Constellation

Project 8: A Collection and a Means for Display

This culminating project was a way in which I could synthesize all the connections emerging between all the facets of my life this semester. This visual display was a kinesthetic way of meditating on the interconnectedness. My relationships, home environment, interests, research papers, reading, moods, courses, and artwork all are entangled. The objects signifying each are embedded in this web.

The readings and writings for Theory and Criticism, the jottings of my Senior Show ideation, and the research papers on a filmmaker and a ceramicist comprise the 5'5" by 5'5" cube. This words-structure alludes to knowledge that has been added to my internal infrastructure. External objects and artworks are made personally intelligible to me by this structure.

Displaying the interiority of my mind is fore-fronted by a reversal in which the ideas that remain unseen are in closest proximity to the audience. While the objects suspended inside still command attention before the words, their dependence on their framework is obvious.

The objects include: crosswords, sketches, coffee bags, a Wii remotes, ceramic eggs, a used plastic bottles, chopsticks, books, a wire whisk, and more. So varied and yet remarkably cohesive.

The points for fastening connections on the cube are determined by the words that inform a sequence of connections. Each object is strung to another for another specific reason. Sometimes the reason is content-based and other times aesthetic. The connections would need conjecture for anyone not privy to my explanations. This is where the performance at the critique was the only format by which I could complete the expression. But the process of creating my constellation was a format beneficial for me for myself. Self-expression is for others and for ourselves.

The reason for my personal benefit is based in harmonizing two modes of expression–– writing and making–– that are both valuable to me and yet often frustratingly separate. The intertwining of the two in this three-dimensional mind map is very satisfying, holistic in its inclusion of all parts of my life and the cooperation of internal and external environments.