By bttm methodology (Richard Orjis & val smith)
The bttm manifesto emerged from a co-creative session with fellow artist val smith and me. We questioned how such a provocation might support queer creative practices, pedagogy and friendship and disrupt power imbalance. The bttm manifesto is a list of fluid, queer thoughts, loose associations and poetic musing that reconceptualises the bttm, lowly, subjugated or marginalised position as a site of empowerment, creativity, collaboration and pleasure. Adopting the term ‘bttm’ was motivated by a desire to claim an uncompromising queer space in art and academia. The word ‘bottom’ comes into English from Germanic roots for ground or earth. The present-day vernacular meaning of the word is the lowest point under a body of water or the last ranking in a competition, while ‘to get to the bottom’ of something means to find the real nature of an issue. Compellingly, in the Australasian mining lexicon, ‘bottom’ refers to the discovery of precious minerals. Jonathan Allan posited the bottom as an anatomical site holds power to destabilise Western phallocentrism, stating its “utopian potential for a theory of sexuality, gender, sex, desire and pleasure that is inherently inclusive.”[1] bttm approaches run counter, subterranean, remain present focussed, passively active, receptive, vulnerable and head towards pleasure. From its inception, the bttm manifesto was considered open-source software that could adapt to every user, and as such, this is my version created on March 30, 2021.
[1] Jonathan A. Allan, Reading from behind : A Cultural Analysis of the Anus (Regina, University of Regina Press, 2016 ), 24.
Aligned to a queer paradigm and not wanting to universalise the human body, I acknowledge that not all people have a bottom or functioning anus.
Artist collective bttm methodology was formed by val smith and Richard Orjis in 2018. bttm methodology emerged as an activating agent across a series of art installations, zine workshops, performances, queer history walks and discussion groups. Drawing on queer theory and socio-ecological art practices, bttm methodology is a guide to art-making that valorises ‘lowly’ or marginalised positions. The collective encompasses a range of queer socio-political relations, past and present, including a receptive position in intimate relations, ethical alliances between the human and nonhuman, and a grounding in the cultural context of Aotearoa.