Sierra , Paulina "Eye I, Eye Us." , Rhode Island School of Design, 2009
Keywords/Fields of Study : Reappropriation, behavior, technology, machines, mechanisms, shame, eye, blushing
Abstract: Eye I: The following thesis explores the relation of gaze and Digital + Media through psychoanalysis and the mythological figures of Narcissus, Medusa and Aphrodite. It is by the displacement of visual perceptions, mechanisms or simple ophthalmic objects that create certain behaviors where my work intends to originate inquiries about inner sight and narcissism, shame and scrutiny tied to a paralyzing self awareness of the Other's gaze and finally, how this last can create a dialogue of intimacy that can heal these split internal processes to create the elemental principle of interactivity. Eye Us: The following thesis is divided in three sections. The first sets the historical background for some of the split and integrative processes of acceptance or rejection to otherness in Mexican history and more precisely in Mexican art scene since the Conquest. It sets Otherness as a necessity to develop a common view of the world and the beginning for the acceptance of peculiarities. The second section is interested in laying out the creative practice behind the projects that are carefully dissected in the third section. Projects that are interested in exploring migrating technologies, resourcefulness, behaviors towards objects and the re-purposing of narratives when identity and cultural resistance pose a nomadic condition to oppose mechanical and mental standardization. These two projects vary in their relationship with technology which is only a multiple and divergent path for those of us who have decided to engage in Digital + Media art practice.
Department: Digital + Media
, Rhode Island School of Design
Advisor(s): Frauke Behrendt
