Shaya's creations

For our final we were told to think of any of the previous art projects made by others in the class, and reimagine the project using a different artistic medium. We had to try to preserve the original intention and message behind the first project, but adding in our own voice with the new medium we use. For our first video art project, Airy made a video trying to talk to her younger self, by interacting with the art she had made for a show about her family and childhood. I deeply resonated with the emotions she conveyed in her video, and I wanted to make a piece that conveyed that same frustration. We want to be able to remember who we were as kids, to be that version again, but time and experiences change us and create a disconnect.  To reimagine her video, I decided to make a layered image. I printed out a picture of myself as a kid, on top I used a sheet of transparent tracing paper and wrote out a letter to myself as a kid, expressing that longing to know her and the frustratio...

 For our video on three perspectives, I immediately had the idea to try and construct a memory through video art. I had a lot of pictures and videos from my time studying abroad in Mexico and I wanted to add them all together in an artistic way to produce a messy version of what it is like to remember a moment.  My plan was to record myself talking about my experience in Mexico, and then have friends talk about my experience in Mexico. With these videos, and the preexisting ones from the semester there, I was going to separate the video from the audio to use them independently. That way I had pictures, the audio from my videos, the videos without sound, and audio recordings from the city in Mexico or from my friends there who have sent me voice messages. At the beginning of my video I wanted to have all these different forms of media played one at a time. I would have had pictures play for 3 seconds, and videos play without audio, and audio played with a black screen. My idea ...

 For this introduction to video art, we were prompted to make a short 25-45 second video. We could choose to either turn a perspective inside out or end where we begin.  I thought a simple project could be one that highlights the overwhelming nature of having to constantly do laundry in college. I had my friends record me doing different the different steps of laundry, and when I had finally put everything away, I had them record me discovering more dirty clothes that needed washing. I ended where I began with the need to do laundry.  Even though it was a simple project, I think it effectively communicated the overwhelmingness of needing to constantly do laundry as students with full schedules.

Since being in college I've bought an insane amount of the small discounted flower bouquets from Trader Joes. I buy it whenever I want to add color to my dorm room or get a small gift for my friends. Because this project was about generosity, I immediately thought about using flowers as my prompt.  For the performance I handed out a triangle piece of newsprint, one flower, and string to each person in the class. While I was handing it all out, I prompted people to think about a recent moment where they had felt lonely. I then asked each person to write something simple that they would have appreciated in that loneliness. I then asked everyone to pass the paper to the right and write down the same phrase or affirmation. The papers made it around the entire table so that each one had a list of 18 different affirmations written on it. Each person then took their paper and wrapped it around the flower I had given them at the beginning. As they were assembling their flower I went around...