At Carleton, I’ve majored in Cinema & Media Studies, a path which actually led me to my work in the digital humanities. In my analytical work, I’m fascinated by the way technological and industrial structures affect the way we interact with media and with each other; in my production work, I’ve made wide use of digital tools to create short films and sound pieces exploring these and other themes.
My technical specialty is sound projects, specifically audio storytelling. I find the medium a very interesting way of exploring subtext, as well as working through unusual perspectives and framing devices like interplanetary radio communication or the command line of a computer.
Themes
The themes which I repeatedly come back to in my projects fall under queer identity, interpersonal communication, and the effects of technology on how we relate to each other. These topics have formed the backbone of my work, and I find the ways in which they interplay fascinating.
Projects
Sound Design
Play Among the Stars
Play Among the Stars right here!
Play Among the Stars was my senior thesis project at Carleton, and pushed both my storytelling and technical skills further than ever before. It depicts a queer love story in a historical fantasy setting, showing the chance meeting of two women – a musician and an engineer – who reconnect after many years of nigh-literal radio silence. Thematically, it touches on the role of communication technology in how we relate to each other, as well as the ways we send messages without speaking. I consider this project to be a union of my love for art and technology, and an exploration of the transformative powers of both. More information about this project can be found in my online presentation, available here on Vimeo.
AI.exe
AI.exe was created as a final project for my Digital Cinema Cultures class, which was the class which introduced me to digital humanities as a concept. This piece is also my first sound design project produced at Carleton, and the first to play with digital editing effects for storytelling purposes. AI.exe is meant to exploring the way our relationship with technology affects the way we think about our work in the digital era. Modular design is undoubtedly convenient, but how does the ability to endlessly revise our work, consequence-free, affect our relationship to the things we make? Additionally, how do we humanize or distance ourselves from digital identities? This short piece explores the thought process of a recently awoken, somewhat “defective” artificial intelligence and their interactions with the scientists who designed them.
Reordering the Stick, Adapting the Internet
This project is somewhat of a departure from my standard work. As a final project for my Sound Design class, I chose to adapt a scene from a webcomic entitled Order of the Stick into an audio-only piece. I find serialized online fiction to be a really fascinating phenomenon, but this project also gave me an interesting challenge: how do you translate an entirely image-based story to an entirely auditory one? I got to play with both experimental and realistic design techniques in my attempt to grapple with that question. In the meantime, I also got to explore the nature of adapting internet-published content both as a fan and as an artist.
Short Film
Best Laid Plans
Best Laid Plans, my final project from Fiction doesn’t directly touch on the digital in its story, but it does combine queer identity and interpersonal communication. Frequently in fiction communication issues manifest as closing oneself off or ignoring problems. I wanted to pursue the idea from another angle, and came up with a short film about a girl trying to ask out her crush without thinking through what the other person might want.
Looked at from a technical perspective, however, the influence of digital technology is very strong. Best Laid Plans was filmed on digital cameras, edited on a computer, and digitally color-adjusted. The first scene’s palette was sharpened; the second scene had its lighting and color dramatically readjusted to account for changes in natural lighting during filming; and the third scene was cropped and colored to better frame the dim location. This is, in the most literal sense, digital art.
Neural Connection
created for Digital Foundations.
Neural Connection was created for Digital Foundations, the course which introduced me to digital filmmaking. It deals with isolation, working through feelings of fear and loneliness. Here social media and phones are a method of reaching out, a way of connecting however imperfect the medium. What is being communicated is less important than the act of communication, and the ability to do so. Like Best Laid Plans above, this piece is digital art at every stage of its creation (albeit a bit less polished. We all have to learn somehow).
