https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11Y1K6xN0zLNQlSkaCpm-llQpJYWj5j9HZY73IMDoWGg/edit?usp=sharing

Reconstructed Abstract #2

Bricked is a wall hung double exposure illustration that intends to promote placemaking in the Villa Victoria, a Puerto Rican enclave in Boston’s South End, and invites youth and those that welcome insight to self reflect. This project takes on an unconventional approach to placemaking as it not only centers the people and their culture, aspirations, desires, and history, but also creates dialogue around the limitations within the community. Through grounded theory practice, interviews were conducted with residents and management staff in order to gather real life experience and perspectives centered around the Villa Victoria. The interviews were then compared and themes/patterns were extracted. Such themes/patterns were then visually translated onto a canvas that can be viewed in different colored filters/lenses, where different images become visible while simultaneously obscuring other elements.  This project is important because it addresses the importance of accepting the two extremes that fall under the concept of place attachment and meditates on the impact of social isolation. 

Concerns 

• I don’t want to promote “you need to move out of the community to be better”, because not everyone wants the same thing in life or some people are really comfortable. I don’t want to dismiss the community or drag it bc there’s a lot of beauty here. I just want to give guidance to the youth, let them know that there’s more out there, introduce them to fishbowl theory and what an unhealthy space can look like  
• *important to hold pride of where you come from and know the history, but you don’t have to stay in unhealthy cycles, the first step to breaking the cycles are addressing the cycles* 

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Additional Sources: 

Maria Dumlao – History in RGB

https://www.mariadumlao.com/history-in-rgb

“Viewing the print through one of the three filters, selected images become visible while simultaneously obscuring other elements. While the filters become tools for revelation and clarity for a monochromatic narrative, they also produce a mottled background by obfuscating the other narratives that exist on the same surface.”

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How neighborhoods matter: Community participation and social isolation in a Puerto Rican housing project

By Mario L. Small, Professor of sociology at Harvard 

https://www.proquest.com/docview/275915594?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true

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Housing as History 

Emotional Attachment to place/space 

https://depts.washington.edu/hhwb/Thm_Place.html

“Place attachment and meaning are the person-to-place bonds that evolve through emotional connection, meaning, and understandings of a specific place and/or features of a place.”

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What is Placemaking?

https://www.archdaily.com/961333/what-is-placemaking

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What gap are you trying to fill: placemaking, authentic voices/perspectives, provide guidance

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Methodology: 

Grounded Theory (interviews)

https://delvetool.com/groundedtheory

Interview data:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gqG5gzLuQ2q2GGguxeExIR52ixt3UEz1MMs46LkY02o/edit

Canvas (with texture?)  

Double Exposure 

Anaglyph 3D – is the stereoscopic 3D effect achieved by means of encoding each eye’s image using filters of different (usually chromatically opposite) colors, typically red and cyan. Anaglyph 3D images contain two differently filtered colored images, one for each eye.

Markers (monochromatic palette in red & cyan)

(How to create secret messages using 3d art

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_gAiWTWYw9o

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/R6qC0mUHLSg

Red & Cyan gel filters (interaction)

*Prototype*

-need to test how filters and markers work together*

Initial sketches brainstorming how some of these themes/patterns might be represented:

Next steps:

-interview with CEO, COO, and the CPO

-finalize visual

-test how lens and marker/paint work

Work that I already completed for Capstone:

• Decided on a concept 
• Visited art Gallery for Inspiration 
• Gathered sources and started to annotate them 
• Created a reconstructed abstract 
• Started an introduction
• Brainstormed prototypes
• Crafted Interview Questions 
• Started the interview process & took notes (Ramel Bodden, Imer Ortiz, Papote, Bryan Sanchez, Shamika Correa) 

Materials & Logistics:  (e.g., estimated arrival times for parts and fabricated components; scheduling time in rehearsal facilities or studios, etc.); 

• Acrylic paint
• Spray paint
• Poster paper,  ink, adhesive 
• Made, Bought & Found objects
• Glass beer bottle
• Mirror
• Shirt 
• TBD…

Timeline

3/29 –  Interviews w/ Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother, Shamika & Malik 

4/1 – Interview with Briana, Nums & Pedro 

3/31 – Add to research + annotate sources in more depth 

4/2 – Synthesize notes from Interview, draw out bigger ideas/themes

Brainstorm how to translate these into visuals

4/3  – Synthesize notes from Interview, draw out bigger ideas/themes

– Brainstorm how to translate these into visuals 

–  Tighten up Abstract & Intro

4/5   –   Translate ideas into visuals throughout the week   –

4/11   –  Project show & tell: Prepare a “Show and Tell” presentation of your interactive project, using the techniques and tools that we discussed in class. This should be a traditional slide presentation that shows your interactive project in its current state. This is a “rough draft” of your final presentation. Submit your slides through the homework form (optionally, share on your blog).

4/18  –  Research paper: At this point, you should have enough information to write rough drafts of a “Results” or “Evaluation” section of your research paper. Write this rough draft and bring it to class.

4/25   –   Prepare your final presentation (due May 2)

5/2  – Capstone presentation

5/9  –  Complete your research paper for Capstone 

Finalize research paper and other documentation in class

One-on-one meetings about research papers5/16   –  Final papers are due by the end of the day on 5/16 (no extensions!)

In my last presentation I expressed interest in focusing my potential project on my community,

which is to say that I wish to highlight a predominately Puerto Rican low income neighborhood that was created by migrants & founded through activism, community engagement, and pride. They fought for and built their homes in Boston’s South End and brought their culture with them. Through the architecture of the apartments, the mosaic mural in the plazita, & the name of the neighborhood itself, the history of Puerto Rico and the Villa Victoria are present.

I grew up so curious about it all. Even more so about my family and friend’s stories and experiences. Although I found so much beauty in the people and neighborhood, I could never ignore the pain and struggle that affected so many. I respect the older folk in my family so much for the sacrifices they made and battles they founght. As the baby of the family, I often hear advice given to me based off of my elder’s experiences. Although valuable and listened to, it still didn’t prepare me for what comes along with being a first generation college student at a PWI, a woman in a society that wants her to hate herself, and a daughter of two emotionally unavailable parents. I feel like there is an absence of recognizing the new struggles of the present generation in my community. Many of the struggles are inherited and yet they are manifested in different ways due to the change in society and experiences. I find that there is a lack in visually expressing how stressful it is for a first generation student to be the first to finally find the words for ills that live amongst family, community, and self and to carry that knowledge.

There are so many questions I have and that I have yet to explore, but all I know is that there is a lot to be said and discussed through the lens of my existence. My idea of this project has shape-shifted so many times as I continue explore the root of my curiosity. Through all of my ideas, I noticed that I wanted:

• to highlight a gap in an older and younger generation and attempt to interpret and bridge gap
• to explore a sense of an eternal displacement because of this gap
• showcase and update the beauties and struggles in my community

• to use Puerto Rican culture and aesthetic to guide the presentation

• to allude to childhood and stresses of growing up while dissecting and reflecting on generational trauma

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This is a sketch of an idea to create movable clothing. As the arm of the person walking moves, an aspect of the shirt will move too. In this case, it would be the eyes.

As the eyes blink, the character’s face that is painted on comes to life.

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BONDED- a representation of generational ties through the lens of fashion.

This sweater is made to be worn by two people, with each connecting string representing an aspect of the bond.

I would like to create a stop motion animation with characters made out of clay that wear this sweater and tell a story of how powerful generational ties are.

This is a prototype of how the sweater that the character would wear would look. I made it with polyester fabric and glue.

I have lived in the same apartment, on the same street, and around the same people all of my life in the Villa Victoria, South End, Boston. During my transition to college, I found it very hard to integrate myself into the NYU community because of my strong ties to home, that was all I knew. I would often be homesick and felt guilty for leaving my home to pursue higher education.

I have a strong admiration for my community and have always dreamed of giving back to it. Although I do not know exactly what my project is going to be, I know that I want to create something that I can place inside of my community that celebrates it’s history, highlights pride and emphasizes joy.

The Villa Victoria is famously known within the work of Sociology and serves as a national model in the areas of civil rights, community organizing, and affordable housing. In the NYU Online Database, I actually found a whole book dedicated to it called “Villa Victoria : The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio.” When I came across this work, I got the shivers because I didn’t know there was scholarly work discussing my neighborhood. I was so eager to read all about it and it was all so familiar to me. Yet, it was published in 2009 and it made me wonder what has changed within my community since then.

What makes the Villa Victoria interesting and special? Well, the city of Boston saw a wave of migrants entering the city in the 1950s-60s due to the opportunity for employment. My grandfather was among this wave. When he arrived to the South End, it was considered a slum and was cut off from the wealthier sides of the city. In 1968, the city planned to scrap this slum in order to maintain the city’s reputation and promoted an Urban Renewal Project. This project would displace many poor families, predominately Puerto Rican.

Yet, they weren’t going to leave without a fight. They held many protests and organized activist groups (IBA, ETC) in order to fight the city on its urban renewal project. They were so persistent and determined that the landlord gave up on their efforts and actually gave over the land to the residents. They were given the rights to develop their OWN community.

The residents believed that education, health, safety, culturally vibrant environments are fundamental to individual and community empowerment.

Growing up, I have these colorful and joyful memories of parades, murals, neighborhood kids playing outside, etc. but over the past few years, so much has changed. I am interested in preserving my community’s prideful energy and give the next generation something that they can remember and be inspired by, just as I was. I definitely feel like there’s a big lack in this right now and that may be from my ignorance on current programs or resources, but that is why I want to research more about this.

In order to do this the right way, I think it goes without saying that I need my community’s input! Luckily, I have many ways of getting that. My first source is my family, my neighbors, and my friends that I grew up with. I can schedule a time to sit down with them and have a real conversation about it.

I want to see if we share this mutual feelings that things have changed. I want to know their relationship to our community and what they wish to see more of in these 5 blocks. I want to know how they arrived in the Villa and what being Puerto Rican means to them! I want to center my project on stories and voices in my community. I want to give them a greater platform to be seen and heard. I want to present these stories through the lens of a new generation! Interviewing my family and friends will hopefully help me pinpoint themes that I may want to further explore and visually translate within this project.

I am interested in learning more about trauma, love, grief, displacement, what people consider home, history, generational gaps, and cultural roots. These topics are really personal and I want to treat them with respect so I will communicate this to the interviewee prior to the conversation to make sure they are okay with talking about it!

Potential Interview Questions:

Who are you? How old are you?

How long have you lived here?

When and why did your family move here?

What do you know about the establishment of the Villa Victoria?

What does being Puerto Rican mean to you?

How does the Villa Victoria remind you of Puerto Rico?

How do you feel about being raised on the mainland vs the island?

What is a joyful memory you have here? a not so good memory?

Do you like living here? Do you ever want to move out one day?

How has the neighborhood changed over the years?

What would you like to see more of in your neighborhood?

What do you wish for, in general?

+other questions as the conversation flows!

I also have the resource of my community’s residential organization, Inquilinos Boricuas En Action. They are staff and volunteers with connections to the Villa Victoria. They have valuable archives and data. I used to work here as a teen and still have connections to the staff. I could try to set up an interview with them as well to see if this project is possible.

Potential Interview Questions for Staff

-Who are you?

-What is your role here?

-Why did you decide to work here? What is your connection to the neighborhood?

-What is your favorite thing about the neighborhood?

-What are some issues within our community that need to be addressed?

-How is your team trying to better the community?

-How do you think the neighborhood has changed over the years in both beneficial and negative ways?

-What would you like to see more of within this community?

-What is a joyful memory? a not so good one?

-What do you wish for, in general?

+other questions as the conversation flows!

I hope to gain a sense of reoccurring themes. I also want to be able to give a new lens and style to the new generation of Puerto Rican youth growing up here.

Centering the project on the stories of the people was inspired by an installation I saw by Pepón Osorio entitled Badge of Honor. He followed a family who was challenged with surviving while their father was in and out of prison. The installation focused on projecting the father and son conversation’s about how the father’s imprisonment was affecting the family which centered around trauma, grief, and loss. While the conversation was being held, Osorio recreated a version of the son’s room and of the father’s cell.

See more here: https://www.mfah.org/blogs/inside-mfah/separation-from-home-pepon-osorio-badge-of-honor

Other points of reference and inspiration:

Hurray For the Riff Raff- Pa’lante (2018)

When We Make It- Elisabet Velazquez

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/665231/when-we-make-it-by-elisabet-velasquez/

“Puerto Rican Obituary,” by Pedro Pietri (1973)

Carolee Schneemann
Four Fur Cutting Boards
1962-63

Reference 1: Hurray for The Riff Raff – Pa’lante 

Puerto Ricans Don’t Pay for Treats With Pennies, is an installation piece that highlights the self sacrifices a group Puerto Ricans have made in order to survive the challenges of everyday life. This project addresses how the existence of a colonized people comes with a cost that is prompted by unjust social systems and generational trauma. The importance of this project lies in its ability to spotlight hardships that displace and disrupt “self”. It attempts to rid the societal judgment that may be attached to these experiences and uplift those that may feel inclined to compare their stories with those that are deemed more “worthy” or “successful” through the lens of society. 

Audiences: Villa Victoria Community in the South End, Boston, Puerto Ricans, immigrants

Venues: Dorchester Art Project, Latinx Project at NYU

Reference 2: “Badge of Honor” – Pepón Rosario

https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/679

When Will I Be Able To Step Out Into the Sky Again?, is an installation piece that highlights the desires and dreams of children within marginalized communities. This project addresses the limitations that marginalized youth have put on them by society and by themselves that make it almost impossible for them to enter institutional spaces that are different from what has been presented to them. The importance of this project lies in its ability to explore self-love, grief, and trauma, initiate a conversation around youth self-perception, and attempt to encourage youth to reimagine their futures without limitation.

Audiences: Villa Victoria Community in the South End, Boston, Youth Art Education Programs such as Cacique y Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion, Raw Arts, Artists for Humanity, ICA Teen Art Council

Venues: Dorchester Art Project, Latinx Project at NYU, ICA Boston

When We Make It – By Elisabet Velasquez

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/665231/when-we-make-it-by-elisabet-velasquez/
“What if making it happens everyday”, is a video performance piece that celebrates the small wins or everyday life that would otherwise be taken for granted, overlooked and never rewarded. This project addresses breadths of hope and successes, as the most “microscopic accomplishments” are worthy of being applauded. It represents the idea of “being your own biggest fan” and how that might manifest through the lens of Puerto Rican culture. The importance of this project lies in its ability to create joy, gratitude, and community by solidifying one’s everyday worth through music, dance, and creative ways to celebrate self.

Audiences: Villa Victoria Community in the South End, Boston, Puerto Ricans, immigrants, everyone that struggles to get up in the morning

Here is a link to the portfolio website I currently use:

https://www.thirteenvic.com

Here is a link to the portfolio website I created as an experimental iteration:

https://thirteenvic.wixsite.com/portfolio

*I currently have the domain http://www.thirteenvic.com as I previously used ThirteenVic as my artist name. I plan to officially go by Tori Valle and will be buying the domain http://www.torivalle.com soon*

I really enjoyed making an experimental iteration of my portfolio and honestly like it better than the one I currently use. I tried to make design choices within my experimental portfolio that would stand out. I particularly focused on choosing fun typography, having more personalized illustrative elements, and the quality of the projects I displayed.

I wanted the wording on my experimental portfolio to be very concise. The home page shows my handwritten name, adjectives that I’d use to describe myself, and project visuals that link to further explanations. When a person lands on this page they can instantly get a feel for my style, personality, and quality of work.

I also changed the About Page up! I created an illustrated a self portrait and wrote a bio that took a more poetic route.

I look forward to continuing to add elements to this experimental portfolio. I would like to animate my header name and use code to change my illustrated self-portrait into a photographed self-portrait when the cursor hovers over it to apply a more dynamic element.

For my final animation, I worked on a 30 second collage style animation in After Effects. I also worked on this project for another class: The Business of Artist Management.

My objective in this class was to create a marketing roll out plan for a music artist. Within that marketing plan, I was tasked with creating creative content for social media platforms. I decided to make an animation for instagram that would introduce/ tease one of Musa’s new songs that will be released on their EP, 111 rogers. The name of the song was “the night.”

I listened to this song multiple times and wrote down words and emotions that stood out to me in order to start creating the style of the animation. Some of the words I wrote down were: blur, fade, trippy, and bass. I then started to put together a mood board that represented the entire EP. I found these reference photos on Pinterest.

One of my group members in the Business of Artist Management class whom manages the artist Musa, sent me photos of the artist used in press releases. I used those photos in my animation and also gathers more photos from Pinterest in order to use as my assets. This was the first draft of my final animation:

I really liked the overall feel and visual of my first draft, yet I wanted to tighten up the camera transitions and add to the animation to make it more dynamic in the second half. This was what I came up with:

I am very happy with how my animation came out and proud of myself for making it. I would say the most challenging thing I faced during this project was the getting the timing of motion right and also working with the camera. It was a process of patience and multiple attempts, but it really paid off in the end. I really like working in AfterEffects and this project made me learn a lot more about the software. Really explored with the effects AfterEffects has to offer which is something I didn’t do in my first AfterEffects project. I really like making creative content for music artists, especially through exploring animation and is something that I am very interested in pursuing in the future.

I also used this tutorial in helping me learn more about AffectEffects special effects.

In my Business of Artist Management class, we are tasked with creating a marketing rollout plan for the release of our artist’s upcoming EP. Within this marketing plan, we want to post a 30 second to 1 minute animation that creates hype and excitement for the release of the EP. I will be taking on creating this animation, which will also serve as my final project for this class.

The artist we are creating a marketing rollout plan for is Musa. They’re music can be found on Soundcloud at:

I want to create a dynamic animation that best represents the mood, meaning, and style of the album. I am still in the process of researching and understanding exactly what I want to do with this. I am waiting on answers from the artist:

– What is this EP about? What is it inspired by?

– What do you want others to feel when they listen to this EP?

– What song would benefit the most from an animated clip?

I starting putting together a mood board on Pintrest. I listening through the EP multiple times and collected images that I thought were good visual representation of the feelings, moods, and vibes of the EP.

As I speak to the artist more about their direction, I will have a better foundation to build off of. I look forward to making this short animation one of quality and excitement.

For this assignment, I had two ideas. The first idea was a Cornell box that represented my Grandma’s Drawer. I wanted to include objects that represent her and would tell a story since all of these objects are significant to her in some way. I remember going into her room as a child and always looking at the stuff she had on her drawer. I feel like being observant of those things helped me understand her in a new way.

My second idea is making a Cornell box that represents me. I would want it to serve as a personal mood board that depicts all the things that make me Tori, my values, aesthetic, etc. I feel like this may be board though. I just want to focus on making a visual that helps me identify myself.

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I ended up going with my grandma’s drawer idea, which I ended up called “Grandma’s Nightstand.” I had some experience using the gaming software, Unity, so getting used to navigating Unreal Engine wasn’t too bad for me. I started off by building the nightstand using simple shapes and manipulating them to my liking. I was very happy with the outcome. I added wooden and golden texture/material to it and it looked just like the nightstand my grandma owns. I then built out the bedroom around the drawer. I added a bed that looked just like the bed my grandma has. When I added the textures to the walls and floors, I felt like I virtually standing in my grandma’s room.

Once I built the environment out, I started added details and small objects. I added objects that were personal to my grandma and that told a story about her. The whole idea of this project was to make an unconventional portrait of my grandma that would tell a viewer everything they need to know about her. Objects can speak louder than words in this project. Some items that I included were: a Puerto Rican flag, a machete, a cross, cigarettes, jewelry box, etc. As the camera navigates through these objects, I want the viewer to feel like they’re being told a story and understand the type of woman my grandma is.

I thought it was very interesting how some objects greatly contrasted one another. For example, a machete was on the same table as a flower. I thought that this speaks to my grandma’s nurturing, yet protective/tough personality. This is something that I see in a lot of the women that surround me and it is something that I am interested in exploring.

One thing that I was challenged with was finding compatible .obj and .fbx free files. Sometime the files would fail when I imported then so it was a long process of finding the right 3D objects.