Undergrad Thesis 2023

Their Stories

Angie Yang

Their stories is a graphic novel consisting of four short stories about first and second generation Chinese American girls and the important events that shaped their lives. The project explores the Asian American immigrant identity, the difference between first and second generation Chinese Americans, and the clash between new and traditional Chinese ideals and beliefs. Based on true stories, Their Stories celebrates the Chinese American women cultural heritage and documents true stories we might not know about.

United States of Amnesia

Dede Louis

United States of Amnesia is an installation that problematizes experiences of my past and present, as they relate to my worries for our society’s potential futures. Inspired by my Haitian ancestry, the four corners of the project represent past, present, utopian future and dystopian future and throughout them lay hints of Haitian Vodou mythology. I aim to use the personal as a microcosm of the larger scale of human suffering, both inevitable and unnecessary. The section relegated to my past questions my Catholic theological assimilation while in the present I ask, “By facing oneself and the reality of living in this time is it possible to prevent a world where I become a version of myself I regret?” The future is then divided up into one where my dreams of a truly equitable society are realized and another where my fears of coming to live in a world wrecked by a systemic inability to face pressing issues is inescapable. Overall, this project serves as a memory of the many realizations I had about my morals and my dreams for myself outside of gaining capital/status, mostly during the 2020 pandemic. I hope to use United States of Amnesia as a foundation for my future projects and a capsule of my small place in human history.

A Home: Not Paradise

Karen Abe

A Home: Not Paradise is a research-based multimedia installation that explores issues around colonialism, militarism and environmentalism through the lens of tourism in Hawai’i. This immersive experience mirrors the interior of an airplane, utilizes augmented reality (AR), web and audio design tools to inspire the audience to ho’olohe (listen with heart) to the historical and contemporary realities of Hawai’i.

"VENOM"

Rane Bieker

“Who are you?” is not a simple question. You are built from infinite aspects, infinite relationships, ideas, decisions, and interactions.

But what happens when you let your whole sense of self-identity revolve around a single aspect, a single tiny part of you? When you let that aspect become your primary definer, your motivation for living, your self-determined “master status”, as it were?

See, while it’s nice to have a “core” like that to rely upon, the thing about the self is that it’s constantly in flux. Eventually, the aspect you’ve built yourself up around will shift. It will change, dissolve, reform, disappear. And where will you be then?

“VENOM” is an autoethnographic, character-driven narrative project composed of two short video games. It explores the dangers of rigid self-definement and the challenges of identity-building through the lens of parasocial relationships with fictional characters.

It Rains When It Will + Behind the Scenes

Vanessa Cheng

As the dance steps of two elderly people gradually synchronize to the rhythm of the music, their hearts start to intertwine and a long lasting connection is formed under one night’s breeze. It Rains When It Will is a sixteen-minute narrative short film that offers an exploration of the complexities of dating in later life, shining a light on the experiences of the aging population in a way that is rarely seen in mainstream media.

Behind the Scenes is an accompanying behind-the-scenes documentary that provides a glimpse into the making of the film. Shot and produced under challenging political circumstances, this documentary takes you on a journey through the process of creating It Rains When It Will from initial concept to final product.

CITY NOISE

William Falstrup

You know those matter-of-fact details in cities? Distant honking, gum under tables, pennies on the ground, details that you wouldn’t question being there but don’t know exactly how they got there either. Well, what if all those details were put there by one person, and it’s their job to do so? CITY explores this concept through a six episode miniseries, with each episode exploring the categorically distinct characteristics and attributes that make up cities. The film City Noise is Episode 1, centering on city noise and its repetitive, often obtrusive, and sometimes bombastic qualities that populate the urban scope, formulating the routine and rhythm of our daily lives in a City.

Future episodes will explore city food, money, parks, death, and suits.

Homes

Luke Greenwood

Homes (2023) is a concept album and multimedia performance about self-discovery, losing your sense of home, and struggling to build it again. The narrative of Homes follows a young person as they become an adult and undergo a series of personal transformations, as a means to investigate how our sense of “feeling at home” changes during crucial transitions in our lifetimes. As our character grows and changes, so does the style and medium in which the story is told. Each chapter is a different combination of music, film, animation, theater, poetry, reality, fantasy, and remix. The first chapter performed today, “Fell in Love in a Movie” is about falling in love for the first time. It is inspired by classic Hollywood filmmaking, My Bloody Valentine, and The 1975.

Vessels

Eujue Lee

Vessels explores the journey of loneliness, emotional plateaus, and transformation in one’s self. Inspired by personal experiences, I’ve projection mapped animations onto ceramic vessels shaped as Korean moon jars to represent this emotional journey. To bring Vessels to life, I’ve emulated the traditional process of conjoining two hemispheres on the potter’s wheel to create a jar that resembles a moon. Historically, potters in Korea during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) have created moon jars to contain flowers or wine. Ultimately, Vessels intends to physically embody human emotions into ceramic forms, encouraging people to see ceramic pieces beyond utilitarian use and aesthetic purpose, and rather as a vessel to represent emotions.

Reply All

Katie Liu

When I was 7 years old, I created a Yahoo account to vote on American Idol. But the emails I sent after this have long been forgotten in my memories. By facing tangible memories that have once been lost, Reply All is a two-part series that seeks to create a space that promotes deep thought and asks us to face the uncomfortability of our nuanced relationships with the people in our lives that we love. The title Reply All alludes to the email button we all have accidentally pressed. It refers to me sharing my thoughts and feelings to a larger audience, as well as the struggle in allowing myself to be vulnerable in order to do so. Part One is an interactive 3D environment that tells a story about myself and my ever-changing relationship with my parents, and how I am slowly starting to build back a different version of our love. Part Two is an interactive AR experience that shares the stories gathered anonymously from my friends and strangers. Reply All strives to create interactive moments that encourage participants to form their own experience and reflections.

The United States of Amnesia

Dede Louis

United States of Amnesia is an installation that problematizes experiences of my past and present, as they relate to my worries for our society’s potential futures. Inspired by my Haitian ancestry, the four corners of the project represent past, present, utopian future and dystopian future and throughout them lay hints of Haitian Vodou mythology. I aim to use the personal as a microcosm of the larger scale of human suffering, both inevitable and unnecessary. The section relegated to my past questions my Catholic theological assimilation while in the present I ask, “By facing oneself and the reality of living in this time is it possible to prevent a world where I become a version of myself I regret?” The future is then divided up into one where my dreams of a truly equitable society are realized and another where my fears of coming to live in a world wrecked by a systemic inability to face pressing issues is inescapable. Overall, this project serves as a memory of the many realizations I had about my morals and my dreams for myself outside of gaining capital/status, mostly during the 2020 pandemic. I hope to use United States of Amnesia as a foundation for my future projects and a capsule of my small place in human history.

West Adams: Mapping Racialized Space

Luke Quezada

West Adams: Mapping Racialized Space explores the history of the Los Angeles West Adams district, a neighborhood which has been historically tied to issues of systemic racism and oppression. Tension and conflict in the neighborhood have almost always been the result of changing racial demographics. This project rethinks how historical materials, first-person narratives, and photographic representations define the documentary space. Rather than situating the audience in front of a screen, this piece employs a 360-degree cylindrical screen to develop an immersive examination of the history of the West Adams neighborhood. Through presenting public records, historical archives, interviews with community members, and 3D capture, this project aims to educate the public about the legacy and significance of West Adams from a first-person perspective. Giant format video and spatial audio create a sense of immersion that is essential to understanding how larger power structures impact day-to-day life in a community. First-person testimonials are used alongside archival sounds and sampling to develop a chronology of development, prosperity, and loss in West Adams.

DIGI-CHAIR

Cole Slater

DIGI-CHAIR is a combative media project examining the contentions between physical and digital materiality as it relates to simulations. The project elicits warnings of the deceptive nature of digital spaces, like the Metaverse, through presenting chairs composed of various materials. These materials range from real materials, those found in our physical environment, and digital materials, those which are conjured in digital spaces. Each chair emits a sonic representation of its materiality as it travels down a conveyer belt towards the viewer. The architectural space spawning these DIGI-CHAIRS is a hyper-realistic render aiming to illustrate the deceptive nature of simulations. More so, this DIGI-CHAIR spawning point, also known as the DIGI-VERSE is intertwined with lifelessness, impossibility, and the raw power of digital materiality– all these visual cues poetically paint simulations, like the Metaverse, as inhabitable by acknowledging the presence of digital materiality. DIGI-VERSES like these should be used as spaces for the impossible to become a reality, rather than conjuring a fake reality.

DIGI-CHAIRS can enter your physical reality with Instagram AR technology. Visit @colewslater on Instagram to place two unique DIGI-CHAIRS in space.

Music by Sebastian Sack

Special Thanks To:

DJ Johnson, Elizabeth Ramsey, Michael Bodie, Sonia Seetharaman, Carrie Chen, Phylizia Carrillo, ZAP & The Z-Board, Sebastian Sack, Steve Slater, Dorinda Marticorena, Cameron Slater

The Rest of the Portfolio

Micaela Terry

A portfolio is curated. The person making the portfolio puts their best foot forward, only selecting their finest works that they feel are appropriate for the context that the portfolio will be viewed in. But Art is an imperfect process, in the same way that humans are imperfect beings. An artist often struggles—be it with the physical act of making, the journey to “perfecting” their craft, or with the emotions associated with a given piece. Creation is not a linear journey, either; sometimes an artist stagnates or deals with creative blocks. Therefore, it is important to have a more holistic representation of an artist’s work, and by extension, who they are as a person; this is what my project attempts to represent.

The Rest of the Portfolio is a web-based selection of my own works in progress, unfinished works, ideas, practice sketches, and derivative works that would not typically be considered portfolio-worthy. Opening each individual work will allow you to hear some of the thoughts associated with that piece, rising up above a sea of thoughts about the rest of my work.

Looking Glass

Jonathan Tolentino

Looking Glass is a mini planetarium installation that focuses on aberrations and practical effects involved with projection mapping. It explores interactions between audio and light using hand sensors. The visuals are designed to look like refracted light, while the accompanying sound creates an immersive experience, making the installation both visually and audibly stimulating. This installation has applications in various fields, such as education, entertainment, and marketing. It can also be used as an immersive marketing tool to showcase products and services in a unique and engaging way. Finally, Looking Glass can be enjoyed as a work of art, allowing viewers to escape from reality and enter a world of their own creation.

Algorithm Celebrity

Adam Vossen

Algorithm Celebrity is a documentary that explores online identity construction, fame aspiration and social media's influence on the entertainment industry. The project centers around Adam, who uses the creative tools of social media and fashion to express himself. He is on a mission to get an invite to Los Angeles Fashion Week because, in his opinion, appearing there is the epitome of “making it”. The documentary is shaped around a series of interviews ranging from aspiring influencers to social media managers, who will share the real effects these apps have on their career success. Algorithm Celebrity aims to provide a new perspective surrounding the glamorization of internet fame, a tool that many Gen-Z wish to use to their advantage. Most importantly, the project is rooted in scholarly research and statistics that warn of the effects social media has on young people’s mental health worldwide today.

HEADLINERS

Valerie Wang

HEADLINERS is a documentary essay film exploring what safety looks like for the avid concertgoer. Music festivals have the ability to bring diverse groups of people together, all united by their common love for music, experience, and fun. However, in light of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting and 2021 Astroworld Festival casualty incident, music festivals have also been the victim of modern-day public safety issues.

HEADLINERS explores the intricacies of navigating music festivals through the lens of self-preservation and contemplating the positive and negative aspects of music festivals. These factors include analyzing the behaviors of concert-goers, the responsibility of festival organizers, and the socio-political contexts that question the ethics of the music festival’s return post-pandemic. HEADLINERS concludes with an exploration of how music festivals can improve safety concerns, regain the trust of attendees, and return to its reputation as a place of collective, unified enjoyment of the arts.

Intertwined: An Art Gallery

Ally Wei

Intertwined was an intimate art space event that took place in November 2022. It aimed to reinvent the experience of an art gallery by creating work centered around the idea of “What makes you, you?”. By exploring questions such as “Why do you create?” and “What experiences have made you who you are?,” artists were able to actively create work that opened conversations with audiences to communicate more personally and intimately. While the event has already taken place, this mini-installation displays the result of audience interaction-made work. I’d like to invite you to examine and reflect on this snapshot of a very special exhibit.

Intertwined sparked the development of the creative organization Fellows Collective, a thoughtful, community and art-based platform that's goal is to create unique events and opportunities that allow creatives to be more intimate with their audiences.

The Love Letter Club

Claire Wong

Dear Media Arts + Practice Exhibition,

I am so excited to finally share with you, the Love Letter Club! The Love Letter Club explores the emotion of love through the art of letter writing, aiming to break the romantic connotations of the term "love" and bring back the beauty of handwritten affection. From my close friends and beloved community, we have come together to write letters that reflect on love in all of its stages — fondness, hurt, grief, gratitude.

When was the last time you told someone you loved them? I invite you to join the Love Letter Club and write with me!

Love,

Claire

GUUBA

Summer Xiang

What would a species grown from seeds look like? What values would they have? An exhibition of paintings and models attempts to take a stab at these questions.

GUUBA is a project that tells of a plant-based revolution. Existing on a different wavelength to the Anthropocene, Nineteen creatures organize their community based on sustainability, fulfillment, and mutual-exchange. As pieces of the Guubas’ story, these models hope to prompt visitors to look at our world’s systems again with child-like possibilities.