Storytelling

Deconstructed Cartography is comprised of two related and complementary sections that use mapping structures to explore the temporality of location through the lens of personal experience within places. This body of work uses both collage and a light-shadow installation to develop a narrative of place and time. My artwork focuses on deconstructing classical modes of representation through the lens of cartography and places an emphasis on personal experiences, narratives, and storytelling of place or locale. I am interested in road maps, water bodies, topography, shadows, and the various ways humans attempt to navigate or make sense of the natural world through lines and different mapping structures.

The story is a sequence of events. Since nomadic times we have been drawn to the process of storytelling and the underlying themes hidden within these plots. Now, as the technological advancements made in new media lead us to this point, there is the need to reconcile the connection of the narrative with that of new media. Many theorists such as Manovich believe the narrative is slowly dying as new media continues to evolve. While others such as Bolter and Grusin think the story and traditional media is merely reinserting itself into new media. In the augmented reality story, The Seven Ages of Susanna, I seek to create a marriage of conventional media narrative and illustration techniques. By using new media tools of Vuforia and Unity, I aim to create an immersive experience that reconciles this issue.

"Head Lines of the Extra Ordinary: Collisions and Miracles" is a language-driven
15-story fiction collection that experiments with intertwining the traditions of oral and
written storytelling. Within these stories, ordinary people step up to the extraordinary
because of an unusual occurrence that requires a moment of change. Several of the stories
within the collection take their premise from actual news headlines. To lend cohesion to
the collection, multiple stories contain one or more reappearing characters.