Behrouz and the Immersive Arts Space.

Face MoCap (Sketch)

Narration – Translation (2017-18)

First experiment was translating a statement by Del LaGrace Volcan mentioned by Paul Preciado in his publication  Testo Junkie. I got permission from Del Lagrace Volcano for this process and the attempt was made to translate and narrate the statement into Farsi, a language that does not register gender. For reading more about the notion of untranslatability of sex and gender please click here

Farsi

نویسندگان: پال ب. پرِسیادو، دل لاگراس ُولکانو. ترجمه، تصویرسازی و صدا گذاری: کامران بهروز

برخی از ترانجسی ھا ادعا می کنند که از بدو تولد “در بدن جنس مخالفشان زندانی اند” و می گویند سازو کارھای فنی که توسط پزشکی معاصر در اختیارشان قرار گرفته شده، تنھا راهِ آشکارکردنِ جنسیت حقیقی و واقعی شان است. افراد دیگری ھمچون کیت بورنستاین، دِل لاگراس وُلکانو یا سوزان استرایکر جایگاھشان را در مقام کوییرھایِ جنسیتی ویا کژرفتارھایِ جنسیتی تایید میکنند، وھر نوع فراخوانی به عنوان مرد یا زن را نمیپذیرند، و آنھا را تحمیل ھایی تحت عنوان ھنجارنشان می دھند. دِل لاگراس ُولکانو اینگونه بیان می کند:

در مقام یک ھنرمند دیداری با چندگانگی جنسیتی، «به فن آوری ھای جنسیتی» دسترسی دارم تا به جای حذف نشانه ھای دوجنسی بدنم آنھا را تقویت کنم. من خودم را یک بر اندازِ جنسیتی، یک تروریستِ جنسیتی پاره وقت می نامم. یک جھش  خودخواسته میان-جنسی به منظورتشخیص سفرم ازھزاران افراد میان-جنسی دیگری که بدنھای”گنگ”شان دریک تلاش اشتباه در راه ھنجارسازی، معیوب و از شکل انداخته شده اند.

— پال ب. پرِسیادو از کتاب تستوجانکی، صفحه ۱۲۸

English

Text: Paul B. Preciado, Del Lagrace Volcan,  Visual & Audio and translated into Farsi: Kamran Behrouz

Translated from Spanish into English by Bruce Benderson

“Some transsexuals claim to have been born “imprisoned in the body of the opposite sex” and say that the technical mechanisms placed at their disposal by contemporary medicine are only a way of revealing their true, authentic sex. Others, like Kate Bornstein, Del LaGrace Volcano, or Susan Stryker affirm their status as gender queers, or gender deviants, and refuse any summons as man or woman, declaring them to be impositions of the norm. Del LaGrace Volcano puts it this way: As a gender variant visual artist I access “technologies of gender” in order to amplify rather than erase the hermaphroditic traces of my body. I name myself. A gender abolitionist. A part time gender terrorist. An intentional mutation, in order to distinguish my journey from the thousands of intersex individuals who have had their “ambiguous” bodies mutilated and disfigured in a misguided attempt at “normalization”. (Paul B. Preciado : 2008), T J Y: pp.128