Date of Submission

Spring 2014

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Studio Arts

Project Advisor 1

Laura Battle

Abstract/Artist's Statement

This project is based on the observations that the act of remembering our memories is to recollect experiences that we have lived through. These experiences are stored in our brains based on how we experienced them through our sensory inputs. Experiences caused by dreams and realities are usually classified as separate forms of memory, the former is acquired while being awake, while the latter while sleeping. The pieces in Incongruous Juxtapositions through Digital Projections are an attempt to visualize the frustrating incongruity of the images stored in our memory.

Based on my experience, the memories of dreams are intimate and internal, thus are usually dismissed as being a mere product of our subconscious. On the contrary, memories made while awake are considered to be both, internal and external experiences, hence, more reliable. However, memories recollected while being awake can also be influenced and infected by many factors that were present during the event that led to that memory. For instance, a memory of me drinking coffee while sitting and talking to my friend can be tainted by many factors: the way my friend remembers and retells the story, and the way my sensory inputs interacted with the objects in that setting. These and other factors can drastically alter the story every single time I recollect it. Consequently, recollecting memories from dreams, and recollecting memories made while awake are equally unreliable accounts of ‘reality.’ The subsequent ambiguity can worsen when we cannot distinguish the origin of the memory in either a dream, or in an awaken state. These memories then become a meaningful nothingness through the ambiguity of their origin; they are the bastard children conceived by the conscious and the subconscious.

Incongruous Juxtapositions through Digital Projections focuses on the aforementioned bastard children. These memories become blurs that contain characteristics of both, memories of dreams, and memories of ‘reality.’ I’ve created a place where these memories exist, the limbo of memories. I’m inviting the viewer to step into my own made up limbo of memories. I transformed these memories into entities that embody specific types of qualities, particularly, confusing, and uncanny qualities. Thus, in this exhibition, I aim to make the viewer experience eerie, and unsettling sensations.

My limbo of memories is primarily composed of videos of my friend and myself. All videos were digitally manipulated and projected onto different objects. The process of choosing the objects changed over time. I began by projecting different videos on a variety of objects with different surfaces, and analyzing the effect that they produced. Eventually, the objects were carefully chosen or handmade. Some of the objects that I chose are used by people on a daily basis, either to act as a second set of eyes, such as windows, or to block out light, such as window blinds. I regard these types of objects as the principal component responsible for creating visual memory. Most of the objects are taken out of context, but retain a direct connection to its original purpose.

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On-Campus only

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