2021 BFA Thesis Work – Saturation

When I created my first stop-motion puppet in 2018, I embedded bits of discarded hardware and electronics under its skin, and imagined this temporary creature mutating itself with foreign additives over a lifetime. It occurred to me how technology can become so embedded in our lives that it becomes hard to imagine existence without it, and I was struck with the narrative for “Saturation.” This two-year work is a stop-motion animation of a future when humanity is so over-reliant on the creation of its own technology, that it becomes saturated with it, to the exclusion of meaningful connection with other human beings, spirituality, and the natural world. Expressing emotional conditions akin to isolation and spiritual emptiness, the narrative of “Saturation” can be seen as a reflection on our current society. I believe that the inherently distressed characters narrating these emotions can connect us to our emotional memories, thus representing a reconstructed moment in time, giving memories a new life, and the chance of a new interpretation. In essence, re-animating memories to produce the possibility of new outcomes, and new pathways of thinking.