CatCallendar

By Vladislava Ershova

Topic: Personal Data

Medium: Poster

Institute: Politecnico di Milano

Year: a.a. 2022-2023

“CatCallendar” is a collection of my catcalling experience during the period of 4 months in a form of a calendar where I highlight the days of catcalling episodes by attaching the notes with the date, time, location, and the phrase if I could understand it. By seeing the attached notes the viewer can easily calculate the average frequency of these events and, perhaps, discover how unpleasing, frustrating, and irritating it might feel to be objectified each time you go out on the street by the provided description details on these notes.

Featured image of the project CatCallendar Complementary image of the project CatCallendar Complementary image of the project CatCallendar

Metaphor used:

As for metaphor, I want to use the pin in order to “highlight” the day of catcall episode. The pins will have 2 features: 1. to pin the piece of paper with the location, time, and phrase 2. to represent an act of “hurting” or ”being pricked”. Pinned notes will look like the phone’s notes where I was actually writing my data when the catcalling happened in order to reflect the “realness” of that moment. The paper notes will probably have glossy finish, so when the person touches it, s/he would leave finger stains on them to give the feeling of “dirtiness” that this topic is associated with for me, as well as effect of “touching something personal” when you leave your fingerprints."

Intended Meaning:

The topic touches on the issue of catcalling which is a type of verbal abuse that is culturally sanctioned and socially accepted. It may also create an unsafe and uncomfortable environment for people experiencing it and brings up to the surface very disturbing tendencies of the way women are perceived in today’s society and the level of education of men. Since it is a common issue for many women around the world, visualizing it might help understand others what and how often women have to experience it on regular basis based on my example. Maybe this project might be a very small step in a big journey of mind-shifting to help make the cities safer for everyone.

Source:

Date, time, location and phrases of catcall experiences registered from March to June 2022

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Featured image of the project CatCallendar
Complementary image of the project CatCallendar
Complementary image of the project CatCallendar

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