The former porn actress, the art video and the student lecture

That trigger warning noted: “This short art film contains footage from pornographic movies”.

“Though the bodies are redacted (blacked out) the film is largely cut from porn. The narration includes offensive language and graphic descriptions of sex.”

Students were also urged to think of questions to ask Serber, who was an artist before her porn career, before the Tuesday morning presentation.

But a student also had questions about the video, telling Stuff that the warning did not prepare them for what they were about to see.

“I've seen, you know, a lot of things in my time.”

The video features an animated figure of an apoptotic cell
Stuff

The student, who Stuff has agreed not to identify, said while they weren’t shocked by the film, they were by the inclusion of a close-up shot of female genitalia, which was not redacted.

“I just don't see how that's necessary in the video or why it should be shown to students.”

The student understood the paper was trying to push boundaries, but “it is just too in your face”.

“Sex Ed is for high school, we don’t go to Communications to learn about sexual material.”

Students were also invited to submit questions to the artist.

A blurb from a New York gallery noted Serber’s show, Success Breeds Success, was a series of works that address the production and negation of consumptive desire in the context of digital pornography.

An art video from the career of an ex porn star, who is speaking to students over Zoom at the University of Otago next week.
Stuff

Serber used her own experience working as a performer in the porn industry.

“The video cuts together fragments of porn videos in which she has performed, and uses tracking technology to extract bodily movements to apply a digital mask over the figures“.

“Alongside the extracted scenes, she relays her own experiences via a voice-over spoken by an animated figure of an apoptotic cell. This work examines how our relation with porn mirrors forms of disordered consumption in other spheres of life, and the roles digital platforms and their feedback loops play in eliciting, predicting and thwarting desire”.

In the video the narrator talks about daily activities, including exercise, sightseeing and porn work.

“Living in chaos in this chaotic relation to ourselves where we are constantly becoming different people based on the hormones rushing through our bodies, is exciting, is terrifying, can lead to all sorts of bad idea sex,” she says at the conclusion of art movie.

SOPHIE SERBER“Art video' from the career of an ex porn star, who is speaking at University of Otago next week.

A University of Otago spokesperson University of Otago spokesperson said as part of the Media, Film and Communication Programme’s weekly research seminar series it will be hosting the Australasian premier of a short art film which contains redacted (blacked out) footage from pornographic movies, followed by a talk by Serber, a “globally-recognised visual artist”.

This particular film is part of an ongoing collaborative feminist research project between the programme’s senior lecturer Dr Rosemary Overell and Serber, working on the politics of representation of hyper-visibilised women’s bodies in contemporary media.

It was not compulsory for students to attend this event, and those who wished to attend have to register, and were provided with a trigger warning which “makes clear the visuals are compiled from pornography with the bodies redacted, apart from extremely brief glimpses of flesh“.