I was invited by MTV to create one of their iconic idents for International Women's Day 2023.
I created an ident about freedom. It is called "Transcendental", a wordplay with the idea of transcending and transgender. It speaks of going beyond the limits imposed by gender standards.
I tried to make a visual ode to the vital force that pulsates inside the body, that does not reduce gender to biological sex. I think it says that there are many beautiful and diverse ways of existing.
I worked with two brilliant artists, Nathalia Okimoto did the animation and Luisa Puterman did the sound.
The original storyboard had a step where the character would walk by an evolving, rotating planet earth. It was discarded so the ident would fit the 15 seconds limit.
Brazil is the country that has been killing trans population the most for more than a decade. Given the recent growth of transphobic 'feminisms', it is urgent to take stances that include this population in the debate about inequalities.I think every body has the right to be who they are, to exist and live with dignity.
The ID was made with fragments of images generated by Artificial Intelligence. I'm very interested in the potential these tools carry for art and artists, and at the possibility to create from a common data basis of shared knowledge.
Of course there are a lot of ethical dilemmas around biases and other obscure uses the tool may have, but I believe a careful discussion can generate many interesting fruits.
In the first style frames, the silhouette in the middle had a thinner waist. The drawing came mostly from the AI's interpretations for the prompt "woman". I saw this as a bias, so I decided to interfere with the silhouette and make it less "hourglassy".
I believe that the struggle for trans rights not only benefits transgender individuals, but also integrates a greater range of experiences of womanhood and femininity. There is a greater reflection in transfeminism about identity and how each one of us sees ourselves in the world.
No one needs to fit in the standards imposed by gender stereotypes.
