Trans-masc tits: why not chop them off. Volume 2: the phenomenology of trans-masculine gender flux in performance

This dissertation tackles the lived experience of gender dysphoria and states of gender flux from my perspective as a trans-masculine artist-performer, capturing my journey through an intimate lens of phenomenological practice as research. The work is presented in two volumes, a practice portfolio and a written discussion, to provide a discursive weaving between practice and theory. Through transdisciplinary art practice, with a mix of analogue photography, soft sculpture, and performance art, as a reclamation of bodily autonomy and visibility. Drawing on the performance phenomenology concepts of T.J. Bacon, Susan Kozel, and Amelia Jones, alongside the queer theorists Sara Ahmed and Jack Halberstam, this work applies Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and Creative Articulations Processing (CAP) as methods of reflection and analysis of the creative process and written embodied accounts of performance encounters. The grounding motif of ‘having trans-masc tits’ highlights a fluctuating relationship to ‘the chop’ that challenges binary narratives of trans identity with the uneasy joy of living in-between, in flux, and beyond gender norms. Here, Bacon's theory illuminates a multiplicity of Self/s—allowing each iteration of self-encounter to be an artistic and transformative protest against restrictive binary expectations. This project contributes to expanding trans-led academic research by offering a trans-masculine perspective to destabilise binary gender constructs, encouraging an inclusive understanding of gender fluidity and the transformative potential of queer art practices.