SPEAKING IN TONGUES

dyptich video installation, 2021

With a tongue-in-cheek approach, this two-channel essay film explores the notion of “beffen,” the Dutch term for cunnilingus. Image and sound are playfully intertwined to examine both visual and linguistic representations. Fiona Tan presents her collection of feminist pornography in the basement of Goldsmiths University, prompting conversations about the ways female sexuality is imaged and imagined.

In collaboration with AI researcher and designer Vera van der Burg, a dataset of mainstream pornographic imagery was critically reworked. Through annotations that foreground female pleasure and experience, a model was trained to not only recognize these images but to question and reframe them from an alternative perspective.

This film installation was made for BEFtival 2021, organised and curated by Ine Poppe and Julia Schmitz, at Sexyland World & Mediamatic.

Thanks to Bert Sliggers who generously opened up his image archive. Made possible by Stichting Stokroos and Beamsystems.

Full film screener on request.