Ally Spruill

Parasitical

When making photographs I am continually drawn to nature and environmental themes. I have found it nearly impossible to avoid seeing the human footprint infecting the spaces within the frame. Human activity is always present in my photographs regardless of whether it was intentional or not. I work to analyze the beauty within destruction and development.

Society forces us to move so fast in our daily lives, with commitments to things like work, school, family, and social lives. It is difficult to find time to notice or care about the small disruptions to our environment. Graffiti on rocks, an abandoned chair on a broken sidewalk, and birds resting on power lines have become the everyday view within our landscape. I focus on the edges, the smaller forms of human interaction with the environment. We have become desensitized.

My photographs reproduce and represent the seemingly insignificant signs of pollution and development. I remove the borders of the photographs so the images can bleed and blend together. The accordion allows the viewer to stretch the book out and view more than one photo at a time. The book can be manipulated by the viewers to create different spreads and pairings of the photographs. Human interaction within the book mirrors our presence within the environment.

Joseph Goodman

The Water Cycle

This experimental film delves into the complexities of self-discovery, tracing the influence of past relationships on my present self. Filmed primarily within my cluttered apartment, the piece reflects the challenges of introspection and the messy realities it uncovers. I weave together songwriting, animation, and performance – remnants of my diverse artistic background – into a fragmented narrative, highlighting the modern and constant distractions that impede self-reflection.

Drawing inspiration from the Buddhist concept of the "hungry ghost," I embody a character yearning for connection and clarity, struggling amidst a barrage of internal and external noise. My past life in musical theater allows me to seamlessly slip between various roles, giving voice to the character's fragmented psyche. The influence of the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once is evident in the film's exploration of fractured realities and the search for meaning. Additionally, the piece examines how societal structures like the patriarchy, white supremacy, imperialism, and capitalism shape daily anxieties and influence our individual journeys. These structures permeate and define even our most intimate connections, leaving lasting imprints on every single relationship.

By blurring the lines between reality and self-invention, this film invites viewers to confront their own internal landscapes and contemplate the complexities of personal growth.

Dylan Wood

Smokin’ Sexy Self-fulfillment

The internet represents a liberating frontier and a complex, tangled web that defines our modern digital culture. Coined by Richard Dawkins, memes are units of culture mirroring genetic processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance. On the internet, memes behave the same, but also materialize into tangible carrier forms for digital culture. Internet memes act as densely layered cultural artifacts, evolving through time and inheriting traits from other memes, eventually taking on unique identities.

In my practice, I celebrate digital spaces by mimicking the essence of internet memes. I embrace piracy and digital appropriation as tools for composition, weaving together original and familiar content to construct new narratives. My work requires multiple layers of cultural understanding for its interpretation, resulting in a dense haze of digital sludge.

In Smokin’ Sexy Self-fulfillment, I delve into the intricate dynamics between digital media, internet aesthetics, and physical space. Utilizing digital media as a reflection of our contemporary digital landscape, I blend original content with internet-sourced material to craft an animated piece fusing visual storytelling and music. Through projection, this amalgamation manifests digital sludge in physical space to serve as a visceral representation of the traversal of life’s transitional periods to reach self love and fulfillment.