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'Gentrify Me' Bea Kilduff, Film, Duration 0 mins 9 secs, 2020

Moving forward from IRON SLATE STEEL I had various restrictions to consider. One key constraint was that I wouldn't be able to head back to my home town for a while. The general election was held 12.12.2019. Barrow In Furness voted Conservative for the first time since 1983. Full Fact , the UK's main fact-checking organisation, found that 88% of Conservation Facebook Advertisements contained misinformation. Leading up to the general election, Facebook became a primary source of information for Barrow in Furness, as well as 'The North West Mail', notorious for bias, misleading, and derogatory headlines. Reflecting on the conversations and posts on social media that dominated the area, I was frustrated. There is a larger system that actively exploits communities like those of Furness. Old working industrial attitudes prevail in the area: Though working hard to change this, it is known that BAE and similar local industries encourage social hierarchies: It is a working mans space, with attitudes promoting misogyny, racism, and othering. Throughout the project I have touched on these systematic biases, and local issues such as male suicide- due to both the consequences of austerity and the less progressive attitudes towards gender.

Finally, BUMS and Salt House Mill were being pressured to become office blocks and areas for private investment that doesn't support the local community. Furness is appealing to wealthy contractors who do not have permanent residence and ultimately gentrifying the local area and causing its residents to further struggle. The Lake District also has this issue near by due to the cornucopia of second homes. In response to this I decided to step back from accessibility and palatability and produce work that was politically saturated. There is a word play of 'systematic bias': The multi-layered interpretation of a 'system' and its bias; as well as exploitation. The RGB overlays and distortion reference a 'System Error' that symbolizes bias algorithms existing in the various spaces I had been exploring: From digital space to local spaces, and the consequential social attitudes that prevail. The video 'Gentrify Me' plays on 'meme' culture and is intentionally absurd, abstract, obnoxious, angry, and slightly sexual in reference to personal gender exploitation. The pieces are multi-layered, colourful, conceptual, and politically saturated: They are a reaction and subversion of my previous path to exhibit my intentions.