I am currently developing a new series – The Great Gay Penguin Cover Up – with Whickers Award Funding.
I am looking for funding to make this series – if this sounds interesting to you, get in touch! I’d love to talk about it.
Here’s a lil audio teaser:
The Great Gay Penguin Cover Up
In the early 20th Century, scientist and explorer George Murray Levick observed A LOT of homosexual behaviour in a colony of Adélie penguins. Afraid of the impact this ‘shocking’ news would have on his career, Murray Levick buried his findings. They remained secret for 100 years. In this podcast, artist, broadcaster and practising homosexual Scottee traces the dramatic twists and turns of The Great Gay Penguin Cover Up, and asks what can we learn from this?
As a queer and trans person, I am living through a time where words like ‘nature’ and ‘natural’ are used to make arguments to strip me and my community of our rights. I was so fascinated to discover the Great Gay Penguin Cover Up, as it is such a prime example of humans selectively interpreting the natural world in order to fit pre-existing ideas and biases.
Across the series, Scottee and I will explore just how prevalent queerness is in nature, and ask why no one knows about it. We’ll be comparing George Murray Levick’s experience trapped in an ice cave with a real life version of Lord of the Flies, and we’ll ask ‘where did we get the idea that human nature is violent?’ We’ll be thinking about knowledge holding and sharing – reflecting on who is granted authority to share knowledge of the natural world, and who is ignored. And we’ll be looking at how and why certain ideas become accepted truths in society.
If you, or someone you know, would be interested in funding the series, get in touch!
JESSE LAWSON 