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Curator’s Note

When approaching this project, I had many ideas exploding from my head. However, the concept of vivid experimentation with the three elements – sound, text, visual - was reoccurring. I was drawn to horror because horror, as a genre, is vast but exaggerated. My focus was on the relationship of horror through the evolution of technology. It was creating almost like a chronological timeline. I devised four categories of technology – the phone, television, camera, and the internet. I also wanted my video essay to mimic the structure of techno-horror films, such as Searching or Unfriended. These films break the fourth wall by forcing the audience to partake in the events in the film. I wanted to portray my video essay with the elements of horror films, as if the viewer was watching a horror film about horror films.

My foundation for the video was quotes that I found from Michael Dodd, who is a film critic. I incorporated them in the video as subtitles on a black background. I did not want the words to get lost if it was just audio. I wanted them to look like subtitles, as if you were streaming a movie, implementing the internet aspects in horror. I recorded and manipulated my voice of the quotes. I manipulated my voice to sound is if it was coming through a phone, implemented the aspect of the phone horrors. For each category, I used about three to five movies. During the montage of the films, the soundtrack that I used was “Welcome to Videodrome” by Howard Shore. I was inspired by the avant-garde sound, funky and techno rhythm. It sounds ominous and dark. For transitions, I wanted to incorporate sounds and visual of each technological category. For example, the camera section I used VHS startup/turn down sound and VHS visual static noise. This was to break the fourth wall, making the audience participate.

The video essays that I used to help inspire me was After the Facts and Season of Fear. After the Facts incorporated elements of old school cinematography for an aesthetic. From the black and white footage to the black screen mimicking the film strips and the scissors sniping, illustrating the editing process. Season of Fear helped me organize. I liked their use of season to focus how horror uses them. I also got inspiration from Show & Tell: The Movie Voiceover Part 1. I liked how they balanced sound, visuals, and text without one sector overpower one or the other.

Looking back at my video essay, it is easy to notice how horror has intensified as technology has modernized. Films, like Scream or When a Stranger Calls, whose plot is driven by the horrors of phones. The ability to not see the perpetrator and the ability to taunt over the phone reinforces the “stranger danger” feeling. However, horror films that incorporated internet illustrates the dangers behind the screen through stalking and catfishing natures created by the internet. It is more accessible and improbable to escape, especially in today’s world.

·      I forgot to add this citation to my video but here it is:

Dodd, Michael. “Safe Scares: How 9/11 Caused the American Horror Remake Trend (Part One).” The Missing Slate, 21 Feb. 2017, themissingslate.com/2014/08/31/safe-scares-how-911-caused-the-american-horror-remake-trend-part-one/.

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Italy is a Catholic dominant country. In some ways, Italy and the United States are similar by the manner in which religion influences the sociopolitical atmosphere (though the US does not acknowledge the monolithic tendencies). During this time, the Italian government rejected an anti-discriminatory bill that protected women, the LGBTQ+, disabled, and other marginalized folks. Inspired by the event and young protestors who are demanding basic human protection, I used the image of a saint – St. Sebastian, who happens to be a queer icon within the Christian gay community. I used a model to replicate the way St. Sebastian represent homosexual desire. He represents the tortured closeted case and the eroticism of pain and martyrdom; his beauty is juxtaposing the pain of his torture. His face does not depict that pain even though arrows struck him. However, that is in the private sphere of a museum. I wonder how one could use the movements of iconic imagery as forms of tangibility, visibility, permanence.

I chose a public and private setting. I chose two public areas, one directly outside of the Vatican City but both poses were in front of religious imagery – the Madonna in particular. Bothe places were in dense crowds. While I only captured the movement, the reactions around us were interesting. Some stared in awe or disgust. There was some who kept minding their own business. While we did not have direct confrontation, it created a rustle. I also chose the private sphere because there is a notion that what happens in private, stays in private. So what happens when you take taboo topics and display them in public spaces?

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"cleopatra"

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"la fornarina"

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"minerva dressing"

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The female body has been objectified and sexualized, not of her own volition. When studying abroad, there were many portraits of women in all forms. Some in wealth and riches, others fully naked, some more provocative or conservative but most were done by male artists. The still images of these women were reduced to that moment and in relation to the famous/well-known artist. Rarely, she is seen as her own person. I wanted to explore the continuation of her image, before and after the still portraits we see. When we look at a painting, we mostly focus on the still image that is presented. We notice the forms, the items, the composition and interpret it into various meanings. However, there is little focus on the moments before and after the still image. Granted, it is very hard to know what happened. How did she get there? Why? What circumstances got her to the position that she is captured in? What happened to her afterwards?

Many women are reduced to a single moment and it defines them. The danger of the single story is that “it robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult” (Adichie). I wanted to play with the continuation of movement, making the female figures multidimensional and complicated.

In these three short films, I explore the movement behind “Minerva Dressing”, “Cleopatra” and “La Fornarina”. Each video explores the painting through different cuts. For example, “Minerva Dressing” is created through different angle shots and blunt transition cuts because I really wanted to get in that personal space of undressing because the image looks like there was a lot of movement to get to its still image. For the other two videos, the movement is more subtle because of their still poses so I took longer shots and less cuts. As a woman, it was fun to create these portraits of women through a female graze. Most of these artists are male so my vision, hopefully, provided a different perspective in bringing the paintings to life through video.

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"don't draw me like one of your french girls

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"don't draw me like one of your french girls

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My focus on this project is interpretation of beauty, definition of imperfections as beauty and how today’s societal standards can be harmful and exhausting for women of color. There is no reflection of diversity in media; many women of color must cater to white beauty standards. If they do not, it is a loss of credibility, career, and loss of identity. For my first video, I projected a 1950s makeup tutorial of a white woman in the background while I placed myself in front, mimicking her motions. The tone and message of the video was how to be proper and presentable through makeup. I wanted to contrast it by visually disrupting the routine on my face. There is the element of universality, where white women can consider some beauty routines as beautiful and practical; it is not the same for women of color. It does not appear the same on women of color. The beauty industry and societal norms do not leave room for women of color to be beautiful; it creates consequences for them. The next video, “don’t paint me like one of your french girls”, I wanted others to draw on me. This was to represent how others perceive and define my beauty as well as not catering to European/White beauty. I see makeup as universal and explorative. For the last video, “girls’ night in”. I wanted to create visibility for women of color as well as illustrate how makeup is a powerful tool. It was fun playing with the concept that makeup is only for when one is going out because my girlfriends and I stay in and just play with makeup. So, we contrasted it with our comfy clothes. We played with bright colors because there is a concept that only certain colors fit with certain skin types. It was fun to break that boundary. I wanted to show and create space and visibility for women of color and make a statement on beauty standards have to be more inclusive.

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Whenever I hear “street photography”, there is a big association to urbanization, specifically the working class/lower socioeconomic class. There is a big exploitation of those groups for “art”. I did not want to do that. Instead, I focused on the meaning of “lone” whether it is through a physical, emotional, or metaphorical sense. Many of my subjects are tied to this meaning of lone; yet, many of them have different definitions of “lone”. Some were physically alone. Some people had darker, somber expressions while others were more content or happy. They range in all different environments and situations.

I did have difficulty with this project, but I approached the project with just the focus of the subject and did not necessarily looked beyond that. I focused more on the moment like what was happening around that person, why are they in that position and who is reacting to it. It helped me gauge and understand the concept of “street”. Street does not necessarily mean the literal street, but the attitude. So, I focused on other settings, like restaurants, church, and stores. Overall, this was an interesting project and it helped me understand Rome better.

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My project is titled “To You, 2 Years Later”. My concept for this project was to explore the candidness and stream of consciousness within the structure of a letter. I wanted this project to reflect the periodical moments of vulnerability I have when wanting to talk to my mother. I really wanted to expand the definition of what a letter is, what it means for different people and what is the potential a letter can have. My mother passed away two years ago. At the time, I thought there was nothing left to say but I have come to find myself yearning to say more. For this project, in particular, I swapped the visual aspect of writing and replaced it was the importance of sound or voice. I used the concept of the voicemail because I had found the last voicemail, she sent me, and I never responded to it. This is how the concept began to solidify. I think the concept of the voicemail is interesting because there is almost an expectation of response, just like a letter. However, I wanted to relate to a medium that is more common now then handwriting a letter. Throughout the structure of the voicemail narrative, I used to find footage of my mother. It is supposed to be jumpy in sequence, mimicking the act of scatterbrain or the rush of memories. It is supposed to be a stream of consciousness; there is a layering of emotions and images and words that I conveyed in my project.