Guest Blog: Gaynor O'Flynn on Discrimination of Women of a 'Certain Age' and Her New Work, TIME at VAULT Festival

There is an egalitarian tribe in the Congo, the Mbendjele... I know, indulge me...

Neither patriarchal nor matriarchal, the women use their creativity: music, song, dance, art, theatre to keep alpha male tendencies in check. The women's creativity ensures the tribe live together as equals and everyone has their turn, both male and female.

And therein lies the problem with our "tribe".

From the BBC to Netflix, MoMA to Sotheby's, Glastonbury to Coachella, Broadway to the West End, Hollywood to Bollywood, more creative women need to be seen and heard.

My name is Gaynor O'Flynn I have been working in the creative industries for over 25 years and my next work TIME - at the VAULT Festival, is all about creative women, like me, being seen and heard.

TIME is created for the real and virtual worlds: an app, an exhibition and a play that calls for change. Led by me but co-created with cool, creative, clever women including BAFTA, Emmy, Turner, Trinity Buoy Wharf and Ivor Novello prizewinners but more importantly, women across the creative industries who need to be seen and heard.

TIME was born during lockdown, when I was studying for a Masters in Text and Performance at RADA. Though many tutors were amazing, (thank you Paul Sirret and Aileen Gonsalves) one tutor informed me, "My mum's your age and I don't think women your age would know how to use the app"; another, 'How witchy of you, Gaynor". As a woman of "a certain age" I was facing discrimination, sexism and ageism and when I looked into the numbers, I realised I was not alone.

Across music, art, theatre, publishing, tech, film and TV a $192+ billion gender gap excludes women and the older women get, the more silent and invisible women become.

TIME was born because it's TIME for women to rise and because it was TIME for me to rise and use my "CreaTech" superpowers to try to do something about it.

The TIME app, launches on International Woman's Day, 8 March 2023. Women can record their TIME chant, portrait and message. Their images and voices are then turned into the TIME digital artwork. That artwork is then exhibited in a virtual art gallery, a replica of the TATE Modern's tanks and no they haven't commissioned it ...yet.

Women also hashtag their messages with their skills, knowledge and location. The not-for-profit app helps women connect and build their own local tribe outside of the digital environments controlled and monetised by Big Tech, by men.

The TIME play was selected from 600+ works as one of the Vault 5, by the VAULT Festival, UK's largest curated arts festival. The play tells the story of a women of a certain age, who uses her new found power of invisibility as her superpower as she visits virtual giants from her past before she rises to become a giant. I am using cutting edge virtual production techniques on a Fringe Theatre budget to create the giant animated women. The play runs from 7th - 12 March 2023 and launches virtually after the run.

The TIME chants and voices from the TIME app also form a soundscape, a digital choir that we hear during the TIME play, allowing the audience to "sing" during the play.

Art has power, creativity has power and we have power, the power to open our hearts, minds and doors to let more women in. So, get involved male or female, however you can...

• Share the TIME app with creative women in your life.

• Stage a TIME event, meet and start a conversation with your women.

• Commission the TIME exhibition and turn the virtual work into physical reality.

• Commission the TIME play as a TV series, a film or art performance.

• Project the TIME artwork at your festival, conference or event.

• Invite me to talk and help ensure more women are seen and heard.

Men rule the world and men rule the creative industries. Until women's stories, voices, songs, art, performances and words are seen and heard, humanity's story will not change and humanity's story must change.

TIME to change the story, TIME to change the world.

TIME will run at the VAULT Festival from 7 - 12 March

VAULT Festival has been left without a venue for next year. You can contribute to the #SaveVAULT campaign here.

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