Students work on one independent project each semester. This project is related to research they are completing in their research seminar class. The project is scaffolded through other projects and class activities during the semester including research visualizations paired with annotated bibliographies and an archives trip. Each student co-creates a workplan and individuated syllabus with me. Additionally, students are engaged in prototyping and feedback sessions with each other. 

The research started from the relationship between fast fashion and the environment. Lots of people do not realize how fast fashion affects the environment. The fast way pollutes the environment badly every fashion season. This concept of the project is using up-cycled garments and fabric to create my design explanation of fashion look. The concept of this fashion collection is destroy and ruin. The color inspired by the artwork ‘Black Square’ from Russian artist Malevich. For the express of the destruction of the environment, the edge of the garments are unfinished. The idea of the photo series is from the movie Invisible Man. At the end of the world, people die because of the environmental pollution. Then, at the end of the world, only garments exist. Through my artwork, I hope people learn about the pollution created by fast fashion manufacturers. Then they can be more considerate about the trend and fast fashion. Environmental resources are limited.

Even though the potential impact of cosmetic surgery on patients is unpredictable undergoing cosmetic surgery is no longer a big decision for most people. Personally, I neither encourage nor oppose cosmetic surgery. I want the concept of ‘awareness’ be expressed in my two pieces. In my research I found that drug safety, religious, social stigma, social consequence, and unrealistic expectations can all be factors that lead to physical and psychological problems. For my project, I decided to use two real cosmetic surgery cases to show aspects of the limitation of the surgery. I showed both physical and psychological problems two women from the case study have after or before the surgery. Through the comparison between two different results cosmetic surgery, I want viewers to see what they have been through.

Kim – 52 years old: It was an unsuccessful surgery. She wanted to do a half facelift to get a younger look. Result: Her left eyebrow is not moving and parts of her face are forever paralyzed. 

I chose the matchbox to show Kim’s experience because matchsticks will all been burned one day and Kim will go on aging once the surgery is done. The matchbox symbolizes the positive surgery result which means it cannot last forever. But, even so, Kim’s surgery result was tragic.

Helen – 36 years old: It was a successful surgery. She wanted to do a body lift. Helen was a fat woman, she lost weight by doing exercises which bring a huge change on her body. Stretch marks and loose skin make her consider the cosmetic surgery.

I chose clay to model the loose skin, and it is in a peeling position. There are lines in the outer side which are the symbol of stretch marks. The cracks and screw represent cosmetic surgery. I chose the shape of the flower because it expresses the idea of energy and reborn.

My research is about ideal beauty standards in China and America. I found that ideal beauty causes excessive pressure for women to achieve a body weight and size that are very difficult to achieve. Eating disorders become very common among many women in these two countries. Also, edited model images in magazines lead to the women’s dissatisfaction about themselves. Then the lack of confidence triggers them to put on makeup and even do plastic surgeries. Inspired by this finding, I decided to make a video that focuses on the theme of self-abasement.

The main character of the video is a young girl who has lots of cracks on her face. The cracks are the representation of imperfections of the girl’s appearance. I chose to express those flaws in an exaggerated way as I wanted to highlight the girl’s dissatisfaction of herself. I used a black-and-white filter in the video in order to show the girl’s negative emotions as well as to create a creepy and dark feeling. The masks on the wall are used to convey the message of coverage, which means the girl is used to relying on external tools to help her to look beautiful and get confidence.

My artwork sets aside a critical view of social, cultural, and economic issues relating to time. The construct of time is embedded deeply in American history throughout the Industrial Revolution. On November 18, 1883, the railroads of North America set a standard time for all trains to address the danger of each town keeping their own time. Industrial America grew around the railroad time system. Factories operated on this standard time, eventually introducing punch clocks to monitor and schedule work. Time became more regulated, managed to the second at the hands of technology and the clocks that set it. On April 16, 2018, an article written by Liz Alderman about the shortages of human labor contained subtitles throughout such as “We’re trying to replace people with machines wherever we can,” ‘Human Wanted, Robots accepted,” and “Now Hiring Humans, But Robots Will Work”. I paired a couple of these titles along with a set of double bell alarm clocks to make the visual point across of a new industrialization era of artificial intelligence. If the world hadn’t invested early in automation, where would be today, and what will be the effects of becoming completely dependent on machines?

My inspiration was the womb, pregnancy, and mother. Those are what I think everyone can relate to in terms of researching home. I decided to work with the idea that everyone belongs to. Every people once lived here before and once they come out, there’s no way to go back. My mother is one of the most important people in my life that I feel safe, and comfortable when I stay with her. I connect my feeling to my experience of home, to show my comfort is coming from my memories. Because I forgot my memories and my experiences when I was a fetus, the project is all based on what I expect and my thoughts.

I used cinema 4d to create short films and Adobe premiere to edit it. Photoshops were also used, as well as illustrators. Video would be suitable to express what I visualized and to capture that image in my head. Because the baby kept developing and moving around, I choose to create a video. I divided the pregnancy into 5 stages. Usually, pregnancy took about 50 weeks, so 8 – 10 weeks per each stage. Every stage is about babies developing different parts of the body.