Clementine Holden

I am a designer based in London with an interest in the intersection of space, technology and speculative design.

My practice is informed by feminist theory and dialogism, working to interrogate and re-imagine current world-views and modes of living. ADS4 has allowed me to develop a critical approach to my work, using design fiction as a methodology.

Prior to undertaking my MA at the RCA, I studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture where my projects explored innovative proposals for environmental preservation and waste management strategies in response to hyper-consumerism. I have a range of experience from working in practice including the exhibition design for ‘Dark Matter’ at the Science Gallery London and ‘New Masculinities’ at the Barbican Centre.

I plan to continue to develop my speculative design approach after graduating, hoping to contribute to a wider body of contemporary art and research which drives to provoke social and political reform.

My thesis project proposes a new kind of physical education, culminating with a design intervention in Belfast. The design is intended to allude to the possibility of a cartoon body, creating a zone of imagination in which anything is possible, and in which bodies are liberated. The project hypothesises that this will provoke new ways to see and use our bodies which promote the values of Cartoon Feminism.

Cartoon Feminism looks to cartoon bodies as inspiration for feminist discourse. The cartoon body can teach us lessons about the form, movement and behaviour of the body.

Form | The cartoon ability to fluctuate between bodily classifications means that it evades static definitions and does not have to behave according to the rules set by those definitions in order to be validated.

Movement | Female bodies are taught to feel enclosed, self-conscious and that they should take up minimal space (Young, 'Throwing Like a Girl'). The cartoon body however, is expressive; it squashes, stretches and exaggerates and moves through the world without apology.

Behaviour | Cartoons use subversive humour to misbehave, undermining the forces which restrict them and breaking the rules of their universe, liberating themselves from their expected performance.

Evolution of Cartoon Feminism

This diagram traces complex and mutating perspectives on the body throughout history, looking to contextualise Cartoon Feminism within a wider body of feminist discourse. Each binary configuration diagram illustrates the rules for how bodies are identified corresponding to evolving theories.

In the cartoon landscape however, rules are in constant motion; gravity may exist in one moment but not in the next. Cartoon Feminism therefore does not claim any stable or rigid set of rules for a feminist conceptualisation of the body. Cartoon Feminism proposes that any body may exist at any given moment, at once embracing whilst at the same time subverting the various theories of the body which have come before.

PDF: Evolution of Cartoon Feminism (PDF)

Towards A Plausible Cartoon Body | CGI – This film traces a timeline of CGI breakthroughs and the corresponding resolution of the digital human body

Recent technological breakthroughs point towards the future plausibility of the cartoon body.

In the digital sphere, hyper-real CGI bodies with cartoon abilities are available for use in a real-time render environment. These avatars are so realistic that it could be argued that the uncanny valley has been conquered. Thus the digital and ‘real’ spheres are blurred.

In the physical realm, advancements in tech and medicine such as gene editing, hormone therapy, bionic limbs, organ transplants and integrated medical devices have enabled us to surpass previous limitations and push the boundaries and capabilities of the human body.

Toon Tropes

Toon Tropes | Isometrics

Toon Training | Cartoonifying Exercise Apparatus

In order to speculate upon how we might catalyse the development of cartoon bodies which can exist beyond the TV screen, these studies imagine that cartoon bodies are real and so familiar cartoon landscapes become real-life sets.

Each set is inspired by a specific Toon Trope.

The tests provoke thought into the relationship between the body and space, demonstrating how by changing the parameters or conditions of a space, new kinds of bodies could be encouraged, trained or generated.

Toon Track | Exploded Axo – The proposal takes the familiar markings and colouring of an athletics track and field, which is mapped onto the site so that the urban topography causes warps and extrusions, prompting a cartoon method of spatial engagement.

Toon Track | Aerial View – When a third dimension is revealed by the topography which lies parallel to the course of the track or field, bright and flat cartoon colours and textures are used to give an immersive feeling of a cartoon world within the track and field borders. In this way, the track lines act as the TV screen or the 4th wall in a cartoon world. This is to suggest that when on the Toon Track, you are in a zone which is temporarily free from rules and expectations, and which is governed by its own cartoon logic.

Toon Track | Track and Site Relationship Vignettes – The site becomes the track, prompting the idea of absurd and unexpected ways of traversing the route which allude back to the toon tropes previously explored.

The project is sited in Belfast, Northern Ireland and responds to on-going issues surrounding reproductive rights. Despite abortion being legalised in 2019, a deadline to fully commission services came and went in March of this year. In addition, the leaked decision to overturn Roe vs Wade in the US is set to have a global knock-on effect on abortion legislation. The impact of diminishing reproductive rights also impacts the trans community in the restriction of bodily autonomy.

Toon Training Still 01 – Air is Water

Toon Training Still 02 – Inflated Body

Toon Training Still 03 – Impact Silhouette (ft. Circling Birds)

Toon Training Still 04 – Super Strength (ft. Scale Manipulation)

Toon Training | Track n' Field

This project explores the specific implementation of the Toon Track at a site in Belfast. However, the proposal offers a form of spatial activism which may be implemented in any location facing acute injustices arising from patriarchal oppression. Therefore the design is open-ended and offers continued agency to the front-line of feminist protest.

Although the proposal, on one level, is a space for the plausible (but at present, impossible) cartoon body, it also offers a physical education for real bodies which exist today. The core intention is to unlock a cartoon state of mind: to plant an idea of the possibility of a body which defies its’ limitations and expectations.

To paraphrase, the project suggests that the first step towards realising the cartoon body is through the imagination.

The above series of media illustrates an imagination of my cartoon body traversing the Track n Field.

Clementine Holden

Social

About

Royal College of Art