Rachels Website!
What I am About
In these past three months I have been constantly frustrated, annoyed and then insanely happy and proud of myself. What may you ask has been the cause of this roller coaster of emotions? The answer is simple Theatre 216, or to anyone who is outside of Stony Brook University, Introduction to Visual Interpretation. In this class we are taught how to use new media, to express our ideas and explore our creativity. It has not been easy, but it has been a lot of fun for the most part. And I love having a new outlet to express myself in. There were three projects, gradually becoming more difficult, and each required a little bit more of me, each new project pushed for more effective ideas; ideas that were complex but accessible. Something that anyone viewing my work could understand, and yet still be extremely personal and share my viewpoint with the world. Because I really believe that is what I learnt most from this class. I am now just beginning to understand how to translate the way that I think conceptually into an art form that is tangible and direct. Into something that everyone can understand! This is certainly an achievement for me. I came into this class beforehand working mainly with pens and paints. Creating abstract art, that was striking but no one saw what I was thinking, and while that is most certainly freeing. Learning to work in a medium where I can accurately carry out an idea and have it universally ( I hope) understood, is amazing in itself. And worth all the frustration this class can offer.
My Movie
My movie was one of the hardest projects for me to do. It was extremely emotional, but it is also the project that I am most proud of. For this project I had a simple idea, my cousin Brittany's death. I would have my cousins talk about it, about her and who she was, and how we are all dealing with life without her. That simple idea gave me so much focus, but freedom, it really combined the way I am accustomed to working, with this new way of working that I have been using since working with new media.I am extremley proud of it!
My Collage
The collage assignment was the first assignment in this class. I approached it the way I would any traditional drawing. I made it fractured. I took bits and pieces of each photograph, changed the color and made some pieces brighter than others. I work with the aesthetics and the composition of a piece more than the concepts. It was not until I was at the very end of the project that I began to try and conceptualize an idea for what happened. This was the beginning of my experience with new media, and I worked as I always had, with my hands and what looked right. Now at the end of this class I am learning to work with ideas, and create something the way I always had but I am working towards something, rather than creating something and then deciding what it is.
My SlideShow
My slideshow is perhaps my most focused and idea oriented project coming out of this class. I had one simple idea, my interpretation of the song Imagine by John Lennon. I wanted to create a slideshow that expressed everything I thought of it. When I listen to the words I imagine a place that is devoid of any personality. Where we are all these little gray blobs, the only thing that distinguishes us is our names. Because where can we draw the line, if we imagine a world without religion, race, ethnicity, countries, then why not music, all monetary systems. Soon no one would have any sense of pride, no one could believe they were better than anyone else, which means there is nothing to make me me and you you. To me Imagine is the anthem for my dystopian society.
