GRAY HAIRS

GRAY HAIRS (2023), Terhi Marttila 

The woman across from me on the bus had dark, black hair. I was mesmerised. But suddenly I realised that her hair was dyed. Startled, I began to survey the rest of the passengers, and realised that the vast majority of women had dyed their hair. Young women, old women, I thought: why only the women? Gray hairs is an interactive poem or series of fragments about the gendered practice of dyeing one’s hair. Reading progresses through “plucking” gray hairs on screen, which causes them to turn back to black. For a moment, that is. Ultimately, ageing prevails and leaves us with a blank, white screen. Through its computational form, the work thus underscores the linear and inevitable nature of the process of greying and of ageing. We can choose to pluck or to dye, or to do neither, but in either case, we will die. Between youth and death, there is a space in which ageing looms and disquiets a woman living the first signs of this slow transition.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Terhi Marttila, PhD in digital media (University of Porto), MA in art education (University of Lapland). Enchanted by voice, language and texts, Terhi has embraced programming for the browser as a means for artistic expression and the creation of playful interactive works. Her works have been published in the Electronic Literature Collection 4, nokturno.fi and raum.pt