Final Project Proposal

Senior Project Proposal

Throughout my childhood I spent most of my time outside, in the woods of my own back yard, or on the Clinton River banks swinging myself into the water, collecting rocks, or pretending I was a Native American princess. I would take family trips up to Northern Michigan to fish, take walks and spend time on the lake. We’d spend time in North Carolina’s Smokey Mountains to hike and bicycle while staying in a remote cabin overlooking the miles of mountains. These experiences in nature have formed the person I am today. Through my studies over the past years here at the University, I have realized that this is not the case for many; more and more children today are lacking contact with nature as the media is jamming our culture.

There is no other environment that I have yet experienced in this world that gives me such overwhelming feelings throughout all my senses, physically and mentally, as nature does. I forget that modern civilization exists, and the space completely absorbs me to a point that makes me question reality. I want to provide a chance for the viewer to connect with the natural world that is no longer easily accessible in this congested world of consumerism and mass media. I hope to provoke a sense of peace and wonderment, of being in tune with one’s self as part of the larger, pure, natural world, not just a member of the modern technologically advancing society.

I plan to create a series of three easily transportable “personal” objects that will act as escape mechanisms, which mimic and capture unique forms and textural qualities that can only be found in nature. I want not only to stimulate the individual viewer’s visual sense, but multiple senses at the same time. Light, smell, feel, texture, and visual rendering will be vital each of the objects in their ability to bring a different nature-based experience to the viewer. The objects will take on a kaleidoscope-like quality on the inside; a small hole for the viewer to peer into to find some sort of structured environment. The outside however, will be rendered as an unnoticeable human-made product. This contrast between the outer and inner characteristics of the object speaks to our yearn to blend into the rest of society.

I want the effects of my work to take the ordinary details of our everyday lives; such as a stone we would generally pass by on the ground without a secondary glance, and transform it so that we feel the need to hold onto, pick up, put in our pocket, take with us, and if its too big to carry, we wish to mentally capture it exactly as it is in that moment, so that we are able to call upon it at any given point when we find ourselves in our most distressed mental states.