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| HOPEFULVOYEUR.COM PROCESS / FORMAT—Digital Lambda print on duratrans plastic. Digital plotter print on grid paper. SIZE—640mm X 890mm QUANTITY—500 DATE—11 / 2006 to 02 / 2007 PUBLICATION—Creative Review, Los Logos 4, Semi Permanent, 1&2 Colours, onehundredat360. DESCRIPTION—hopefulvoyeur.com is a pornographic web portal that allows users to upload and view voyeuristic videos. The site facilitates the fantasy actualization of the voyeuristic tendency–watching without directly acting. But also allows for passive participation through uploading filmed private acts–thus transforming the voyeuristic act and creating a heightened state of arousal. The website features voyeur erotica fantasy video clips and message boards that allow the user to interact (albeit in a restricted fashion–in keeping with the restricted boundaries of voyeurism) with digital elements and characters to simulate the passive yet participatory nature of voyeurism. To promote the website a poster campaign (displayed on outdoor backlit display kiosks situated in car parks) was created that visually represented the restriction of voyeuristic viewing through the use of faint sex images printed dark. During the day the poster is front-lit with natural light and looks primarily black except for the readable text, while at night the primary light source is from behind which allows for the erotic imagery to be clearly seen. The poster campaign was targeted only in car parks where the directed act of parking a car in the morning before work and leaving in the evening facilitated viewers noticing the changes in the poster. The alternating visibility of the sexy imagery between night and day also symbolizes the traditional context within which erotic material is viewed. Additionally, the alternating visibility gave the passing viewer a different look depending on the time of day and thus piques one’s interest much more than would a static piece. The black poster used voyeuristic imagery from the website while the white poster (colour and conceptual inverse of the black poster) uses verbal descriptions in place of images. The white poster was created as a response to the need for a more conservative approach for areas in Montréal where displays of sexual imagery is likely to arouse outrage. The verbal descriptions of sex acts were written to be provocative, while at the same time being somewhat clinical in order not to raise the ire of prudish viewers. Additionally, the shear amount of text likely dissuaded censors and citizens from filling complaints. |
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