{"id":12690,"date":"2019-12-19T22:25:53","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T22:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/?p=12690"},"modified":"2020-01-03T03:56:50","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T03:56:50","slug":"cultural-hijack-conference-i-think-im-okay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/r6g.ad7.mwp.accessdomain.com\/?p=12690","title":{"rendered":"Cultural HiJack: “I Think I’m Okay”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I, like most people in the world, don\u2019t really know what to do about the fact that everyone seems to be sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within my everyday social circles (taking into account that I interact mainly with millenials and Gen Z), I may ask how someone is doing. If they say they\u2019re sad, or mad, or upset, I may ask if there\u2019s anything I can do. Usually there isn\u2019t: it\u2019s the workload, or the weather, or the current political regime. And then I will encounter someone who is happy, and often they will deliver the news as if they themselves are shocked that they feel something other than unhappy. Perpetually happy people are like aliens to us\u2014we can\u2019t fathom that anyone could retain such an optimistic spirit without experiencing some kind of fundamental ignorance about the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any moment of joy, then, feels like a subversion of the systems that force us to disregard our own happiness in order to attain more arbitrary \u201csuccess,\u201d as the \u201cself-care as activism\u201d movement has begun to define. Sometimes it seems that there truly is nothing that today\u2019s wearied yet agitated youth can do, except focus on one joyful moment at a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided, for my conference project, that I wanted to pick apart this slippery emotion of joy\u2014as a scientist or psychologist might\u2014and see if I could tap the surface of what it means to me, and to others around me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: https:\/\/blog.femalefoundersfund.com\/ingrid-fetell-lee-on-the-6-ways-to-make-your-company-more-joyful-d9e7d303c754<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I began my research with the work of designer and author Ingrid Fetell Lee. Lee has formed a body of research around joy and its Gestalt psychology-like principles, essentializing that humans are evolutionarily predisposed to find certain shapes, colors, and textures more immediately pleasing than others. In her blog (The Aesthetics of Joy<\/a>), book (Joyful<\/a>) and TED talk<\/a>, she speaks of items such as confetti, ice cream cones, bouncy balls, and every shade of the rainbow as sources of unfettered happiness that transcend age, ethnicity, gender, and location. I was fascinated\u2014especially when I realized that I have unconsciously leaned into these simplification techniques in my own scenic design work, to attempt to evoke subliminal feelings in audience members before any action happens onstage.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When searching for materials, I first settled on yarn. Ever since I was a child, yarn has brought me the kind of joy that Lee so prizes. The array of colors, the firm but yielding shape, the endless propensity for mischief (the strands go on and on, and get tangled so easily so quickly)\u2014all have made seven-year-old me treat yarn as a precious thing, and twenty-one-year-old me realize what kind of look and feel I wanted my conference project to have. I also knew that it had to be big, and immediately noticeable. I wanted to carpet as much of Heimbold as possible in a shock of color, and close-up, have the installation be pleasant to touch and interact with. Thus, my research led me on to yarn bombing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/05\/19\/fashion\/creating-graffiti-with-yarn.html<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yarn bombing, a movement founded by knitting enthusiast-turned-textile artist Magda Sayeg<\/a>, is what the New York Times<\/em> calls \u201cgraffiti\u2019s cozy, feminine side.\u201d<\/a> It involves wrapping public structures, vehicles\u2014anything you want, really\u2014with colorful knitting. Occasionally, as described in this other NYT article<\/a>, it has been criticized for having a negative impact on the environment and belittled for its status as a \u201ccutesy…hipster fad,\u201d which I think has to do with the volume of women who choose to make street art this way (and the volume of men who have historically been associated with \u201ctraditional\u201d graffiti). I wasn\u2019t deterred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For inspiration on the actual design of my yarn monstrosity, I decided to pay a visit to a museum that seemed to align its mission to Lee\u2019s theories about playfulness and joy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: https:\/\/www.papercitymag.com\/arts\/color-factory-houston-art-phenomeon-pops-up-kirby-drive\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Color Factory NYC<\/a> is a traveling exhibit with current exhibitions in New York City and Houston, Texas. A collaborative work that features commissions from the world\u2019s leading architects in color and whimsy (paper artist Emmanuelle Moreaux<\/a>, graphic designer Lakwena<\/a>, illustrator (and cook!) Tamara Shopsin<\/a>, cultural historian Kassia St. Clair<\/a>, economist Andrew Kuo, object journalism exhibition\/curator of weird Mmuseumm<\/a>, and more), it advertises itself as \u201c20,000 square feet [of] brand-new participatory installations of colors we\u2019ve collected around the city\u2014hues that invite curiosity, discovery and play.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to the museum. I was curious, I discovered, and I played. But I left Color Factory NYC somewhat unsatisfied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the sense of spontaneous fun that the exhibit tried (and mostly succeeded) to elicit, the experience felt extremely curated. There were photo booths set up in almost every room to maximize the \u201cInstagrammable\u201d experience, which made me feel pressured to capture a moment and save it for later rather than experiencing it in real time. All the gifts and treats and games I received or participated in began to feel like a commercialized expense, rather than a surprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ingridfetell\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I returned home, I did some Instagram surfing. Sure enough, the social media accounts of people like Ingrid Fetell Lee gave me the exact same feeling\u2014of a carefully cultivated presence designed to boost engagement, not an organic source of delight. This didn\u2019t surprise me, as online movements such as #selfcare have turned our collective yearning for rest and recreation into a commodity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided that I wanted to try to avoid the polished, camera-appropriate aesthetic of joy behind as much as possible, and focus on creating a messy, imperfect piece of art that tapped into the delight and lack of inhibition of a child. I wanted to create a \u201cvanity monster\u201d\u2014a storybook-like creature that faced the difficult task of remaining self-aware, silly, ostentatious, and humble all at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n