Ethan Harnisch

 Disidentification feels to me, regarding its decontextualization and appropriated intentions, similar to other forms of remixing, such as sampling in music and even of cultures taking back offensive terms for a reempowering use. The example that popped in my head (once I understood the concept) was of body-building magazines and the disidentification of it by male gay communities. The first one of this phenomenon was Physique Pictorial , which at the time of its publication (1950's) was being consumed largely by gay men who, finding no legal source of gay soft pornography, used the magazine which was intended for strictly body-building fans (no gay intention in the images). I am unsure about the history of the magazine's publication, whether it eventually secretly embraced its disidentification, but other publications surely did.  Thus the body-building imagery/aesthetic of the 1950's magazine became a appropriated (disidentified) symbol for the male gay community.  Basi...

  The movie Pariah  gives the audience an extremely well-balanced view of the characters, relationships, and tension that surround our main character Alike and her struggle to find her footing as lesbian and preferring masculine clothing in a family whose demonization of it is as equally vicious as it is silent. The mother of the family is the most outright vicious and paranoid about Alike not being the more femme and non-having-a-lesbian-friend-who-got-kicked-out-for-it daughter she wants her to be, with her showing frustration through disappointment about her choice of clothing. This tension builds quietly with the mother while the rest of the movie continues, ultimately releasing with outright assault on Alike when she says she's gay.  For the whole movie, even they discuss asking Alike about her sexuality, the parents never even say the word gay or any mention of it at all, even as it is obviously on their minds. Even the utterance of the possibility that Alike may be...

It's not a coincidence that looks and beauty are the first impressions people have of each other since it is usually the first sensory introduction to the person. This regards both the person in how they are in the flesh and who they are as they present themselves (clothing, body-gestures, etc.). In terms of the value we put onto each other, using any standard for beauty results an automatic failure: by any standard based on values of beauty and desirability (already rooted purely in sexual desire, already problematic to base an entire value-system off of), someone is always left out or left behind.  It seems basic to state that we should not base the value we put on others by beauty alone, but this instinct goes so much further than just sexual attraction. To have a society full of different outlets for which to 'enforce' a certain standard of beauty, this curated value-basing ideology extends to how we view every person and body regardless of relation to yourself. To have...

Queer children are said to disrupt the family because the "family" is built around definitions that automatically assume roles and concepts which conflict with the goal of this old definition. As the queer child gets older, there are certain things that may have been lacking, neglected, misunderstood, or traumatic growing up in their family, that searching for a new chosen family--and/therefore redefining the concept of family itself--becomes a common act in queer young adults.  Watching my sister move through college and find herself more and more, she went through and shed multiple groups of friends for a multitude of irrelevant reasons, but eventually found herself in such a tight-knit group of friends I would happily define as a family, even if they didn't live together (My sister is gay, if you haven't assumed that already by me mentioning her). Of course they function as a friend group, roommates, etc., but to define their mini-community as a family is a powerfu...

    I do not know how to discuss whether racial trauma and being BIPOC has an inherent effect on a person's queerness, but watching Big Freedia's mini doc on bounce music I am certain the two experiences interact in a notable and powerful way. Bounce shows historically have been safe spaces for women and gay men to express themselves and not be afraid of assault or sexual predation. After hearing Big Freedia speak on bounce music and their experiences growing up gay and black, I started to feel the genre (or at least as by gay artists) as in part an intense interaction between these two experiences. The amount of energy brought to and put out by bounce shows is ridiculous and I can't help but think that that release of energy is a combined result.            Art and music is often pushed forward into new places by queer and BIPOC artists and communities, and I believe that both not only add to each other but interact in an inherently unique w...

Hello! I'm Ethan Harnisch and at the moment am a Studio Art major, no idea minor. I'm home for Spring term in Salem Oregon, about 40 minutes south of Portland for geographical context. I'm 2nd year at LU so so far I still have no idea what Spring is like in Appleton, but it's pretty nice here during the Spring so I don't really care. Film as a medium in itself is symbolically often stronger than other mediums in showing a artist or characters' perspectives because it most emulates a person's literal view of the film's world. Even not considering the symbolic quality of the medium, it still has the added benefit of combining aspects of both visual and auditory artforms (photos and music). So considering the captivating power of movies around the world, film is an important medium to focus on when thinking about who is represented, how they're represented, and who makes them.  As a medium for portraying and investigating the interaction and surrounding...