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1 Kilometre

For my kilometre I recorded a conversation I had during a 1km walk.

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Article Discussion

1. The work Motus Mori is a project created by Katja Heitmann which records human gestures. While the expected approach to this may to be film or write it down, Katja Heitmann has dances memorize and perform these movements instead. Some of the unique gifts that come with attempting to archive these personal movements is making it so people are more aware of their habits and it also helps capture these unique movements people have. The challenges of this project can be how people can change their movements and try to “perfect” their habits while being watched and how the movements the dancers learn need to remember it properly.
2. One example that really stood out to me was Ranti Tijan and how he hides his thumbs and after he realized this he started to wear a yellow jacket. I feel like this example shows on how our movements can reflect our emotions and personality.
3. Some habitual movements I’ve noticed in people I know well is my friend has a habit of scratching her thumb while sitting and my other friend tends to fidget with her clothes quite a bit and my mother always fixes her headband.
4. These examples of small movements each mean various different things. For my friends it’s more of a nervous habit, whereas for my mother it’s her way of preparing to start something new.

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Field Trip

The class went on a trip to the AGO and Power Plant Art Gallery.

During this trip we saw many interesting works but The Culture exhibition was by far my favourite. I am not very immersed in the hip hop scene, but many of my favourite aritists take influence from hip hop and rap and just seeing the whole exhibit was very interesting, but what caught my eye the most was this piece which showcased many outfits that are seen in the rap and hip hop scene.

In the Power Plant Art Gallery the exhibit that caught my attention the most was “Floating Sea Palace” by Lap-See Lam. The use of shadows and video made the floating restaurant feel almost alive, like it was a person rather than a ship. It evoked a lot of emotions in me. I left feeling quite sad. It felt like the ship was lost and was searching for what I am assuming is a home or something to attach onto and it never found it. The way it told a story about change and how we hold onto memories really touched me and it was something I felt a personal connection to. This exhibit was the highlight of my trip.

I don’t have any pictures from inside the exhibit seeing as I was completely enchanted the whole time, but the way we entered and were given bits of information really grabbed my attention.

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One Feat, Three Ways- Blinking

One Shot

Loop

Sequence

Blinking is an instinctive yet intimate act, a fleeting gesture of both vulnerability and communication. In this series, the simple action of blinking is transformed into a subtle, silent exchange—one that plays with rhythm, perception, and participation. Through three distinct video structures—Sequence, Loop, and One Shot—the act of blinking becomes a dynamic interaction, inviting both observation and engagement.

• Sequence: A structured exchange where each participant blinks one after another, forming a rhythmic pattern akin to a visual relay. This arrangement emphasizes anticipation and control, as the viewer follows the deliberate pacing of each blink, highlighting the individual within the collective.
• Loop: A continuous cycle where all three individuals blink at the camera simultaneously, removing hierarchy and creating a hypnotic, synchronous rhythm. The repetition blurs the distinction between individual and group, reinforcing the cyclical nature of blinking as both an unconscious function and a shared experience.
• One Shot: A direct confrontation between two individuals engaging in a silent blinking ‘tag.’ Through eye contact and shifting frequencies, the game unfolds organically, creating tension and playfulness within the frame. The unpredictability of the exchange leaves room for spontaneity, drawing the audience into the immediacy of the moment.

A cohesive yet varied color palette enhances the depth of each composition, while eye-level framing establishes an equal playing field, placing the viewer in direct engagement with the participants. Across all three formats, the videos explore the mechanics of nonverbal communication, turning an everyday gesture into a focal point of interaction, challenge, and subtle expression.

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My Crops Are Dying but My Body Persists, Bridget Moser

Bridget Moser’s My Crops Are Dying but My Body Persists uses internet culture, memes, and weird visuals to explore the themes of privilege, identity, and consumerism. They use a combination of “satisfying” videos, distorted music, and robotic voices to create a sense of emptiness and discomfort. For example, the robotic voice saying “I take showers just to pass the time” adds a feeling of detachment, much like the cold tone of many internet memes. I personally don’t like the feeling of such cold feeling sounds so it gave me an eerie vibe.

The video also critiques consumerism through props like gold balloon animals and pink Himalayan salt, creating a “picture-perfect” aesthetic that feels faker than if it wasn’t so curated. Moser’s use of these props, along with the silk pajamas she wears, represents the obsession with beauty and the perfect image, common in influencer culture which is gaining wide spread popularity as of right now.

The video makes me feel physically uncomfortable, especially with the strange acts like putting moisturizer on white bread. It’s unnatural and looks and feels wrong. This sense of discomfort challenges us to question the content we consume since now a lot of content we see is confusing or misleading. Moser’s props, like fake hot dog hands and balloon animals, highlight the emptiness of consumerism.

Overall, this piece helps critique life in modern times and how people strive for perfection, but it’s never fulfilling enough. As Charlene Lau puts it, “the absurdity remains,” highlighting how consumerism and social media contribute to a feeling of emptiness.

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Open Studios

On Wednesday we all had the amazing opportunity to go see the masters students studios. It was a very cool and interesting experience and I got to see many of the art from the graduate students. Everyone had such unique ways of work and different focuses on what they wanted to present in their art and it had me think about and question a lot about what I wanted to do and what sort of messages I wanted to display in my work.

One of my favorite pieces was Permissions by Cindy Hill. The sculpture was so intriguing to look at because the star-covered door had a magical quality that really drew me in and made me curious about the story behind it. Another piece that stood out to me quite a lot was a drawing based on Ranma ½, an anime I really enjoy. Seeing something I’m personally connected to represented in an artistic way made the whole experience feel even more engaging.

Something else that really inspired me was seeing one artist’s detailed planning process laid out in their studio. It was interesting to see how much thought and structure went into their work before the final piece even began. It made me want to bring more of that kind of intentionality and thoroughness into my own creative process moving forward. Overall this experience gave me a lot of lessons and many things to consider and look forward to!

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Audio Art- Keyboard Rage

For this assignment I decided to record myself playing and raging in a bunch of different games and organizing each rage by intensity.

My goal was to highlight how gaming can trigger a wide range of emotions, from mild annoyance to full-blown outbursts without any verbal frustration being shown. I structured the audio to gradually increase in intensity, creating a buildup that reflects how frustration escalates over time. This project is both a personal reflection and a look at the emotional highs and lows of gaming. Through organizing my own reactions, I hope to capture a relatable experience for anyone who has ever raged at a game.

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Conceptual Portrait- People as Flowers

For this assignment I decided to make a series of conceptual portrait posters where I represented people as flowers. The idea came from something I started last year, when I randomly assigned different flowers to people in my life based on how I saw them. That little habit stuck with me, and for this project, I decided to revisit those flower-person pairings and build something more intentional out of them.

Each poster features one person, represented as the flower I had assigned them. Instead of naming the flower, I used the person’s name and referred to them as “this flower” in the description. This way, the viewer is encouraged to think about both the qualities of the flower and the person it represents. I also added a short line of description at the bottom of each poster to tie everything together and give a clearer sense of who they are and why that flower fits them.

My goal with this project was to explore how symbolism can represent personality and how something as simple as a flower can say a lot about a person. It’s a mix of personal reflection and visual metaphor, meant to get people thinking about the connections between nature and identity.

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Artist Buttons

For this project, I created a series of artist buttons using the phrases “fight me” and “square up.” I wanted them to feel playful and bold, with a confrontational blurb that grabs attention and sparks a reaction from the other party reading it.

Instead of making buttons that quietly express something personal or decorative, I went for something that felt more like a statement or challenge. These buttons are meant to be worn with attitude. They’re direct, aggressive, but also meant to be taken with humor because at the end of the day it’s only a button to be worn.

I made 10 of each phrase and designed them with the phrases in mind. For the “FIGHT ME” buttons I went for all caps for the provocative nature and italicized the “me” to draw attention to who is starting the fight. Whereas for the “SQUARE UP” one I leaned into more of a humourous feeling with having the square up be inside a literal square to ease some tension from the phrase.

The phrases I used are ones often seen online or in casual arguments, usually not meant seriously but still full of energy that grabs others’ attention. That mix of humor and tension is what I was aiming for. With something as small as a button, I wanted to show how you can still make a strong impression or provoke thought, just through a few carefully chosen words.

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One Kilometer (of noticing)

I took a 1km section of my usual walk to campus and took note of everything that I noticed; any small detail or passing thought that caught my attention for any amount of time was recorded in this notebook.

In the end I’m left with a kilometer, or the remnants of one, represented only through what one noticed and thought about while walking it.

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Katja Heitmann article response:

1.

In choreographer Katja Heitmann’s project “Motus Mori”, she sets out with the aim of creating a kind of physical archive of people’s personal and specific gestures. These gestures are “donated” by individuals, observed and practiced by trained dancers, and then reinterpreted as choreography to be performed. The dancers, no matter how skilled in the art of body movement, will never get a gesture exactly right; even aside from the countless influences on movement like body type and proportions, imitation is an inherently imperfect art. So Heitmann and her dancers turn the archive into a dance instead. Archived are the choreographed essences of each movement in an ephemeral live performance.

Though, in this positive embracing of imperfection, equally, there arises challenges. In prioritizing the interpretation of the movement over the direct replication of it, the performance partially fails in being an archive, as it is asserted to be. Yes, the essence of each movement is preserved, but the movement itself in its original form, how it exists in the original donor’s body will still die with the person it belongs to. If this project were to be an archive, I feel the arbitrator of choreography sullies the effort. Viewed primarily as an art project instead, is where it truly shines, and is a very interesting idea. The endeavor to preserve personal gestures in any form is remarkable regardless.

This project holds the possibility for many unexpected gifts. With the unique opportunity of showing someone what their body movements look like from the outside, fascinating things start happening. As a few donors remarks, feeling like one “owns” their gesture after seeing it be something to personalized, or seeing through a performer how they skirt attention with their body language and wanting to make a change in that for the better. For others, this project holds the gestures of people dear to them, some of them now passed. Parts of them live on through this performance, and their loved ones have the chance to visit the exhibition as a form of remembrance, or a farewell.

2.

The most striking example of movement in this article was that of the dancer imitating the young boy. It stood out to me firstly because of the vast difference in body size and proportions between a young child and a fully grown adult. The longer I watched, however, the more I thought on the fact that the movements the child makes are incredibly rare to see adults do. With more practice with their motor function, adults walk more gracefully than children, and with far different (and more rigid) societal expectations, most adults don’t hold themselves nearly as loose and carefree as children. There is some poetry to be found in an adult performing actions she likely has not done for many years, and in a sense, the dancer returns to her own childhood through repeating these movements. The archive of this young boy holds not only his movements but also distinctly his developmental stage, he is held (for as long as this project lasts) in time at an age before experiencing many of what will be his most defining life achievements and experiences.

3.

When my partner is really focusing on schoolwork, he often ends up sitting on the bed, knees to his chest, crunched up as tight as possible. His feet push against the bed to set himself rocking gently, and his face usually goes blank, eyes resting wider than normal. One hand uses his laptop and the other rests on one of his knees as he chews his nails, sometimes contorting his entire arm to get at a nail at a better angle. Being young and limber lead to this being an uncommon position to see older people take when working.

My mother always wears her curly hair up in a bun, and when it’s down it seems she always has a hand in it. She fidgets a lot, and when her hair is down it becomes a focal point of her fidgets. When she wears it down it’s usually because she’s styled it to go out somewhere, so many of her interactions with it tend to do with its appearance. She’s constantly fluffing it from behind, sweeping it over a shoulder, tucking it and immediately untucking it behind her ears, or idly running her fingers down its length catching and undoing all the knots of hairspray.

Only a couple years ago my sibling started growing out, painting, and caring more for their nails. Though it doesn’t feel like its been very long, visiting home its interesting to already see how they’re accustomed to moving around and interacting with the world like they have long nails, even when they’re cut short for the moment. They continue to type on their phone and keyboard with the flats of their fingers, they very delicately pinch at their eyelashes with their thumb and forefinger with their hand turned inwards so their nails are pointed away from their open eye. Their entire grip on things like utensils is adjusted to accommodate long nails, even in their absence. The rest of their body movements are unaffected, but their hands additionally move slower and more precisely, learned after too many times jamming or breaking off a fingernail with quick movements.

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Field Trip Notes

I love artworks that are explained or take on a new/further meaning after reading the title and exhibit label, so I found the piece of gold chains hung on a black background in the shape of the African Diaspora very intriguing. Its simplistic design was very clever (contextless on its own, but possibly recognizable to some before they even read the exhibit label) and chock-full of metaphor. The piece depicting a refurbished cop car cut in half, suspended on cinderblocks, and graffitied, was also one that developed new meaning after reading the exhibit label. The person I visited the exhibit with even partially brushed past it until I relayed the accompanying description, and they were likewise intrigued by it. The meaning of the piece I thought was beautiful—as many memorial artworks are—and each aspect held striking symbolism for the overall meaning of the piece.

Similarly, it seems I’m also drawn to artworks that take figuring out, and/or evolve the longer you look at it. The piece “RID UM” by Wilmer Wilson IV was one I was mildly interested in until I read the exhibit label and got to look at it again in new light. Initially I didn’t look too closely and thought it was an image made of sequins or some similar material, I was surprised to read that instead, it was a printed image densely covered in staples, evocative of telephone poles holding the remnants of countless posters over many years.

Shirt’s piece “Don’t Talk To Me About No Significance Of Art” was also one I found myself thinking about a lot. This was a piece that was also heightened by reading the background context provided by the exhibit label. The part on opinions on photography gathered from mainly non-photographers was thought-provoking, and adapted further into the meaning of this piece, provocative and relevant.

I took away more from this exhibition than I thought I would and (as one usually more partial to classical art) I enjoyed it more than expected. I took away many peeks into many more perspectives than my own, as well as some new understandings of hip-hop culture and some of the things influential to it. There were many artists I took note of as I walked through the exhibit to find later on and follow the rest of their works.

This exhibition showcased an impressively wide variety of mediums and got me thinking about the flexibility of contemporary art, and the many possible utilizations of its nonconformity; ideas of which I can then incorporate into my own practice.

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One feat, Three ways: Censor

The jumping off point for this project was a question of “how difficult can we make a single simple task?”. From here we developed it into an idea of inhibiting a simple task (like reading) in as many ways as possible. This idea of inhibiting transformed into specifically censoring, and the rest of the project follows.

One-shot:

Our single shot video for this project primarily showcases auditory censoring; reading each book over another voice also doing the same makes it nearly impossible to discern the words of either novel, creating a wall of noise. For the performers, we are both inhibited by the other holding the book we’re reading from: lines and words are often skipped, and paragraphs are abandoned when the sentences are blocked by a hand in the way. The initial concept shines through here in us both having to work around another person to do something as simple as turn a page.

Loop:

The selective censoring makes it slightly more interesting for the viewer than simply running the marker across each line fully. This shot is filmed close enough to the book that the viewer can easily read the words on the page, but in trying to do so it becomes clear that the censoring is also often too fast to get through a full sentence if one were reading just ahead of the marker. Initially, the words being censored tend to be the more controversial words (referring to a prostitute, profanity, conversations about age gaps before sex) but it quickly develops into censoring arbitrary words. We wanted to lean into the nonsensical censoring to mirror the equally nonsensical reasons many books become banned.

Sequence:

Our sequence consists of various ways to visually censor words on a page, or otherwise destroy the pages themselves and render them unreadable. This further explores our point of heavy-handed censoring, this time focusing more on the censoring of entire books that only contain controversial aspects in small parts, as well as the destructive nature of censoring. This sequence is also a kind of loop, with a calm page turn separating each act of destruction, effectively moving past the parts lost and spreading open a new attempt each time.

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1 Minute Audio

The specific feeling of grief I’ve been experiencing since our family pet died is something I’ve been trying to communicate through both art and film, and this project was an attempt to relay it through audio alone.

The first half of this is audio from a video taken last summer of my sibling, my partner, and I in the living room with him, getting him to talk back to us and laughing each time he does. At 35 seconds, the audio abruptly cuts to a new clip, this one recorded in the exact same spot, this year, without him in it. The only sounds the second time around are the ambiance of the house and my mother muttering to herself across the room.

Being such a talkative (and generally loud) cat, I wanted to highlight how, even through only a single sense, his absence is tangible; and through that absence the remaining ambiance of the same room (like the ticking of a clock) is more noticeable, and even seems louder.

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Conceptual Portrait

Little Red Box of Obituaries and Unsent Letters

I am a person of many unsaid words. I have also, in recent years, found myself experiencing a lot of anticipatory grief. This portrait takes the form of a collection of letters I have written over the years to cope with both of these things.

When I was in high-school, I started writing letters as a way to manage all the emotions and thoughts I had but couldn’t share. It acted as a way to get these things out of my head where they circled and nagged at my thoughts, to be able to express these emotions in the moment and move on from them. I found it actually helped greatly, and I continue to write such letters to this day. The idea of writing obituaries for people that are still very much alive seems morbid, but I write each one more as a piece on remembrance and appreciation rather than focusing overly on grieving.

This project serves as a portrait not just of me now but me at many earlier stages of my life. Whereas every piece of myself I externalize and share through my art or normal conversation, this piece is captured, thought in a way that partially maintains it as internalized and private. Even for these earlier written letters, I wrote them and tucked them away, not intending them to be read again. Each existing letter was read only once more to be transcribed, and sealed away again to continue the intent of this project.

Included in this box are letters and obituaries for my parents, current and past friends, younger versions of myself, and strangers.

Though this is an unfinished project (more letters and obituaries will be added as I write them) each envelope is sealed, dated, and placed in the box not to be opened and read again.

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Artist Multiples

For this project I made a collection of pins that exist more as a wearable art collection/statement. I juxtaposed human destruction and worship of nature, pairing 10 lines from Mary Oliver’s To Begin With, The Sweet Grass with cropped images of nature from the National Geographic archive, and 10 lines from the long-term nuclear waste warning message with cropped photographs from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster clean-up efforts.

I did handpick lines from both the poem and the warning message, though each line exists in its original form, punctuation included, I chose lines that looked and read better on their own, as well as leaving out lines I felt made the pins too self-referential or self-aware of their existence as buttons to be worn. Some lines were also chosen to specifically feel like they are speaking to the viewer; if worn around in public, making this project a sort of call to action or accusation.

I chose images from National Geographic and placed the text on top in white boxes to emulate the style of pins hand made from cut up magazines at summer camps and school craft days, partially for aesthetics, and partially for more juxtaposition of a childish activity and a more mature issue.

Excepts used

Lines from long-term nuclear waste warning message used are:

• Sending this message was important to us.
• We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.
• This place is not a place of honour.
• No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here.
• Nothing valued is here.
• What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us.
• The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.
• The danger is to the body, and it can kill.
• The form of danger is an emanation of energy.
• This place is best left shunned and uninhabited.

The lines from To Begin With, The Sweet Grass are:

• This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.
• It’s more than bones.
• It’s more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
• It’s more than the beating of the single heart.
• It’s praising.
• It’s giving until the giving feels like receiving.
• Do you also think that beauty exists for some fabulous reason?
• What would do for you?
• I would like to give you this chance.
• Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.

One Kilometre Assignment:

You might be wondering, what is this? Well, it’s just “one kilometre” written multiple times. But here’s the twist—it’s not just about the words. I wanted to break down the rigid idea of a kilometre being only a distance and explore what it could mean beyond that. What if a kilometre wasn’t something we walked, ran, or drove, but something we read, wrote, or experienced through time? That’s the concept behind my piece.

I decided to base my kilometre on driving time because it’s faster and more dynamic than walking. While walking one kilometre takes about 10–12 minutes (according to google), driving covers the same distance in just 1–2 minutes. It’s fleeting—gone almost before you know it. Using driving time felt like the perfect way to show how modern life ties distance to speed and efficiency.

To represent this, I wrote “one kilometre” repeatedly. The act of writing it again and again was my way of transforming the kilometre into something tangible—something you could read instead of walk. At first, I tested it by writing it 24 times, but that only lasted 30 seconds, which was too short to match the driving time. So, I doubled it to 48 repetitions, which came to around 1–2 minutes, aligning with the average time it takes to drive a kilometre. This process made me think about precision differently—not as a physical measurement, but as something rooted in time and experience.

For the presentation, I’ll take this one step further by projecting “one kilometre” onto a surface repeatedly for approximately 1.5 minutes, synchronized with the sounds of driving—like the hum of an engine or turn signals—or my voice reciting the phrase. The projection adds a fleeting, almost intangible quality to the kilometre, making it feel as brief and ephemeral as it does when we drive.

Ultimately, my project reimagines what a kilometre means. It doesn’t have to be a physical distance—it can be something you write, read, or experience through time. By breaking down this traditional idea, I hope to show that measurement isn’t just about numbers or space—it’s about how we perceive and interact with it in our daily lives.

One Feat, Three Ways

One Feat, Three Ways – Blinking

Blinking is an instinctive yet intimate act, a fleeting gesture of both vulnerability and communication. In this series, the simple action of blinking is transformed into a subtle, silent exchange—one that plays with rhythm, perception, and participation. Through three distinct video structures—Sequence, Loop, and One Shot—the act of blinking becomes a dynamic interaction, inviting both observation and engagement.

• Sequence: A structured exchange where each participant blinks one after another, forming a rhythmic pattern akin to a visual relay. This arrangement emphasizes anticipation and control, as the viewer follows the deliberate pacing of each blink, highlighting the individual within the collective.
• Loop: A continuous cycle where all three individuals blink at the camera simultaneously, removing hierarchy and creating a hypnotic, synchronous rhythm. The repetition blurs the distinction between individual and group, reinforcing the cyclical nature of blinking as both an unconscious function and a shared experience.
• One Shot: A direct confrontation between two individuals engaging in a silent blinking ‘tag.’ Through eye contact and shifting frequencies, the game unfolds organically, creating tension and playfulness within the frame. The unpredictability of the exchange leaves room for spontaneity, drawing the audience into the immediacy of the moment.

A cohesive yet varied color palette enhances the depth of each composition, while eye-level framing establishes an equal playing field, placing the viewer in direct engagement with the participants. Across all three formats, the videos explore the mechanics of nonverbal communication, turning an everyday gesture into a focal point of interaction, challenge, and subtle expression.

Audio Art

Echoes of a fading song explores how memories of sound evolve over time – sometimes vivid and clear, other times distant or distorted. By combining my own humming and singing with my friend’s voice, I aimed to capture the way memories shift, overlap, and eventually blur.

Process:

I began by recording my friend singing a soft, simple melody. I then layered my own voice—both humming and singing—to create a sense of echoes or fragments of the original tune. I also added effects like reverb and fading to mimic how memories can feel distant or hazy as time passes.

Meaning:
This piece reflects how we hold on to familiar sounds—like a childhood song or a comforting voice—but over time, those memories can change. By blending two voices separately, I wanted to symbolize how different perspectives or emotional states can shape how we remember the same moment. The gradual fading and distortion represent the way memories slip away yet leave traces behind.

Through this piece, I invite listeners to reflect on their own experiences with memory—how certain sounds linger, resurface, or feel just out of reach.

Conceptual Portrait

This conceptual portrait is a mixed-media collage based on the emotional and sensory fragments of my past week — a time shaped by spiritual reflection, academic pressure, moments of joy, and emotional exhaustion. Using the system of journaling my daily experiences and assigning each entry a specific color, I created a visual map of my inner world.

The process began with me recording my emotions and events each day, writing short journal phrases and color-coding them according to the feeling they evoked. These emotions were translated into a curated palette:

• Warm tones like peach, blush pink, and soft gold for joy, connection, and spiritual warmth (e.g. “Dinner with friends”, “Eid dress found”, “Juried Show Winner”).
• Cool tones like lavender, pale blue, and mint green for calm, comfort, and quiet moments (e.g. “Playing with my cat”, “Hanging out with my friend”, “Trying to rest”).
• Dark tones such as navy, charcoal, and deep crimson for stress, fatigue, and anxiety (e.g. “Photography deadline”, “Exhausted”, “Overwhelmed”).
• Neutrals and muted yellows represent changing external conditions, like the weather shifting from sunny to snowy again — mirroring inner instability.

Each journal entry was written on torn paper scraps and arranged into a layered collage, with textures and placements reflecting the intensity or lightness of each emotion. The structure forms a kind of emotional landscape — the system itself becoming the art.

Small icons (a cat, a sun, a snowflake) and textures help anchor these emotions to real events, yet nothing is shown literally. The final piece is not a self-portrait in the traditional sense, but rather a portrait of how I felt and experienced the world across one complex, bittersweet week.

This project was created with urgency but also with honesty — and it now lives as a visual archive of fleeting thoughts, moods, and the quiet emotional layers we often don’t get to show.

Artist Buttons

“Unseen conversations” – This button series explores the everyday experiences of Hijabi women who are often met with stares, assumptions, and silent judgment simply for wearing a scarf. As someone who wears the hijab, I created these buttons to confront the unspoken reactions and behaviors I — and many others — regularly face. Each design is a wearable conversation starter, meant to raise awareness, spark dialogue, and challenge perceptions.

Phrases like “Not Oppressed” and “Don’t Stare Just Ask” directly counter stereotypes and offer an invitation to understanding rather than assumption. “I Can Feel Your Stares” captures the discomfort and alienation that comes from being treated like an outsider in everyday spaces. Lastly, “Why Does My Hijab Change How You See Me?” asks a question many of us carry internally — one that forces the viewer to reflect on their own bias.

This project isn’t just about calling out behaviour — it’s about reclaiming narrative, affirming identity, and reminding people that behind the fabric is a human being with agency, pride, and a story worth listening to.

I prefer Fudgy brownies to Cakey brownies. If I wanted to eat something cakey and chocolatey, I’d just eat a chocolate cake.

MY KILOMETRE

For my kilometre, I turned to the idea of making one out of a non-physical medium, which ended up being music. How much music is in a kilometre? I worked it out to be around five and a half minutes. A CD spins at about 500rpm, with a circumference of 37.7cm. in one minute a CD will have spun the equivalent of 188.5 metres. therefore, a kilometre can be represented by 5.5 minutes of music. to show this I recorded footage of my CD player playing a kilometre of Hall and Oates.

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NYT ARTICLE DISCUSSION

1. Katja Heitmann’s “Motus Mori” is a collection of over a thousand unique physical mannerisms of the everyday population. A team of ten performers execute the rhythms which have been ‘donated’ to heitmann and are recorded only on a notecard. The performers stage five-hour long blocks of dance installations that are open to the public, where the performers‘ bodies act as ‘archives’ for the donated mannerisms. It is sometimes challenging for the gesture donors to act candidly when they are interviewed by Heitmann’s dancers, but the tension eventually fades with the help of an ambient setting for interviews. There is a mix of special and ordinary movements and gestures, like ‘hanging upside down on the sofa’ or ‘fingernail biting’. For donors, watching the performers recreate their gestures and tics can have different effects: some realize their gestures “looked less elegant” than they thought, and some gain a “newfound sense of ownsership” over their tics. Heitmann’s work can help us remember others, like her own late father, whose tics she has donated to her performers to recreate. 
2. One part of the article that resonated with me was making gestures that accompany music. Listening to music often evokes a physical response from me. Upbeat or heavy music might encourage me to air guitar or air drum. A lot of times i will tap my fingers in time with the rising and falling notes as if i was playing a piano or bob my head or tap my feet. These gestures help me enjoy my music deeper.

3. My dad has a habit of rubbing the underside of his nose with just one finger, even if his nose isn’t running. It’s a quick swiping motion; sometimes he’ll squint or blink as well. One guy i know will stand with his arms crossed and have one foot perpendicular to the other, like a T-shape. One teacher i know would talk a lot with his body during class, which made him a very energetic lecturer.

Field Trip !!

I Took part in our class’s field trip to the AGO and the Power Plant and saw some great works of art. Starting with the AGO, I really enjoyed the hip-hop exhibit “The Culture;” there were a lot of great works here. One that really stood out to me was this large work (which I forget the title of). Its blending of graffiti and Japanese print styles make for an engaging composition, enhanced by the bright colours surrounding the horseman. I really enjoy this kind of ‘cultural collaging’ in art, and it reminds me of the artist Julian Adon Alexander, who combines portraits of people in everyday life with pop culture elements to create visually striking works.

The next work from “The Culture” I want to highlight is “Can a Rap Song Have the Significance of Art,” which was derived from an old news article where “rap song” originally said “photograph.” This one spoke out to me because critics have always been questioning the legitimacy of art in different mediums. Of course, today we would consider a photograph a work of art; tons of artists make a living taking and selling photos. Photographs can capture grand landscapes and deep, intimate moments of personal significance. Music can do the same thing, too. We tell stories through all genres of music, so what singles rap out as “not artistic?”

                  At the Power Plant we saw two exhibits. The first one, “Floating Sea Palace,” was a surreal half-hour film that told the story of the mythical Lo Ting, a half-fish half-man and his attempt to journey to the “Fragrant Harbour,” or Hong Kong. Narration, live action footage, and shadow-puppet-esque performances are all woven together to craft a mystical story that had me almost in a trance state. It was ambient and treacherous at the same time.

                  The second exhibit, “How Many Colours Are the Sea,” featured a small booth in the corner of the large exhibit room that had pairs of headphones hooked up to mp3 players. Out of curiosity, I sat down and put a pair on, and I was treated to a ten-minute meditative audio file from the artist, guiding me through a meditation where I was instructed to confront a loss I had faced in the past. I immersed myself in my memory of that moment in time where I came to visit my grandfather in hospice. I tried to conjure the exact senses I felt that day, and placed myself close to him. Then, I was guided to make peace with this loss and let it go. The meditation helped my ease my mind and get into my head in a calm way, and I left feeling lighter.

                  I had a great time seeing these works!

One Feat, Three Ways

One-Shot: https://youtu.be/vyasj5W_oxg

Sequence: https://youtu.be/jgNRsffsNkY

Loop: https://youtu.be/2MIi5rSlsa4

Our work was meant to comment on the sensationalized nature of guns when it comes to the younger generations. Firearms have been objectified and glorified in mass media but they are still real, harmful weapons. We used two colourful toy guns to represent this fact as we shot each other with deadpan expressions on our faces, our bodies still suffering the effects of being shot (figuratively). by removing our expressions you are able to focus on the harm being done by shooting each other. Our loop is an endless cycle of shooting, both of us exchanging bullet for bullet. Gun violence is a cycle that we have perpetuated for a very long time… this video serves as a metaphor for that fact.

One Minute Audio

For this project I decided to play with found audio and mash together the lyrics from Radiohead’s In Rainbows album to create a monologue/spoken poem. The sentences are a bit nonsensical, but still coherent.

A script is here, because sometimes I can’t decipher what Thom Yorke is saying:

Take my hand because I just wanna be your lover
I’m at the pearly gates, I never really got there, I’d be crazy not to
Forget about your plastic bags before you let it out
How come I’ve no idea about your house of cards
You’ll go to hell for an animal trapped in your hot car

I managed to use all ten songs off the album!

Conceptual Portrait

My Conceptual Portrait is a Self-Portrait. It’s about how Instagram and my sense of humour interact. I save a lot of posts, some make me laugh more than others, but they’re all at least a little funny to me. I screen-recorded my saved posts and scrolled through a small chunk of them to showcase what I save and what I find “Funny”. It’s embarrassing to display that kind of personal, private thing to everyone, which is exactly why I wanted to do it. Everyone who uses social media has curated their own gallery of funny posts and videos, hand-picked to suit their sense of humour. Some people may have overlapping tastes with others, but they’re all at least a little unique. On the left I recorded footage of myself looking down at my phone, emotionless. Often when I’m on Instagram I’ll fall into a loop of scrolling through posts with a blank expression on my face. Even when I see something funny, most times I just laugh in my head, but if it’s really good I’ll laugh out loud, which I think (hope) others can relate to. I wanted to show what it looks like to be sucked into your phone, wasting valuable time looking at an ocean of garbage that just might make you chuckle.

I actually had to go back and watch the “foreskin” reel because I had no idea why I saved it.

Artist Multiples: Buttons!

I had a lot of fun with this project! For mine, I made “Embarrassment Buttons,” buttons with embarrassing actions on them. Some are worse than others, and some are more or less relatable than others. I chose the blue and yellow colours because it reminded me of an award badge, which is ironic because no one would want to proudly exclaim that they did any of the things on my buttons. Here’s some pics !

Make a Kilometer project

For this project I wanted to present what a kilometer sounds like. My sister and I both ran a kilometer at the same time, each of us with our own microphones recording our entire run. We ran around a lake near our home, which happens to be exactly one kilometer.

My sister is a far better runner than I, so she finished much faster. You can hear me struggle by myself after she finishes a minute before me, and then my complaints as I finally catch up to her. It’s also interesting to hear how rhythmic everything is at the beginning as we start off with a strong and steady pace, and as the minutes go by the recording starts to sound more and more jumbled and the breathing gets heavier as we get more tired (mostly me).

Here is the final recording:

Turning the Gestures of Everyday Life into Art

A reflection on the article by Zoey Poll

Katja Heitmann’s work shows and celebrates individual body movements. The little movements we make every day when we walk, talk, sit, eat and sleep are unique to us and are part of our personality. Heitmann invites volunteers to share their body language with her which are then imitated by dancers. For the volunteers, this can be a very vulnerable thing; the way a person moves unconsciously can in fact make them self-conscious, and the article states that sometimes people would instinctively try to fix their postures or change the way they move to not seem strange or different. However, I believe the whole point of this work is to point out the beauty in those differences, and show how everyone’s body movements have their own differences.

Some of the movements I saw in the article struck me because I realized I do the same thing! One of them being cracking the knuckles on your hand – something I do all the time, usually unconsciously. My mom always gets upset at me for constantly doing it, but it’s a subconscious habit I can’t seem to break. Another image showed a girl walking on her toes, something I did throughout the majority of my life. While I had worked hard on correcting this way of walking, sometimes I instinctively stand on my toes or walk on my toes for a few seconds before falling back into a “regular” way of walking, something which many people have pointed out to me. It was refreshing to see somebody have the same unconscious habits. 

Some habits I observed in other people is that a friend of mine blinks very hard every once in a while. I can tell he does it without realizing, but sometimes he doesn’t blink with just his eyelids, but instead his whole face scrunches along with the blink. One I observed in my sister is that her right foot turns slightly inwards when she walks – it is a very subtle thing, but the slight turn of her foot can sometimes make her walking a little asymmetrical. I really don’t know why she does it, whether her body is just made for that sort of walking or if it is just what is comfortable for her. I’ve noticed my mom bites her nails only when she is nervous – I often notice her doing it when she is very wrapped up in a book or movie, or when she is deep in thought about something important. These movements imply that the human body acts on its own according to our emotions or our body types – despite it being our vessel, it is not something we can always control. Instead, we should celebrate and bring light upon the fascinating uniqueness of every individual body, just as Heitmann does in her work. 

Toronto Field Trip!!

Last Friday the whole class went to the AGO to see The Culture exhibition, an art exhibition which celebrates hip hop culture through contemporary art. I thought the exhibition was amazing, and I genuinely loved the paintings, sculptures and photographs displayed. I may not be very knowledgeable on hip hop, but this was such a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the culture and the works truly left quite an impression on me.

One of my favourite works was Aaron Fowler’s Live Culture Force 1s. It is a sculpture of Air Force 1s made of recycled car parts. This sculpture was so huge in person and so fascinating to look at and to locate the different car parts it is made out of. The description stated that sneakers, specifically Air Force 1s, are very big in hip hop culture, but this artwork was also made as a tribute to a friend who had passed away in an accident. I thought these shoes were amazing and a highlight of the exhibition.

Another stunning artwork was Knowledge of God by Jayson Musson, a beautiful piece which looked like an incredible abstract painting at first, but as I got closer I realized it was entirely created from intricately woven yarn and fabrics! Musson’s pieces are an ode to Coogi sweaters, which not only hold deep cultural significance but are also colourful and eye-catching, creating a beautiful abstract work of art. I love the colours and the movement in this piece – it looks like an explosion of colour, something unreal and otherworldly twisting and snaking on the canvas. Beautiful.

This exhibition was an incredible glimpse into both the historical and contemporary culture of hip hop, with videos of dancing, hair braiding, mannequins wearing famous wigs, outfits worn by hip hop artists, etc. were displayed. It really did allow me to learn so much about a culture that is so popular and will continue to be popular for a long time.

Aside from the AGO, we also went into the Power Plant in Toronto, where we got to see a couple contemporary artworks. I thought the pieces there were visually interesting and required a deeper sense of viewing than just simply looking at it – I had to try and understand it, learn how it was made and take in the variety of elements that bring to life an otherwise simple looking piece.

I liked Charles’ Campbell’s How Many Colours Has the Sea, a work which ties in both the visual and auditory experience of the sea. I liked this metal sculpture piece which resembles wave patterns in water, and cast beautiful haunting shadows on the walls. I always find that emulating nature with industrial materials makes for an interesting work of art. I have not been to many contemporary galleries so the Power Plant was something new to me – definitely much more difficult to understand than a painting of a landscape or religious scene. But there is no doubt that even if contemporary art is different than what I am used to or seems overly simple or bizarre at times, there is very often meaning and creativity behind it. Sometimes I just have to look at it from a different perspective.

Video Assignment

Audio Assignment

“Hello?”

“Hello?” is a compilation of different ways people (or answering machines) pick up the phone. I called most people in my contacts list and recorded them picking up the phone, with the responses differing based on their personalities and the relationship I have with them. It also allowed a reflection on what role phone calling plays in the lives of people in my generation – many of the people I called were my close friends whom I talk to every day and yet this was my first time ever calling them. Many of my friends thought I was in trouble when I called them because of how rarely it happens! Because of social media and the ease of texting, I find phone calls to be mostly unnecessary. However, this project allowed me to hear the rare sound of the people in my life – my friends and family, my workplace, employees at the gym I go to – saying “hello” as they pick up my call. It also led to some fun conversations afterwards with people I haven’t spoken to in a while.

I decided to start the video off with the sound of the phone ringing as I make my first call, and finish it off with the answering machine of a caller whose number no longer exists. One of the friends I called had changed her number and I was not able to reach her for this project, but I thought the response of the caller no longer being available and the empty beeping of the line was a good way to end my series of calls.

Open Studio!!

This year was my first time attending Open Studio, where I got to see the work of both the Masters students at Guelph and some of the 4th year undergraduate capstone students. It was such a great opportunity to meet new artists and see what they’re up to in the upper years of the program, and to learn more about what furthering my art education can look like.

I had the privilege of meeting several artists, but here are some of the ones that I really enjoyed getting to know:

Natasha Verbeke

I thought her abstract art was beautiful. I am not always the biggest enjoyer of non-representational art but I was very intrigued by the paintings and studies she had displayed in her studio. Her use of colour is wonderful and reminds me of nature.

I unfortunately cannot remember this artist’s name but I spoke to her and learned about her fascinating painting process. She creates abstract paintings and collages from inks which she makes herself, using natural ingredients like plants, bugs, copper, etc. She showed me a jar of dried beetles which she crushes to make a vibrant purple pigment. It was very interesting to listen to!

Stephanie Fortin

Stephanie was my TA in my first year core studio course, and it was great being able to chat with her about her work. She worked at a scrapyard over the summer and printed rusty cars onto fabric to create this intriguing pieces of art. The rust from the cars makes a super interesting abstract piece. I also got to ask some questions about the Masters program and what it takes to get in. So far I’m not sure I’ll continue my education after receiving my bachelor’s degree, but we never know…

Overall a great way to explore studios I’ve never been to before and learn about new ways to make art. Very inspiring and I’ll be sure to come back next year!!

Conceptual Portrait Assignment

I decided to photograph them all individually and put them on a large poster. I thought this made a visually interesting grid of colour and graphics. The gum packets are life-sized and you can see the wear-and-tear on each one – some are ripped and crumpled, others in pristine condition. The packets on the poster are assembled in chronological order based on the Best Before dates, which shows how long ago I bought them. It allows you to see my taste in gum over the years (I have a clear favourite).

Overall this was a fun project to do and I’m so glad I finally got an opportunity to use my bizarre but fun collection for something!! It definitely shows me as a person… I really can be rather odd at times.

Button Project!

Wearing a smile!

My idea for the button project was inspired by working in retail over the last couple of years. One of the most exhausting parts about working in customer service is having to constantly keep a smile plastered on my face and be kind and bubbly, even when speaking to rude customers who don’t show the slightest hint of respect or kindness towards me. I decided to find “perfect smiles” on Google, choosing stock images of what the internet deems the “ideal” smile and then put them on the buttons that retail workers can wear. This way, no matter how much we don’t care about a customer’s annoying grievances, no matter how miserable and tired we look at our low-paying jobs, we will constantly be “wearing a smile” as our bosses ask us to.