Hey all, For today’s assignment trying to replicate the work of Janet Cardiff, our group(me, Maryyann, and Ralph) took a tour that starts right outside the elevator on the 6th floor of gates Here is the youtube link, Note that the video is sideways so that when you hold it on your mobile, it will be the correct orientation:

A visual journey in which the viewer is lead to consider what art really is.

For our tactical assignment on stress culture, I wanted to create a piece on prescription pill abuse as a way to combat/manage stress. I generated illustrations and text commenting on the epidemic with slogans like ‘Trade your  pillows for pills’. I screen printed the new imagery and text over 50 copies of CMU’s art & culture paper, aptly named ‘Pillbox’. These copies were re-released into circulation.

In addition to this work, I collaborated with Maryyann, Ralph, and Andrea on the project posted here. This second tactical intervention was designed to draw attention to the lack of resources and attention for students struggling with mental illness as a result of CMU’s stress culture.

This project was a group collaboration: Hannah Gaskill, Nicholas Sardo, Angelina Namkung,  Maddy Gryger, and Andrea Gershuny.  The concept of this project was to focus on the stress culture that was prevalent at CMU, and the inherent pride that ensues due to lack of sleep.  Students pride themselves on whoever has the least amount of sleep.  This led us to thinking about a method in which to allow stressed students more sleep, creating three beds in the shape of coffins and installing them around campus, providing students with a comfortable area in which to get a decent amount of sleep.

During the Intervention project, I worked with two groups; I helped Jacqueline with her smile factory and I helped Christin with her ‘punch Andrew Carnegie’ project. In Jacqueline’s group, I helped her acquire whatever material she needed and helped her mass produce the smiles; we both made the stamps with each other and then took turns stamping the masks.

For Christin’s project, I spent a few hours creating two lid-size Andrew Carnegie Dummy Bodies. Afterwards, I helped Christin and Lindsey adjust any changes they wanted to make in the body and insert the speakers. Afterwards, I edited the documentation together to make one comprehensive film.

Here is our final documentation:

For this project, we were to keep a collection and find an appropriate way to display what we had collected. I chose to collect secrets, and made an interactive piece where the viewer was to pick up this tin can, a childhood communication staple, and hold it to their ear. Once this action was completed, the viewer would hear anonymous secrets that people used to keep, but no longer keep, most of which had to do with childhood.

You can hear the a secret collection by clicking on the playlist below: