Creative Works Fellowship
The Creative Works Fellowship (CWF) is a 10-12 week summer program that provides CMC students in the humanities the opportunity to engage in a fully funded self-directed project that culminates in some type of creative output. Past projects include: podcasts, artworks (2-dimensional and 3-dimensional), e-magazines, documentary films, virtual games, etc.
Information for the Summer 2022 Creative Works Fellowship will be released in Spring 2022.
Summer 2023 Creative Works Fellows
Rukmini Banerjee
The Right to Learn - How the Humanities Play a Role in Developing Critical Consciousness
This summer, I am attempting to participate in the project on critical consciousness (as described by Paulo Freire) by teaching a course on critical race theory and structural violence to incarcerated youth at the San Mateo County Juvenile Hall. I will be teaching this class through the Prison Education Program (PEP). I have previously taught Introduction to Philosophy at PEP 3 times online, but this is my first time teaching in person as well as teaching a class that I have designed entirely on my own. While teaching the class, I will explore how the humanities can be effectively taught as a part of the process of critical consciousness. I plan to pursue this inquiry through a series of oral testimonials that I record with my students while also interviewing other teachers of incarcerated students during the summer. I will compile these testimonials and overlay them onto a digital magazine I create throughout the summer in collaboration with my students. I believe this project will compellingly illustrate the power of the humanities and the necessity of teaching it to students. Everyone has a right to learn and critically develop their consciousness, and I believe this project is a striking bearer of that message.
Josefine Byström
Sustainable Fashion Through the Lens of the Fashion Capitals
The fashion industry is one of the largest polluters in the world, with fast fashion companies wasting resources and taking advantage of trend cycles. It is unrealistic for people to instantaneously be more sustainable, but I am passionate about finding doable ways to be more mindful of sustainable fashion. Through the Creative Works Fellowship, I will create a short documentary and write blogs about sustainable fashion’s multifaceted angles by exploring sustainable fashion in New York, Milan, and London. I plan to talk to shop owners, startup founders, investors, and others in the sustainable fashion space to incorporate multiple perspectives. I want to learn what to look for when assessing the quality of clothing items, such as stitching types, materials, and design, so I can share knowledge about the sustainable aspects of clothes people often overlook. I also hope to provide case studies of brands and designers who are successfully implementing sustainable fashion practices. My documentary will incorporate my experiences and interviews in these cities, hopefully inspiring more people to move towards sustainable fashion practices. I look forward to a transformative summer experience that promises to push me out of my intellectual comfort zone and allow me to engage in more adventurous creative outlets.
Ava Kopp
Love & Faith: Stories of Queer Catholic Youth
For my Creative Works Fellowship, I’m traveling to Madrid, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in order to create a documentary that shines a light on the challenges that LGBTQ+ individuals face within the Catholic Church and the inspiring stories of those who have found acceptance and support within their faith community. Additionally, I’m creating a website that highlights stories of queer Catholic youth around the world. Through interviews with priests, nuns, seminarians, church-goers, and individuals of all ages and backgrounds, I hope to create a compelling and visually stunning film that brings visibility to this important topic. I’ll ask questions to which I’ve also searched for answers, such as “How has your faith influenced your understanding of your sexual identity? What kind of environment does prejudice against LGBTQ+ youth and individuals create in Catholicism, and what kind of impact does that have on someone’s identity and existence?” In exploring this project, I want to confront the collective shame, fear, and alienation that many queer youths go through when they exist in Catholic spaces. Through the interviews and production of my documentary, I think I’ll also forge a sense of connection and community as I hear stories from others who have similar experiences and challenges. Overall, this project is an enriching and illuminating exploration of the intersection between sexuality, faith, and identity.
Ivanna Morales Mercado
De-Colonializing Food: A Foodie’s Guide to Colonial Legacies and their Subversion
Our current global and extractive food system is not as modern as it seems; colonial historical legacies define today's global food system. My project explores these historical legacies by writing and publishing an educational cookbook. The book commences with an introduction and analysis of the Caribbean roots of food globalization. This section will examine the agricultural products indigenous to the Americas and their economic and cultural implications there and abroad. The second section of the book will elaborate on the current globalization of food and the impact of sugar on the health of Caribbean people. Today, foods high in sugar can be more economically and agriculturally accessible than fresh, local produce for Caribbean people. In the final section, the book will introduce food sovereignty and zero-waste cooking strategies as remedial solutions to the injustice in today's global food system. Each part of the cookbook will include recipes that highlight ingredients that capture the agricultural and culinary tendencies of the period. Through my project, I hope to provide insight and inspire reflection, so people take steps to cook and consume food with historical, social, and environmental awareness.
Jim Sangsvang
Music Moves Europe: The Evolution of the Culture of Music in Europe
Music is a cultural innovation that is constantly evolving. Around the world, as genres and styles have begun to mix, the ideas surrounding tradition in music have begun to change massively, with each new generation pioneering new blends and blurring the lines between culture. For my project, I wanted to create an e-magazine in which I analyzed the evolution of the classical musical culture of major cities in Central Europe, with a focus on the diversification of the music performed in traditional spaces, and the expansion of education regarding music of the Western tradition. I am spending two months in Central Europe analyzing the program Music Moves Europe, an initiative created by Europe to support music diversity and music education, in order to understand the links between innovation and cultural tradition while also engaging in music, something I have been passionate about my whole life.
Kylee Tevis
Music Across Classes
Socioeconomic status can affect even the way in which people listen to music. For my project, I will spend three weeks in New York, where I will visit both high- and low-end jazz clubs and observe the characteristics that make them each unique, gaining insight from interviewees who visit the clubs, workers, and performers about their experiences and thoughts. I will also be visiting and interviewing local street performers and buskers. I will then write a coffee table book that will include film photography from the trip, poetry, and narrative that expresses the culture of music in New York City. I will explore the question: are musical behaviors affected by social variables? Despite all of their differences, I believe people are drawn to music in the same way. I intend for this book to be a tool to help people realize the power of music despite any cultural or financial barriers they may face.
Claire Vlases
Stopping to Smell Montana's Wildflowers: A Comprehensive Guide to Native Flora
In a world bustling with noise and distractions, it can be difficult to remember to “stop and smell the roses.” This simple phrase is a reminder to take a pause and appreciate the world around you. Roses don’t seek our admiration or demand our attention; they simply exist in the inherent beauty of the present moment. This summer, I took this phrase quite literally. Wild roses are among hundreds of plants native to my home state, Montana. However, many of these plants have been particularly vulnerable to climate change. I spent this summer exploring the greater Yellowstone ecosystem cataloging and detailing the plants and wildflowers I found in a comprehensive field manual. My goal is that anyone can use this manual to find appreciation in the natural beauty in Western Montana, and hopefully inspire conservation efforts. I want everyone to take the time to smell the roses!
Summer 2022 Creative Works Fellows
ZAC DAVIS ’24
CHOSEN OF HELIA: FURTHERING POLYTHEISTIC PANTHEONS IN CONTEMPORARY FICTION.
I will write and publish a fiction novel titled “Chosen of Helia” developing an emerging genre in contemporary fiction. I have observed a recent surge in the popularity of “Greek style” pantheons in both western and eastern fantasy. “Greek style” pantheons having the following characteristics: polytheism, gods limited to one sphere of influence, lacking omniscience, deceivable by humans, in competition with each other (typically for believers and power), and human emotions pride and ambition. I seek to read, analyze, and explore the use of “Greek style” pantheons in contemporary western and eastern fiction, before attempting to write and produce a book of my own further developing this fiction subgenre.
SOPHIE GROSSMAN ’23
PRETTY ASIAN: DISCUSSING THE POWER OF THE ASIAN AMERICAN ELECTORATE
The AAPI community is the fastest growing racial population in the nation and makes up 7% of the total United States population. As the fastest growing segment of the U.S. electorate, the AAPI community turned out in record numbers this year. There are over 2 million AAPI workers in the healthcare, transportation, and service industries that are on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. This summer, I plan to dive further into the diverse composition of the Asian American community and learn about what drives the community to the polls. Additionally, I will be exploring my own experiences as a Chinese woman navigating the political world and sharing what I’ve learned through the medium of a podcast!
LABIBA HASSAN ’25
WHERE DOES IT STOP?: A LENS INTO INEQUITY IN NYC SUBWAYS
The New York City Subway system is known for its efficiency in networking four out of five boroughs. Unlike other cities, 56% of the population uses the public transportation system, establishing it as a core aspect of the city’s lifestyle. The transit system serves as a way of not only the physical travel of people, but the journey of art and culture. The stations bustle with street musicians, artists, and food vendors. Despite such positive attributes, the quality and access of subway systems are significantly worse in minority dense communities. This imposes limitations on their ability to indulge and contribute to NYC culture, creating a disconnect between what is commonly portrayed in the media. My goal is not to only show the negative aspects of the subway system, but to depict it in a less glamorized lens. Without a way to access good education, safe parks, or jobs, social mobility is restricted and creates an inescapable cycle of poor living standards. I will compose an online zine that highlights how geographical and systemic racism is enforced by transit inequity. This allows for the comparison of photos, audio clips, interviews, along with annotations synthesizing the material; ergo, my conclusions would be evident and easy to understand. Ultimately, my project answers: How do transit inequalities in the NYC public subway system regress the socio-economic growth of minority communities?
CHARLETTE HWANG ’24
CHARLETTE’S WEB
I have a lot of thoughts. (I think. Hey, another one!) Unfortunately, I am extremely bad at organizing these thoughts in way that I can refer back to and use later on. My Notes app has 144 separate documents, 95% of which I have never revisited. So, I wanted a way for me to easily access, alter, and interpret the numerous ideas and arguments that I have encountered over my life. Being that my memory seems entirely limited to the visual senses, I wanted to organize these different ideas in a way that makes sense to me visually. With these goals, I am hoping to create a few things: a database that can store both the ideas and the logical connections that they might share in forming an argument, an interface to easily access and alter the contents of the database, and a 3D graph drawing algorithm that would create a visual representation of the database as web of interconnected ideas and arguments.
KIRBY KIMBALL ’25
REFUGEE RESONANCE: THE RECKONING OF 12 MILLION
On February 24th, 2022, millions of Ukrainian lives changed forever. Families fled, pets were left behind, streets became ghost towns, and shelling echoed through the nights as many Americans watched the horror through phones. We tracked Twitter updates, grimaced at political elites on the screen, and read increasingly harrowing reports through the BBC, the NYT, or CNN. This is the most significant war act in Europe since the horrors ended in 1945. And yet, life seems to continue on relatively normally in the US. I aim to close that gap – the disconnect many Americans feel as we observe a massive infringement of human rights through our screens. How can we remind ourselves of humanity? How can we collectively engage in this crisis? How can we not just sit and cycle through our days during a mass-scale invasion? This summer, I will travel to Brussels, Belgium: the de facto capital of the EU. Living as an expat, I plan to volunteer and interview refugees who have lost nearly everything in this war. Speaking with Ukrainians, volunteer staff, Belgian locals, and hopefully representatives of EU political institutions, I hope to produce a short-form documentary about the Ukrainian refugee experience. A conglomeration of portraits, writing, blogging, and documentary material will tie together to create informative art for my peers back home. The hope is to return to Claremont in the Fall of 2022 and host a gallery and screening – with a goal of raising as many donations as possible. All proceeds will go to the volunteer centers working tirelessly to support these refugees.
Alessia Zanobini ’23
(RE)CONNECTING: DANCE/MOVEMENT THERAPY IN THE DIGITAL ERA
What is the mind-body disconnect, and how do we heal it? At times, I’ve felt disconnected from my own body, as if it's something to deal with rather than who/what I am. This dissociative feeling was most intense for me during some periods in high school, came back while quarantining in my childhood bedroom, then again during the first week of Zoom school back at CMC this spring. Living through a pandemic has both heightened past traumas and inflicted new ones upon all of us; it has also encouraged creative approaches to healing. Somatic-based healing practices such as dance can be uniquely valuable in dealing with complex trauma, exploring relationships with one’s own body, and in creating a stronger understanding of emotions’ physical manifestations. It is my goal to spend the summer in New York City researching how Dance/Movement Therapy can heal the mind-body disconnect, culminating in a short film of my findings. I will specifically focus on how such a physical type of therapy has been adapted and digitized during the pandemic. Since most of the practices I will study are rooted in physical contact and in-person observation, I am highly interested in how dancers and therapists approach the limitations of the pandemic while trying to heal.
Summer 2021 Creative Works Fellows
Jane Baldwin ’22
(Re)Introducing A National Pastime: Minor League Baseball & American Public Life
After a yearlong hiatus, Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is back. To the fans of these teams, the geographically diverse localities that host them, and the ballpark workers who are back in business, this is a welcome return to some sort of normalcy. But it’s also uncharted territory: what are the pandemic-era rules, written and otherwise, of re-entering communal space? I believe it is possible to view the return of the MiLB as a fascination in its own right, but also as a microcosm of this country’s attempted restoration of public life. And it is because of this microcosmic aspect that the 2021 MiLB season begs documentation. For my project, I will travel across my home state of New York, compiling a record of the ‘new normals’ within and across the state’s six distinct MiLB municipalities. I will attend games, interview community members, and attempt to memorialize a shared lived experience. My project will combine aspects of oral history, documentary, and photojournalism, and will culminate in a narrative-driven, digital photo journal. Through my creative output, I hope to lend permanence and importance to the stories—both individual and communal– at the heart of this moment.
Zoe carlson ’22
Sacred Soil: Gardening and Religion Across Traditions
I received the piece of advice: “cultivate your inner garden.” This summer, I will research how religion is rooted in horticulture. I aim to connect gardening and religious experience through phenomenology, myth, cosmology, medicine, mysticism, and more. My field of inquiry will be devoted to readings on Zen Buddhism and the ways it manifests in Japanese Rock Gardens. This research will answer the question: how does gardening cultivate a sense of the sacred? I will also build a garden according to the traditions I study. The cultivation process will be documented and I will share my reflections digitally. Humans have become increasingly severed from nature, leading to increased health issues and environmental destruction. I question how faith can reinvigorate relationships with the natural world. Approaching this project without a religious affiliation and with a deep love for nature, I will employ my religious studies experience. Practicing mindfulness will help me stay present, bearing witness to what arises when I dig into the soil.
Lauryn Jeans ’22
Red Rocks Church: A case study of transformational spiritual Leadership
Religious leaders throughout history have contributed immensely to their followers' values and changed the trajectory of the world. The study of the famous prophets-Moses, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad—brings to life the transformational power that comes from combining leadership and religion. My Creative Works Fellowship will aim to produce a case study of an organization that has incorporated transformational leadership and religious principles into their mission and development. In just over ten years, Red Rocks Church (RRC) has developed into a congregation of tens of thousands, spread across 5 campuses in Colorado, Texas, and Belgium. In order to assess and measure this religious organization's creativity, leadership, and impact, I plan to draw on the transformational, social change, and spiritual intelligence leadership theories. My project will combine participant-observation and interviews with clergy, worship team leaders, regular church volunteer lay leaders, and my own personal experiences of attending, volunteering, and shadowing Red Rocks Church over 10 weeks. My goal is to produce a Zine (mini, self-published magazine) that will analyze the leadership, social change, and spiritual intelligence strategies that have enabled the church's rapid growth and produced what many have described as a transformational culture and community.
Sydney LEe ’22
You’re Not Crazy
In 2019, over 50 million people in the United States (~20%) had a mental illness, and this number increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is still a concerning disconnect between those who are affected and those seeking help or treatment. Between 2017 and 2018, 60% of youth under the age of 18 that were suffering from severe depression did not receive treatment. This disconnect can be attributed to several factors, including stigma, finances, culture, accessibility, and education. My personal observations and conversations with peers have demonstrated that stigma prevents people from acknowledging their mental state and seeking help. This stigma is perpetuated by the media. Films often use mental illnesses to vilify individuals, and these portrayals are often inaccurate representations of mental illness. These portrayals influence people’s perceptions of mental illness and lead to misconceptions. Additionally, my analyses have revealed a general unawareness of support that is available to people who are suffering from mental illness. I wanted my project to address these issues. Through an informative picture e-book, I hope to educate others about the misconceptions of mental illness, combat the stigma associated with mental illness, and provide resources and advice. I do this through brightly colored graphics, which make the information less intimidating and more digestible.
Maya shah ’23
Blaming minorities in times of crisis
Two years ago, I created a short film that focused on the rise of discrimination of Muslim Americans after 9/11. Since the onset of the pandemic last year, the same type of fear mongering that plagued Muslim Americans after 9/11 has resurfaced, this time targeting Asian Americans. From the time the lockdown began in March 2020, I cannot think of a week when my phone did not buzz with a news alert about a new hate crime committed against an Asian American. My social media feed has been bombarded with pictures of Asian-run businesses being destroyed and vandalized. And once again, some media outlets and political leaders have validated and encouraged these hateful views, such as when President Trump called COVID-19 the “Chinese Virus” and “Kung Flu”. I am creating a documentary film that examines peoples’ inclination to cast blame on minority groups in times of crisis by focusing on the treatment of Muslim Americans after 9/11, and of Asian Americans after the pandemic. My project will address some of the weighty questions that surround such scapegoating such as: what circumstances lead to such scapegoating?; what feelings about Muslims and Asians did 9/11 and the pandemic engender among people directly impacted by those events?; and what political and social efforts might successfully counter scapegoating and promote unity?
Summer 2020 Creative Works Fellows
Matias Alvarado ’22
The SOCIAL LANDSCAPE OF COVID
My project will observe the social landscape of the novel coronavirus in California, specifically in the cities of Santa Cruz, Watsonville/Salinas, and Sunnyvale. I chose these cities because of their differing landscape and socio-economic makeup: the scenic beauty of Santa Cruz, the tech-heavy suburb of Sunnyvale, and agricultural presence of Watsonville/Salinas will help paint a more complete picture as to the virus ‘profound effects on society. Due to the restrictions in place, I will not be able to travel much throughout my project. I will therefore create a flowing document of my findings and add pictures and personal anecdotes throughout. I hope to reflect, through my creative output, the wide range of sentiments felt worldwide as we tackle this virus together.
Emily Bisaga ’22
Art and Healing During COVID-19
COVID-19 has touched the lives of people around the world. With drastic changes to our society and quarantine in place, people have been left to cope with fear, isolation, hardship and uncertainty. Specifically, these changes have been deeply felt by college aged students who rely on the independence college provides during this transitional period in their lives. This summer I would like to create a podcast to explore how college-aged artists have relied on their art to cope with these challenges and facilitate emotional healing.This podcast will feature stories about how each individual became involved with their art form, how they have interacted with their art during quarantine and how/if their art has provided them with solace during the pandemic. Additionally, I will use this time to engage in ceramics, which is an art form that has helped my own self-discovery, self-esteem and emotional healing. I will create ceramic pieces inspired by stories of each artist and display these pieces at CMC during the 2020-2021 school year.
SARAH CHEN ’22
Your World of Tomorrow
Your World of Tomorrow is a speculative narrative where the player attempts to create their ideal techno-utopia. The name of the project is inspired by Don Hertzfeldt’s animated science-fiction short World of Tomorrow as well as New York’s famous World of Tomorrow fair in 1939. Through firsthand research of science fiction, philosophy, and political dilemmas, I plan to create an interactive, branching path story for users to play through with multiple unique ending options. The content will be heavily based on science fiction in various forms of media such as short stories, novels, films, and video games as well as current day political issues, ethical and moral theory, and future theorists’ predictions. Your World of Tomorrow presents the player with various options to build their futuristic society, and they will face unintended consequences of their actions that destabilize their creation and question their choices. The hope of this project is to encourage engagement with the moral quandaries and potential consequences found in the intersection between technology, society, and good intentions while creating an enjoyable and re-playable gameplay experience.
MAYA GHOSH ’22
#DIGITALRELIGION: EXAMINING THE INTERSECTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND FAITH
In an age where individuals are becoming less religious and increasingly enamored of social media, I seek to learn how religions are evolving to attract new members while abiding by their sacred text. This issue begs the question: How does religion stay relevant? My Creative Works Fellowship project aims to provide an answer. Through a series of podcast interviews and an accompanying collage of people engaging with faith, I will examine how religion is progressing under contexts like social media, technology, and growing dissatisfaction with religious ideology. I will conduct interviews with faith leaders and devotees of Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. The perspectives of these men and women will shed light on how their religions and places of worship are evolving towards compatibility with current sociopolitical climates and other generational developments. I will ask questions regarding how they make religious messages appealing in a time where teens and young adults are more concerned with trends, hashtags, and getting “likes” on social media. This set of interviews will provide insight on how young adults are changing the narrative of what it means to be connected to God.
MATTHEW LEDER ’22
PETRI DISH, USA
For the 2.3 million people in our country’s jails and prisons, the coronavirus pandemic is especially terrifying. Severe overcrowding, inadequate health care, and constant population churn have branded correctional facilities “Petri dishes” for the virus to spread. Petri Dish, USA is a documentary film about the impact of coronavirus on the people and places under the purview of our nation’s criminal justice system. Spanning multiple states throughout the US, it follows the stories of inmates and their families, correctional officers, religious leaders, activists, and politicians. The film aims to give both an intimate understanding of how coronavirus is affecting the lives of everyday Americans and a broader understanding of how the virus is unfolding within the criminal justice system as a whole. Intimate experience will be contextualized through a legal, social, and political framework, while this framework will be given depth and color through the subtle nuances of first-hand testimonies.
Annika Ozizmir ’22
Culture Through the Looking Glass: An Exploration
As reflective surfaces on iPhones and computer screens occupy more and more of our visual attention, our reflections are shaped by glass. As translucent rooms and skyscrapers become our homes, towns, and cities, the future of our physical world is cast in glass. With the Creative Works Fellowship program and guidance from Professor Farrell, I will study glass holistically, as a material that is important not only in technology, manufacturing, and architecture but also in a metaphysical sense by examining its role in art and culture. My creative output will be a research paper about our interactions with glass in modern art and society. I will also create a series of stained glass pieces inspired by my exploration of glass itself. These pieces, paired with my essay, aim to capture the complexity and multi-faceted nature of the relationship between glass and modernity.
Toluwani Roberts ’22
Summer of Return
Since childhood, I have struggled with the fact and feeling of “home.” I was born in Nigeria and raised in New York City, but I was not always present there. I grew up restless with the desire to travel to different countries and learn a diversity of cultures. Since 2015, I’ve had many opportunities to do so. In other words, I’ve had many opportunities to create “home” elsewhere. This summer, however, I will be in my “home”-town of Jamaica, Queens, exploring this question: how and why is my body, my blackness, my house, my city, my countries, this world, this Earth, etc. “home?” I will read, watch, and listen to essays and media that attempt to answer this question and reflect frequently on my blog toluspeaks.com. I also plan to interview family, friends, and neighbors on their own feelings and interpretations of “home.” My summer project will culminate in a printed chapbook of short stories, poems, photos, and interviews entitled Summer of Return: Home, again.
Henry Schulz ’22
Ground Level: A podcast exploring the power of local government and public service
Ground Level is a podcast that explores the power of state and local government. Each episode will be 20-30 minute interviews about 10 local and state elected officials, fellow political junkies, and civic-minded Americans. The broad goal of the podcast is to educate and inspire listeners about the importance of down-ballot politics. I also want it to be a call to action about what it means to serve and be dedicated to a community. To most people, local government isn’t as attractive as Washington D.C and national politics. People don’t understand why someone would take a low paying job on a school board or a city council seat. That is why every guest will answer one of these questions: why do you dedicate yourself to your community? Why is public service your calling? What does patriotism mean to you? From these answers, I hope listeners understand why the guests have chosen a path of service and are inspired by this fundamental interaction between community and an individual. I want Ground Level to ultimately humanize politics for everyone who listens and inspire them to be a public servant in their own way.
Summer 2019 Creative Works Fellows
Caroline Eastburn ’20
Do You Like Me? The Self After Selfies
Do You Like Me? The Self After Selfies is an artistic exploration of conceptions of self within today’s media saturated society. We are surrounded by everyone’s curated image of self through their Instagram feeds and Snapchat stories. We are constantly bombarded with bent truths, highly personalized advertisements, and an increasingly self-conscious cohort. We already know that social media can be dangerous, but how does it change the way we present ourselves? Cindy Sherman paved the way for extreme exercises in self portraiture and representations of self, but how are artists now reacting to our oversaturation of media content? Specifically, how do we react to an oversaturation of self-portraiture or now known as “selfies”?
Do You Like Me? The Self After Selfies will exhibit five artists working in all mediums responding to these questions and the anxiety self-representation produces today. Essentially, how do they present to the world? The show, set in a pop-up space in the East Village for one day only, is itself a representation of myself as I examine my own relationship to curation and art historical context. My occupation of the space and my thinking surrounding the work is inherently a representation of self. I will ask visitors to relate it to their own experience and respond with how their sense of self has now been altered by existing in the space. Do You Like Me? The Self After Selfies is an exercise in conceptions of self by artists, viewers, and myself.
Anna Green ’21
How the Past Informs the Present: an Examination of Contested Historical Figures, Public Art, and Civic Nationalism
For my Creative Works Fellowship project, I am seeking to examine the ways that European nations represent contested historical figures through publicly-funded mediums. I have worked with Professor Pears, my advisor, to refine my research question and design a research plan. I intend to visit four cities—London, Paris, Berlin, and Krakow—over six weeks. In each city, I will examine 1-3 key historical figures and their representation in national museums, monuments, and relics to understand how various governments portray their national history to the public. I am also going to visit private collections, speak to experts and/or locals to evaluate whether or not governments’ portrayals aligns with peoples’ perceptions of these figures. The Creative Works Fellowship stipulates a creative research output; for my project, I am going to make a digital publication that combines my research with reflections and mementos from the trip. Through my research, I hope to begin answering the question: what figures do nations idolize and how do these choices impact citizens’ feelings towards the government and feelings of patriotism? Ultimately, I hope to develop a better understanding of how European countries preserve controversial figures within the broader scope of their national history, while examining different means to address these figures without undermining citizens’ sense of civic nationalism.
Sabrina hartono ’21
A Museum of the Heart
I grew up in an Asian community where both traditional cultural roots and Western ideology influenced my worldview and where stereotypes related to "Eastern" and "Western" outlooks on love were prominent. After diving deeper into the humanities--throughout my classes at CMC and beyond the classroom--my interest in the area blossomed. I now have a framework with which to reconsider “truths” that I never had the chance to explore and challenge. My experience growing up in Southeast Asia has placed me a unique position where I can reflect on these seemingly different approaches and I have come to realize that “Eastern” and “Western” perceptions about love are more similar than they are different. A Museum of the Heart, an art journal, will explore representations of love and life in the history, literature, and philosophy of the East, the West and capture my personal experiences within this topic.
Tori Johnson ’21
Picture Imperfect: An Avant Garde Study of Social Media and Self-Identity
During a 6-week trip to Europe, I will study the relationship between a person’s self-identity and their self-representation on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. With the guidance of my advisor, Professor Basu, I will use classical and contemporary philosophy to understand how identity interacts with social media. I will visit Berlin, Poland, and London to get exposure to a range of cultural norms on social media. In each city, I will record short interviews with social media users and influencers. From the audio content, I will create a podcast that features pieces of the interviews, research on social media, and my own narrative. To incentivize others to agree to interviews, I will offer a free photoshoot where I will take professional quality photos that they can use on their social media sites. Using my background in sewing, I then will make an avant-garde paper dress out of the printed photos from the photo shoots. Avant-garde designs are seen as hot fashion, and yet they have little semblance to everyday wear. Similarly, social media often displays an enhanced and incomplete reality. Starting with this parallel and applying my research, I hope to model the relationship between social media and identity through my dress design. In a final presentation, I will merge the podcast narrative with a showcase of the dress, revealing how my findings can translate into an interpretive art form.
Eric Oregel ’21
In Search of the Modern American Land Ethic
The scope of this project will involve traveling the country and conducting a series of interviews in an attempt to create a comprehensive account what the American Land Ethic is to different professionals who deal directly with land or nature. The Land Ethic is a theoretical framework that has, at the very least, implicitly guided all human interaction with nature with regards to its use as a means in survival and production. At a time in which environmental policy is being heavily debated and the ramifications of climate change, deforestation, and non-sustainable agricultural practices are beginning to manifest, the fissure between how US citizens view their relationship to nature has been extremely apparent. I will embark on a road trip beginning on June 1 and ending on approximately July 29. Over the course of this trip I will be conducting interviews and capturing my experience via photos and various multimedia. I plan to drive through 28 states and my interview slate will include a wide range of people from different backgrounds and professional capacities in an effort to compose a comprehensive and inclusive answer to this question. The end result will be a photo journal with transcripts from various interviews, portraits of each interviewee, and a general photo exhibit of the road trip and the areas I will be visiting.
Zoey Ryu ’20
Third Culture Narratives
Via a digital curation of third-culture narratives, I wish for other third-culture individuals (TCI) to find a sense of self, the way I did in the stories of those who learned to be comfortable in the multicultural default that life was set to. As the hostess of TCI individual narratives, I will collect and digitally curate their old photographs, home videos, and memorabilia, interlacing it with quotes and poetic portraiture.
Will SIleo ’20
Think Like a Human: A Philosophical Exploration on Being Human in the Modern Context
My project will be to produce a ten-episode podcast that approaches philosophical issues concerning human nature and experience through a variety of viewpoints, including established philosophers, professors, my peers, and pop culture. Each episode will take on a different philosophical issue such as responsibility for our emotions, the constraints of morality, etc., concepts that have a relevance and relatability to my peers but also contain philosophical underpinnings. In one episode the concept I want to deal with is the effects of technology on what it means to be human, focusing on phones as an extension of our humanity. I will discuss the views of my peers on the subject, and then compare and contrast these points of view with those of philosophers, both ancient and modern on what it means to be human. On another episode I intend to address the concept of willpower, gaining opinions from my peers on how they conceive of the subject and how it applies to their own daily life, and then turning to philosophers such as Plato and Gary Watson to make sense of our intuitions on the subject, focusing on the basic assumptions philosophers use in developing their views. From these varied perspectives I hope to create a synthesis of viewpoints that will make philosophical thought and knowledge more accessible to those outside of the subject and stimulate interest in seeing and applying this philosophical way of thinking to one’s life. This podcast will be hosted on Spotify and Apple Music, feel free to give it a listen!