Work of Curiosity in 4D Intermedia

  Video Link:  Take the Risk? "Take the Risk?" engages three perspectives on the concept of risk in rock climbing.  The first perspective comes from the audio. I took clips from several episodes of the Climbing Gold podcast that I felt best (or most interestingly) communicated some of the thoughts surrounding risk. Some audio clips ask questions, like how to justify taking certain risks, while others explain the memorable experiences and character building that are the result of taking those risks. It's worth noting that Climbing Gold is hosted by Alex Honnold, one of the most daring and well known modern rock climbers, and invites dozens of other professional alpinists, mountaineers, and climbers. Because of their experiences, they offer different perspectives than I can. The second perspective comes from two quotes, one by Liz Robbins and the other by Craig Muderlak. Both are seasoned climbers, but I chose their quotes because I resonated most with their words - not bec...

  What would make an interesting shot?  Throwing my phone, perhaps? Maybe capturing the fearful, somewhat comedic facial expressions of the phone-catcher? I started out with absolutely no idea what I wanted for my video. I grabbed Callie, ran up to the grass by the giant library rock, and started playing around. She first filmed me throwing my own phone into the air, but that didn't quite hit the spot. I spun around a few times, tossed my phone into a tree canopy, and even flipped my phone around in the air. But none of those were what I was looking for either.  On one lucky video, I got a hilarious shot of Callie trying to catch my phone. I thought that if I could throw my phone smoothly enough, I might get more interesting shots like that one. They might even been smoother, stranger, or funnier in slow motion.  Next step in the recipe? Add a variety of shots. I started off by throwing the phone from the ground up. Add a twist, a "through" shot (tossing my phone thr...

 "How To Give Without Gifting" 1) Put your listening ears on. As the title suggests, I wanted to explore how to be generous without giving a physical gift. I often find physical gifts trivial, wasteful, or ungenuine (though it obviously depends on the giver and the gift), so I wondered, " what non-physical thing can I give to my classmates?"  Listening. A real listener is a rare gift. And sometimes, it takes a little nudging to remind each other of this generosity.  My props for the performance were two fold. First, I made giant cardboard ears. I added earrings to each (just for fun) and attached them to a headband so they could be put on and taken off. Second, I made cardboard tube and tin foil microphones for the speakers. The props were just silly enough to create a lighthearted environment, but not too silly that they might distract the pairs - at least, that was the hope. During the performance, I discovered that some ear-wearers were distracted by the ears flo...

  To combine ritual and personal space, I sat in front of my closet everyday for 10 minutes and wrote down my thoughts. Almost every thought was about my closet, though there are a few that strayed away as I wrote in a stream of consciousness style. Throughout my writing, I went back and forth between worrying that I wouldn't have enough to write and wishing I had more time to write because I had so many thoughts to put down. In total, I wrote 145 individual thoughts. Having done this, I'm still not sure if it feels like both a lot of thoughts for one closet and not many thoughts at all.  I found it curious that I could think so many things about a single closet. After all, it's just a box with doors and some fabric and plastic inside. But in letting my mind wander around my closet, I realized I attach a curious amount of significance to those bits of material. Inside, personal meaning and relational attachments and environmental concerns and design structures and color tre...

  I really enjoyed this installation project! We didn't want to do anything too large or intrusive because the neighborhood (Coronado Circle) we met in felt pretty fancy. Instead, we chose to do something small and out of the way (but it still called attention to the space!). The bush we chose created a kind of corner, and the house features peek-a-booed out of the corner. After we set it up, it made me quite happy to look at the little house, with all of its little features, transforming this bush. I made a small window with a garden balcony, added the tiny lamp post and bench on the "front porch", and stuck a chimney on the "roof" with a paper towel for smoke.  The intention was to be fun and silly, but also to draw attention to the smaller creatures of the neighborhood. For all we know, this bush might actually be a little mouses' home! It's also a stark contrast to the well-maintained, carefully-designed, (very likely) million dollar homes on the cir...

  This piece measures the countless times I walked the paths between my house and my cousins' houses. Because we only lived 0.5 miles apart at the most, I spent a lot of time with my cousins growing up. This closely-knit relationship I have with each one has undoubtedly impacted who I am and how I have come to regard family today.  Each of the various paths is marked by a story, and each different color represents a different cousin (8 in total, including my sister). To prepare for this, I called each cousin and asked them to tell their favorite silly, funny, or sweet story of us growing up. From a map, I sketched out the literal roads and corners I walked, then wrote the stories (in my own words) in that shape.  I talk to my cousins often, but not nearly often enough. Calling them out of the blue was lovely. I was surprised at how many of them picked up the phone right away, how most of them said "ohh, that's so hard to choose one!" in response to my prompt, and how ...