Natural/Normal Video and Website (2020)
The Natural/Normal consists of two finals for two different classes. In my sophomore year of college, I wanted to explore how and what society deems “natural” is defined by social norms around race, gender, class, and more. I created an interactive website for my Cultural Studies of Health final and an animated video for my Digital Foundations final. While the website explored the sociological and real-life implications of the natural and normal relationship, specifically regarding reproductive health, the animated video explored it more abstractly.
Inspired by the Wachowski Sisters' movies, such as Cloud Atlas and The Matrix, I decided to make a two-minute animated video that displayed a world where the ultra-natural and the technological and artificial are connected. Instead of a main character breaking the normal, the world breaks itself. There is no natural because the normal constantly changes and shifts. Everything is interconnected and continually bouncing off each other. I made a series of shorter animations using Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, and Illustrator to make this project. I then pieced everything together using Adobe Premiere Pro.
I posted the video on YouTube under various movie titles such as The Matrix, Cloud Atlas, and Inception. Viewers did not look up this video, but they stumbled upon it. In the Wachowski Sisters' movies, not everyone breaks the natural world order and finds the truth, only the selected few. Thus, not everyone gets to watch and engage with my video, but only the select few will happen upon it via their interest in the movie referenced.
For the website, I analyzed Viagra and birth control under the sociological frameworks of the natural-normal and body-mind. I remade advertisements using Adobe Illustrator for Viagra and birth control to highlight how these products function to normalize and reshape our bodies and society. I then made a mock website using Wix that was supposed to look like an actual website for these products. Each advertisement had a written description to help connect it back to the sociological frameworks and ground it in text. As “customers” walked through the site, they continued to learn about the fundamental role of these products. Additionally, this project was further influenced by artist Kate Cooper. Similar to Cooper’s work, the site functions by using the very same language of capitalism that is used to sell the original products.
Link to full website
Link to video
ROLES:
Full Website Design
Animation
Illustration
Research and Writing
TOOLS:
Adobe Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and After Effects