The Development section is a compendium of my thoughts, feelings and reflections at different stages throughout the process of completing the project. These diary entry style pieces document how the project evolved and changed across the academic year and give insight into how and why these decisions were made. There is also a calendar from which I worked to develop my project efficiently and work to self-imposed to mini-deadlines.

Development Update #1

Winter Term

Writing my proposal, I had a clear idea of what I wanted my project to look like in the end. I wanted to create an exhibition that reflected on the history of female impersonation in Japan and provided a performative space for contemporary artists. It was to be a multidisciplinary and multisensory show inspired by an Ahn Eun-me exhibition I saw in Seoul. I wanted the exhibition to start a dialogue between Japanese and British drag scenes, but I was unsure if such a traditional space would be able to navigate cross-cultural communication.

Following on from conversations about my project during a class discussion, I came to look at diversity in the London drag scene. I was interested in shaping my readings around Japanese culture, my personal field of interest, into an exhibition but I was unsure of how I would incorporate the London element. I was advised by my classmates to look deeper into Asian representation in the contemporary UK drag scene, as well as wider discussions about diversity. I was aware of the need to be careful about ethics of working with a community group that I am not a part of. The discussion taught me to avoid the “white saviour” mindset and act as facilitator. I knew I needed to be in the background and step outside of my own perspective with every decision I make. I felt that the discussion really reinforced that and I was able to reflect upon my work and ensure that I was being considerate to the culture I was researching.

I started to research the individual stories of several drag performance artists and collectives working in London but hailing from diverse cultural backgrounds. These were:

Victoria Sin
Travis Alabanta
Polyester podcast
Nadine Artois
Bbz
Pussy Palace
Coco Butter Club
Sadie the Sinner
Pecks (drag kings)

I had several ideas about how to proceed. One of which being to avoid my interest in Japanese culture, and instead focus on the London drag scene. I started to dwell on the idea of proposing an online documentary about Pecks, the London drag king show, whereby I would partake in their drag king workshops and learn how to become a drag performance artist. I decided against this, as it felt disconnected from the research I wanted to undertake and did not feel original enough. I also felt that, as someone outside of these groups, it felt wrong to comment on any diversity issues they were facing.

Development Update #2

Tutorial with Louise

In my first chat with Louise, we discussed my research and I told her of my concerns about the London element. I was advised to research the London Japanese community and the Tokyo drag scene. After doing so, I found that there are distinct groups representing non-British, non-White drag in London. However, there seems to be minimal representation of Japan. I felt a bit lost, but I maintained that as Japanese drag has distinct cultural elements, it is interesting and exciting as a point of exploration that could bring cultural exchange opportunities. I felt like it could be developed into a project, as in a class discussion we learnt of a previous student’s project about Tokyo’s maid café’s and how she hosted an event that acted as a window into those spaces.

I started to think about the societal and community objectives of my project, rather than fixating on the outcome. I stripped back my ideas and asked myself what I want to get out of the London Project. I realised that my interest was in creating spaces that mediate cross-cultural exchange of hidden narratives. Particularly, documenting aspects of culture exempt from museum collections, but of specific cultural significance. I knew, from my research on josou culture and contemporary drag in Tokyo, that Japanese drag was a less celebrated form of artistry, had been shared less globally, and had attracted less academic research than Western drag performances. So, I asked myself: How can you create cultural experience in London? How do you bring one culture to another?

I thought about the Mark Leckey exhibition at Tate Britain. Being from Merseyside myself, I was excited to see the area being brought to life inside of the gallery. It was immersive, with a recreation of an overpass in Ellesmere Port, and documentative of the lives of local youths. The exhibition turned intangible cultural elements into tangible artworks that captured the spirit of Merseyside’s young community. It didn’t reveal too much about the people or their lives. Instead acting as a window into their leisure time. I decided that I wanted to capture the same essence in my own exhibition.

Leckey, 2019

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Development Update #3

January 2020

Over the Christmas break I thought on my ideas. I thought about the drag scenes in London and Tokyo and the subject of diversity within the global drag scene. I decided to stick with my initial point of interest; female impersonation in Japan. But I wanted to focus on contemporary performances, as it felt more appropriate to the current drag scene, my proposed target audience, which moves quickly through trends, styles and subcultures.

I assigned myself a series of research areas to develop my knowledge of:

Japanese LGBTQ+ in London
Drag scene in Tokyo
Drag scene in London
Clubs, spaces, venues, theatres
Representation in drag
Drag kings and queens
Documentaries
Queer communities
LGBTQ+ charities

I also began to think about venues in London that would welcomingly host an exhibition of female impersonation in Japan. I had initially thought about the Japan Centre on High Street Kensington, but that traditionally gallery space felt at odds with the performances spaces of Tokyo’s drag artists. I started to think about spaces I was aware of and had visited that currently host drag shows.

Hackney Showroom
Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club
Paperdress

I planned to continue in my research phase, for context, content and logistics, for the next month or two before starting to contact stakeholders. I began tentatively looking at venue layouts, 3D modelling softwares and funding bodies. I did not want to contact any stakeholders until I had a more developed idea of the outcome, and I wanted that outcome to arise organically from the research phase.

I attended a couple of drag shows in Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. Each time thinking about the artistry, the context and the logistics of each performance. I also kept up-to-date with Tokyo’s drag scene by watching location tags and hashtags of popular performance venues.

Development Update #4

March 2020

From the research I had gathered, I became fixated on Department H. A monthly cross-dressing/underground/fetish performance event that caters to people who don’t particularly like dancing or drinking alcohol. The nights were eclectic with everything from lesbian wrestling and drag shows to fang fittings and rubber-wearing workshops. It has existed since the 1990s and seems to have a reputation for being a safe space for people to showcase their true selves without the fear of judgement. I planned to develop my initial idea of a performative exhibition space with the lens focused on Department H. I managed to find a few personal accounts from tourist attendees, a blog written by the founder (Gogh Imaizumi, written in Japanese and translated by Google) and a handful of articles about the event. One of the blog posts alluded to 'don't ask, just come' being an unofficial tagline for Department H, and it stuck with me, becoming the title of the project. It was hard to find much more than that. I felt that, given the chance to engage with the Imaizumi (who I tracked down on Instagram) and request access to more of his documentation of the events, I would be able to curate a meaningful exhibition that honoured the legacy of Department H and helped those outside of its community bubble to appreciate underground culture in Japan. Perhaps inspiring people to pursue experimentations with identity.

With the COVID-19 pandemic causing a nationwide lockdown, I postponed contacting any venues or funding bodies. I also avoided contacting the founder of Department H, as I now felt weary of the changes that the lockdown would impose on my proposed outcome. I tried calling Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club to get information on hire prices, but as expected the lockdown meant that venue staff were not taking calls. I became worried about how I would explain the nuances of the project proposal without having solid information on the logistics of how the exhibition would come together.

Development #5

April 2020

When I had another look on Imaizumi’s Department H blog, I found that they had started to adapt to the lockdown and were planning an online livestream of their monthly event. The event was charged at 2000 yen and was hosted on a website that I failed to make much sense of without knowing Japanese. Unfortunately, I missed out on the livestream because of my lingual limitations, but it did give me an idea. Department H was easily adaptable to an online format, as it did not require alcohol, dancing or social interaction (unless requested). Department H was solely about artistry and experimentation. I felt that an online exhibition could act as a bridge between the audience and Department H.

Many galleries and museums were heading in a similar digital direction as a result of the pandemic; they could easily adapt how their audience viewed exhibitions by digitising their collections. This made me curious; how could I transition my exhibition idea into a format that was relevant to current society? This is how I began to research digital curation. I started by looking for current online exhibitions.

These provided inspiration for interface design and curatorial methods. I was most drawn to the idea of having a digital collage, as it seemed to fit the chaotic, underground feel of Department H. I remembered seeing an exhibition by Offsite Project that collaged digital artworks and decided to contact Elliot Burns for some technical help. I had no technical skills to speak of and had never created a website myself.

I decided to start researching and experimenting with different online software in the hope of creating a prototype of the online exhibition. I planned the layout/site architecture on paper. I also spoke to my father, a graphic designer, to gather his knowledge of online software and how they would be able to handle my proposed content of photography, videography and gifs.

Landing page

Overview: main page

Movement

Landing page

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Development #6

Group Tutorial

In order to understand how our projects can be developed under the current lockdown situation, a group tutorial was organised with Louise. We talked about the digitisation of my project, and I was advised to think about how my project may be able to become a part of a physical exhibition in the future. I thought about the fact that my exhibition, which will act as a digital archive, will look more like a digital artwork than a traditional digitised archive. It feels as though it will be suited to acting as an exhibit within a larger exhibition post-lockdown. Though I want it to feel complete as a standalone exhibition as well.

In terms of creating a proposal for the digital exhibition, I was advised to scrutinise the questions of what, who, why and how. These questions will help me to formulate the curatorial statement and understand why my project is novel or different. I need to work more on the how aspect to ensure that my project has a strong sense of direction. I also need to think about collaborations, rationale, budget, partners, ethicality and marketing for the project. It feels overwhelming at the moment, but having organised the task list for project in a spreadsheet is helping me to stay on track and do everything bit by bit (rather than rush into lots of things at once, which I’ve often been tempted to do in the past).

What / How

A digital collage that acts as an archive for Department H, a monthly underground fetish night in Tokyo, Japan. Beginning in the 1990s after its founder, Japanese illustrator Gogh Imaizumi, attended fetish parties in New York; unable to find a similar safe space for experimentation in Japan, Imaizumi created Department H. The virtual exhibition will curate existing digital media from Department H, its performers and visitors, alongside global artistic reflections and responses into a celebration of the impact cross-cultural exchange and an appreciation of underground performance artists.

Why / Who

The exhibition will act as a bridge to their existing livestream, a virtual version of their monthly event created in reaction to pandemic measures. The exhibition will act as another way for Department H to reach audiences with similar understandings of underground fetish culture. As Department H does not encourage drinking or dancing, expected behaviours in clubs, their appeal to outsiders who are interested in experimentation outside of social norms relates to the online world of niche community groups, who often cross cultural and lingual barriers. The digitised, archival exhibition will help to visually narrate the story of Department H, while allowing the original aims of intercultural communication to flourish in a direction suitable for a global, tech-obsessed generation.

The other students in my group also recommended some lines of enquiry for my research. I had been focusing a lot on the contextual research of Department H and neglecting to look into digitised archives and online exhibitions too much. They suggested:

archive.org
queeringthemap.com
Jacques Derrida

Their suggestions have inspired me to start delving into informal archives, artistic interpretations and creative documentary making. I think that developing a creative approach to archiving for this project allow for a unique angle.

Development #7

Curatorial Statement: First Draft

"Don’t Ask, Just Come is an archival exhibition celebrating the cultural and historical value of Department H; a monthly underground fetish event in Tokyo, Japan. Returning from America in the 1990s, illustrator Gogh Imaizumi, realised that spaces reserved for experimental plights in identity and interest did not exist in his native Japan. He responded by creating Department H, at Kinema Klub, to allow to those outside of social normalcy to embrace their distinctive traits and interests, inspired by the fetish parties he attended in New York. Eclectic in their curation, Department H hosts performance artists, from drag queens to lesbian wrestling, small workshops and DJ sets.

Don’t Ask, Just Come curates existing digital media from Department H, its performers and visitors, alongside global artistic reflections and responses. It is a bridge between new audiences and Department H’s livestream, a virtual version of their monthly event created in reaction to pandemic measures. This exhibition provides visual narration of the history of Department H, while celebrating the impact of cross-cultural exchange and providing a platform for appreciation of underground performance artists and their communities.

Inspired by the diverse and chaotic nature of Department H, the exhibition takes the shape of a digital collage; inclusive of audio, photography, personal accounts, interviews and videography. Accompanying responses from international artists are illustrative and expressive, exploring underground fetish culture from the perspective of those without immediate access to safe spaces. Don’t Ask, Just Come acts as a window into the event for those who cannot or have not attended, allowing the viewer to wander through the collage at their own leisure, taking in parts they encounter and forming their own vision of Department H."

In her feedback, Louise suggested that the tone leans more toward press release than curatorial statement. She also advised that I revisit the descriptor for the project by developing my idea further; is ‘archival exhibition’ an accurate description for what I plan to curate? This forced me to understand my proposal from a new perspective and I started to investigate methods of archiving and its presentation more thoroughly. I started to think about my role as a curator and/or archivist – I wanted to discover whether my intention was to create a narrative or a site of discovery.

Her questions surrounding collaboration with Department H and intellectual property/image permission helped me to realise that in order to fully develop my project proposal I need to start contacting people as a matter of urgency. Upon reading her email I instantly contact founder Gogh Imaizumi on the only platform I was able to, Instagram (details of which can be found in the Project section).

I used Louise’s suggestion of Art Fund guidelines to understand the structure and contents of my project proposal. I now have a better understanding of how to proceed. I need to look at creating a new draft of the curatorial statement that acts as such, by changing the tone and structure of the above. I also need to start drafting the proposal as soon as possible, as the deadline is fast approaching. I have been working slowly but surely, however, I feel like now is the time to pick up my pace and work to much tighter deadlines for each task.

Scannable Document on 6 May 2020 at 17_1

Scannable Document 2 on 6 May 2020 at 17

Development #8

Final Draft

Having spent the past few weeks working confidently on my project proposal (designing webpages, experimenting with software, thinking about the roles of stakeholders) I reached an obstacle: writing about audiences. I have written marketing strategy before, for an internship, but their audience already existed, and it was clearly defined. So, I felt out of my comfort zone writing about an audience that, I perceived, had yet to exist. I knew that the existing visitors and performers of Department H were an inevitable section of my audience, but I did not know too much about them – I needed to propose market research for a future where collaboration with Department H was possible. I also knew that I wanted to expand the profile of Department H outside of its locale, Tokyo, in order to inspire people with similar interests to have the confidence to pursue them. But I was unsure who they were.

Although lots of marketing strategy online told me to find my target audience using existing visitors to my site, this was not possible as the site does not exist yet. So, I decided to garner an idea of who my target audience would be (outside of the existing Department H audience) by conducting a test survey. This survey would then solidify my current target audience and allow for a creation of a marketing development plan. I created the survey on SurveyMonkey with the hypothetical target audience in mind: young, internet-savvy millennials who have an interest in drag and LGBTQ+ culture and occasionally attend drag and LGBTQ+ events; they are interested in fetish but have reservations about pursuing it. I sent the survey out to all of my social circles, inclusive of university students, graduates, and groups associated with JET Programme (a teaching and exchange experience in Japan), so I could get a better idea about whether or not my proposed audience existed, and whether or not they would actually visit a digital archive. The results for such are in the ‘Research’ section. They questions are somewhat wordy and a little clunky, as the free version of SurveyMonkey only allows for 10 questions per survey, so if I were to attempt a market research survey again, I would upgrade to a version whereby I could separate answers and gain more specific insights.

I am also having slight difficulties writing about my rationale for the project. I know that archives are important for documenting intangible histories that may be lost without active preservation, and that I feel Department H’s provision of and inclusivity in fetish spaces is an important narrative to uphold, but I do not know how to get that point across specifically. I want to utilise the archive to provide a cross-cultural exchange that instils the confidence in people to find their identity in drag and fetish, should they be curious to do so, and I feel like education and inclusion is the best way to do that. I spent some time brainstorming and drafting a rationale, the final version of which will appear in my proposal.

Further to this, I have changed the idea of artist involvement from open submissions to quarterly residencies. It felt as though the main aspect of the archive, Department H, could become lost among a sea of artworks. I wanted to mirror the founding of Department H, a cross-cultural exchange, by helping global artists to connect with international fetish cultures and communities. Thus, I felt that, as the project went on, it would make more sense to house a digital residency within the archive. Allowing an artist to really engage with the material, talk with curators and those from within the community, to develop their understanding of and confidence with fetish as artistic expression. This only felt possible by working with the artists as individuals and allowing their experiments and encounters with fetish to be fully acknowledged by visitors to the archive. I wanted visitors identify with the archive and artworks on a personal level, and I think that providing too much confusion between responsive artworks and documentation would remove the intimacy of the archive. I also feel that having a digital residency retains the sense of community and intercultural fluency, as well as, providing a platform for the artist to flourish within it. I created an artist brief that is available in the ‘Proposal’ section as a PDF.

Development #9

Final Tutorial

My final tutorial with Louise was really helpful as it enabled me to zoom out and view the pieces of proposal I had worked in-depth on as a whole. From the chat, I understood that I needed to ensure that the ethos and values of the project were clear throughout the proposal. For me these are retaining ethicality and community collaboration in a public archive and building a supportive community for fetish in the UK inspired by Department H.

Louise and I spoke about the possibility of defining the latter through the residency programme by taking the decision-making, the power, away from me as an archivist and curator and allowing a community to grow organically. This would mean having the residents select and work with their successor, operating word-of-mouth in the same way as Department H (which has minimal social media and online presence). In doing so, a community of likeminded individuals can form and engage in discussions and activities related to fetish.

Here’s a list of things left to do. I seem to have gathered most of the information I need and categorised my proposal accordingly. A lot of the remaining tasks involve refining the project to show its value, significance and ability to be actualised.

Move the proposal to the top of the menu on the research journal site
Write the London aspect and abstract sections (make them around 300 words each)
Make it explicit that anecdotes, ‘gossip’, etc. will be actively collected & the collaborative effort to collect documentation and oral histories
Think about the documenters’ intellectual property
State whether or not this is a publicly accessible platform (I think it makes sense to be) and how that can still operate as a safe space
Refine the residency element to be a self-selective chain that builds community, and how that community interacts with Department H’s
Look for Gavin Butt’s text Between You and Me: Queer Disclosures in the New York Art World
Look to ArtQuest and Japanese cultural foundations for ideas of where to propose for funding (document research of this and write short reasons why for each)
Email translators
Add Imaizumi’s posters to the collage tests (visual identity)

After this meeting, I struggled to narrow my proposal down to 2,000 words. I used a combination of documents to guide me: one provided by Louise that was a guide to 2018 ACE National Lottery Grants and a more project-relevant one I found during my own research for funding, Daiwa Foundation Small Grants. Any information that remained pertinent, but did not fit into my proposal, was moved onto the sub-sections of my research journal.

Personal Development

Having conceived the idea for creating an archival project based on Department H, I am continuously developing skills in project management. My leadership is driving the project through the stages of initiation, scheduling, prototyping, organising and liaising with collaborators. In the face of COVID-19, I have navigated problem-solving and adjustment, remaining resilient and determined to complete the project.

I consider my role to be that of a mediator; between both those involved in the project and the differing facets of the project requiring attention at any one time.

By reconsidering the role of an archivist, I am mediating digital, curatorial and archival practices to create a distinct perspective that challenges my own skills and how the visitor interacts with cultural media. Don’t Ask, Just Come is developing my understanding of what it means to undertake archival and curatorial positions; and is shaping my determination to carve a distinctive role for my future projects, a role which questions traditional definitions of those practices and their resultant spaces. I hope to continue my work with Don’t Ask, Just Come, as well as continue to develop how I curate and mediate collective memory projects.

Future Development

These aims and their subsequent evaluation methods have been created using the SMART system. Please see the ‘Research’ section for more information.

This table outlines two main aims of Don't Ask, Just Come and gives insight into how those aims will be measured and monitored effectively to ensure that the project develops with purpose.

CALENDAR