Nightmares and Dreams on Progesterone: Trans* Embodiment and Intermedia

d'Andriole, Lorelei

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122778 Copy

Description

Title

Nightmares and Dreams on Progesterone: Trans* Embodiment and Intermedia

Author(s)

d'Andriole, Lorelei

Issue Date

2024-02

Keyword(s)

• Trans
• transsexual
• intermedia
• action art
• dreams
• fluxus
• progesterone

Abstract

This essay theorizes the connection between trans* embodiment and intermedia, using historical intermedia practice and score-based creative practices by artists such as Yoko Ono, CA Conrad, Pauline Oliveros, Dick Higgins, and Allan Kaprow, as precedent. This paper describes foundational thought to my work as a trans* intermedia artist and serves as an introduction to Nightmare and Dreams on Progesterone: Action Art Scores for Trans Becoming; a text work of 150 poetic action art scores designed for, and birthed from, trans* becoming. Each score is generated from dream journal entries translated into instructions that complicate the art/life divide. As I began taking progesterone as part of my hormone replacement therapy, I started experiencing vivid dreaming as a side effect. As my body changed, so did my dreams. These dreams, from my own trans* subconscious and altered by transsexual action, often directly engage with my identity or arts practice as subject matter. When translated, the scores are written poetically and have a diverse range of abstraction, for example: Score #77: Fellowship: Three queer people talk about visibility/The most beautiful woman in costume makeup/Takes several ladders to climb towards. Score #58: Insane Clown Posse: Come out to your family. Score #69: Huge: A trans woman/Surrounded by other trans women/All bathing. I believe avant-garde art practices can be liberatory for trans* bodies and that this methodology and these performances have the potential to be instructional for other trans* people for coming into their identity. This introduction provides an intimate portrait of myself as an artist, including biographical information on my Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) journey and how it has affected my creative practice.

Series/Report Name or Number

Media-N, vol. 20, issue 1

Type of Resource

text

Language

eng

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21900/j.median.v20i1.1206

Copyright and License Information

• Copyright 2024 Lorelei d'Andriole
• This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).

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