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Mediatheque
Dara Birnbaum 達拉．伯恩包姆
MTV: Artbreak 音樂電視網：Artbreak單元動畫
1987
In a thirty-second short film made for the Artbreak programme on MTV, artist Dara Birnbaum offers a zippy historical survey of both animation and the objectification of women in mass media. After a brief establishing shot of animator Max Fleischer—the pioneering creator of iconic characters like Popeye and Betty Boop—an animated machine ‘draws’ a woman in 1920s clothing while Fleischer ’s signature clown character ogles her. The machine rapidly alters the ingenue to reflect illustration styles of successive decades, before a quick sequence of live-action clips forms a collage of televisual depictions of women. The short film closes on a self-referential note: a woman at a video workstation edits a clip of Fleischer, as if finally reversing a long history of one-sided representations onscreen.
Initially trained in architecture, Birnbaum worked for the New York–based architect and urban planner Lawrence Halprin before pursuing a painting degree, and later video editing training. Exploring the parallels in architecture and media’s shaping of public space and social relations, Birnbaum frequently appropriates television footage and other popular imagery to critique the subtle power dynamics of mass media, often focusing on gender roles and women’s stories.
Initially trained in architecture, Birnbaum worked for the New York–based architect and urban planner Lawrence Halprin before pursuing a painting degree, and later video editing training. Exploring the parallels in architecture and media’s shaping of public space and social relations, Birnbaum frequently appropriates television footage and other popular imagery to critique the subtle power dynamics of mass media, often focusing on gender roles and women’s stories.
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