Student Work

COM 222 - Media Aesthetics and Creativity

CONNIE RODRIGUEZ - "No matter what job field, age, gender, or any form of social categorization, people need a dose of inspiration to commence their day. There’s something they look, work, fight, and strive for." Connie Rodriguez's 3D sculpture represents blister-pack tablets that provide the daily dose of inspiration people need to get on with their lives. The piece is constructed out of canvas, dipping cups, stickers, googly eyes, real plants, plastic food, acrylic paint, spray paint and Barbie accessories.

"There is a total of 8 slots, or should I say ‘doses’," she explains. The blister-packs contain representative objects of inspirational sources including music, technology, nature, self-reflection, sports, travel, health (food), and emotions.

EMMA CLARK's multimedia project addresses socialization and loss of creativity, resulting in the inability to think divergently. She says "The lesson about creativity in children versus in adults really stood out to me. It was hard to believe that children are statistically considered to be geniuses whereas adults are idiots when it comes to testing creativity. I thought it would be beneficial not only to me but also society to represent this visually." To represent creativity loss as we age, Emma started by gathering photos taken of herself throughout periods in her life. Then paint strokes were placed over the image to cover her face and head. "I made the paint strokes look as if they are floating out of my head to represent my creative touch that I leave behind," Emma says. As she gets older, the misshapen paint selections gradually get smaller, reflecting her fear of decaying creativity.

RAYANNA ECKMAN wanted to bring attention to the fact that we aren't fully present in our lives. With Life Is A Dream she says "We don’t pay attention to what’s really going on and we aren’t admiring the beauty of it all...we're constantly consumed by our phones, the news, and social media. We are letting technology tell us what we should think instead of doing it on our own. We are floating through life in and out like a dream instead of being fully awake and paying attention to the little things in life." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OwHQ1MWzR4

PATRICK DEAU - "I wanted to entirely use natural elements," Patrick said. Concerned with the heroin epidemic in the United States, he wanted to express "the wasting away of life that comes with the drug and its addictive qualities...."in this country I believe that almost everyone is effected by the drug epidemic in one way or another. ...I wanted to communicate a message to the viewers that drug use is a problem that will burn away at the individual. This addiction essentially destroys someone just like fire destroyed my piece. The problem with drug addiction is that the drug becomes the central part of the individual's life. In my piece I placed a syringe and a spoon in the center communicating how the drug becomes the central part of an addict's life."

NADINE PIGNOTTI - (below) "This particular project is really close to my heart because the theme that I chose is Venezuela. Venezuela is my home, the country where I was born and grew up. Currently, the country is going through a hard time politically, economically and socially. What started two decades ago as a promise of a 'revolutionary' government that was going to address social and economic issues benefiting especially the lower classes, resulted in twenty years of rapid decay in every aspect that exists and in a dictatorship disguised as a democracy...My experience in this country has been amazing and I really enjoy being here, meeting new people and feeling safe. However, that does not take away the pain that I feel for my country, because it is being destroyed by people who just want power and money. I decided to do a recollection of images that individually speak for themselves but that, in unity, show more character and share the word that I chose to name the whole project: nostalgia."