Project Description
The New War Collection: Military Sexual Trauma - Resistance/Permanence (2007-2009)
Since women have been employed in the military many of them have experienced in some sort of capacity what we now call military sexual trauma. This abuse has been silenced by the system of the military and those who hold positions of power in the ranks above the victims. Recently a study that analyzed over 89,960 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans from 2001-2006 revealed that a total of 15 % of women who had served had experienced sexual trauma during their service - that is some 1849 women. It is with these overwhelming numbers that we are now beginning to understand the impact that sexual trauma will have on our veterans and service women.
The New War Collection: Resistance/Permanence (2007-2009) is what I would describe as both: an interactive installation and a networking site. These two unique and powerful sites craft a bridge between social and political documentary stories and experiences. Both sites rely on each other for capturing the greatest experiences offered, both for its participants and its audience members. The connection between both parts is held together by the narratives of American Veterans who have experienced rape or sexual assault by their fellow comrades while serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, or other Theatres abroad. This website is a tool for women (myself included) to explore, share, and learn from one another in a safe environment. This site was created as both a research site and a communication site.
The installation will consist of forty chairs that will be placed in the formation of a hollow square. The installation will be taking place in a large park in Toronto as a part of a documentary festival. The chairs will be facing inwards. Each chair will be made out of marine grade plywood, white, with a super high gloss finish. Each chair will also have speakers and a light sensor inset. They will somewhat blend into the chairs. Each chair is meant to have monumental feelings, which will insight thoughts of pause and attention. They are made to be slightly uncomfortable to create that relationship with the content of the audio. Each chair will have an individual military sexual story embedded into it. So when someone sits on the chair the story will play from the speakers triggered by a light sensor in the seat. Once someone stands up from the chair the audio will stop playing; the story will rewind for the next person to hear so when the next person sits down the story will play again from the beginning.
Some of the questions that I have considered while engaging with this project are how do I document that which cannot be or is rarely documented? How do you create meaningful and partisan engagements with traumatic experience? How do you source truth in trauma? What does a new media documentary look like and what is the relationship between a virtual socially mediated experience and that of a physical interactive experience? What are the benefits of creating these types of sites in relationship to women who have experienced military sexual trauma?
Over the next five months I will be trying to answer those questions and accomplish two things. I will be asking women who have experienced military sexual trauma to call 1-888-547-3531 and share their narratives. The phone line is set up to a secure online recording that sends the audio information straight to my email account – ready for installation in the chairs. Secondly I will be constructing one chair for every story that I receive. The new media installation which take place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in a festival during the 2nd or 3rd week of June 2009. The piece will be a component of my Master of Fine Arts degree from Ryerson University in Toronto.
Narrative Walkthrough
The story below is of an encounter one might have with this installation of the piece. Here she recalls her experience.
“Upon walking up to the piece I saw rows of white monumental feeling objects that were uniformly placed in a hollow square. Starkly they contrasted the thick thatch of green grass of the park. I could only reflect on what might have been the authority of a military gravesite. In the distance, faint voices in the hot midsummer’s air increased in volume as I approached this serene and unfamiliar event. The quietness of those sitting on the chairs offered me a sense of calmness and serenity and the sadness in their eyes made my heart slightly flutter. I really couldn’t understand why I was so drawn into the formalness of the installation but it felt as if I had to hold my breath - as though ready to submerge into frigid waters. After one deep lungful of air and I made my way to the closest seat and sat wondering what was possibly to come. I looked down at first, noticing how small I felt in the mix of the other chairs and then it began. A woman spoke to me through these speakers that were mounted in the chair by my ears. Her voice was at first strong and steady and then as she shared her story of being gang raped in Iraq at Camp Victory, it became shaky and unsettled. She told me about the loudness of the generators dampening her screams for help and the defeating cover-up that followed the incident. An event that saw her unfit for further duty with the military and left her unemployed and homeless. In between rushes of words she paused and I waited. And it was during the stillness of these pauses that I realized the muffled voices of others who too were testifying alongside her. United, they were sharing their terrible experiences abroad to me – to us. I realized that I was not experiencing this very personal moment alone. I looked up and across to see an older gentleman with graying hair staring at me with gentleness. His eyes were lost in the story and soon I shifted my gaze, uncomfortable with our new connection. To the far left of me a young woman not three years my junior fixed in her own world trying to concentrate on every word. We were all listening. They were all being heard. After the story was over I rose from the seat - slightly disorientated - like I had just come up for that breath of fresh air. As I walked away from the installation I couldn’t help but feel that my life would forever be changed.”
Show your support by sharing your story. Your story is important. Your story will be heard.