ABSTRACTION IN IDENTITY
Abstraction in Identity focused on creating webcam experiences. This project started with two experiments focused on creating movement. The first focused on movement to create an interactive experience and a sense of movement was pivotal for this piece. The second one experimented with blocking out the viewer within the piece to create a nice contrast. I combined the two designs to create an interesting composition and experience which felt like traveling through a digital space. The project plays on how identity is ever-changing. Online there is anonymity/mystery because you never really know who's behind the screen. Technology has allowed us to hide parts of ourselves that we don't necessarily want to explore to create this contour of ourselves. I wanted to explore how we often become abstractions of ourselves as we go through a digital app and how the lines begin to blur who we truly are. According to CyberPsychology and Behaviour, when people have an opportunity to separate their actions online from their in-person lifestyle and identity, they feel less vulnerable about self-disclosure and ‘acting out roles. In a process of dissociation, the online self becomes a compartmentalized self. People might even convince themselves that their online behaviors “aren’t me at all".
AFTERLIFE
AfterLife focused on creating generated art using AI and exploring how it relates to my identity. Since a child I have always had a fascination with history, specifically learning about my personal history. I don’t have the privilege of knowing exactly where I came from due to years of black history being erased. I created the video by giving the ai different prompts such as black people, water, coast, ships, and things that relate to colonization, I also incorporated themes of Afrofuturism, I trained the AI for over 32 hours to generate the video. Using Google Colab which uses a notebook program to generate the files. Walking closer to the ultrasonic sensor the user is not able to interact with the video but they are transported to a new space with unlimited possibilities, in short, I wanted this to represent the creation of a new history more focused on Afrofuturism. Afrofuturism is combining themes of specific and black diaspora but most importantly the advancement of black people in society. I was inspired by a writer named Sadiya Hartman, author of Lose your Mother. She had explored her personal history and went to Ghana to discover her ancestry. I connected personally with her experience and a particular quote stood out to me, which said “ I, too, am the afterlife of slavery.” ( Hartman pg 16) Hartman realizes that the weight of her past can never be truly known but understands that she must shape her future for the many generations of black people that will come after her. I created a section in the piece where the user gets close to the flex sensor they are moved to an “unlimited future” they can move around digital particles. The particles represent the change and the ability to mold and create something new. They also represent stars and are not bound to any force. I wanted this to represent the endless possibilities that black people can search and strive for, no matter how our past has tried to define us.
LOST IN SPACE
VCV RACK AND TOUCH
