Afanador Llach, Camila

Contemporary educational trends have created a false dichotomy between the arts
and science. The will to make STEM subjects the focus of K-12 education, ignores both a
shared history and the potential for greater learning in a shared future.The intention of
Points of Intersection is to demonstrate that design, science and math intersect in their
concepts, practices and history. In the past, these disciplines were explored and studied
together and benefited from each other. By exploring what design and science have in
common and the points where they intersect, we can see the relevance and importance of
art and design in k-12 education and change STEM to STEAM. The exhibition will
explore point, line, plane and the “Golden Ratio” demonstrating how these concepts can
be understood from the perspectives of physics, math, art and design on a basic level.
These basic principles can be used to introduce these fields of study and bring a better understanding of them to students in K-12. Future designers and scientists with this
educational underpinning will have a better mutual understanding of one another’s field
and the potential for shared research, process and results.

My intention for this show is to explore the effect of alienation that ironically is being
produced by social media. The principal concept is developed around shame, sharing, and
notoriety on three different social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and
Telegram. This show explores the social media perception of myself in the realms of
human interaction, identity, and memory in social media through the critical
appropriation of the languages of design and photography. The installation with four
Facebook profile pictures in large scale and framed looks at the way a personal image can
convey the impression of widely different personalities. The selections of personal
exchanges over Facebook and Instagram show the degree to which social media creates
its own visual language and mode of communication, which sometimes becomes
separated from reality and intention. The show extends its reach to performance and
direct interaction with the viewer through the availability of stickers for comments by the profile pictures and a third area, where viewers can write or draw their own messages
through the simple medium of chalk, which can then be rendered in virtual form through
posts on a specially created webpage. The viewer should thus be challenged to ask, to
what degrees do words and images communicate the essence of our selves and our own
will.