Animated Video Projection on Objects – a Studio Art Practice

Abstract

This thesis support paper is the trajectory of my search to uncover what constitutes an aesthetic for my current practice and to unpack what I think the work is about. In this paper I trace the development of my process, identify primary aesthetic preferences, elucidate inspirations, and finally present several interpretations of the work. I came into the MFA program with the intention of moving my practice in animation to an art form that was non-linear and free of a flat projection screen and story arc. Working with materials is important to me and I also wanted to find a way to integrate time-based media with material art forms. What I discovered early in the MFA program is that making this shift in my practice involved understanding how object art generates meaning differently than the animated film does. In the Thesis Exhibition I take ordinary household objects, disrupt them so they are unfamiliar then project animated video of other ordinary objects made strange onto them. The illogical objects and their juxtaposition generates a tension – a cognitive stretching – that gives rise to various readings of the work. Perceptually engaged, I am immersed in a cognitive puzzle trying to make sense of the paradoxes I am experiencing and bring them to a resolution. It continues to astound me to what degree the household objects that I make strange can generate sensation, feeling, and meaning through the amalgam of their motion, gesture, and form, through the way in which they are situated in space and the way in which they relate to one another.