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A Room within A Room:

Abuelita’s Porch 2024

By Natasha Ramos

Materials: Multimedia perfomance installation featuring wood panels, hammock, chairs, woven baskets, bananas, broom, speakers and ceramic decoration.

Dimensions: 8'x 8'x 8'

This installation recreates my grandmother's porch in Lares, Puerto Rico, as a tribute to my cultural roots and the peaceful moments spent swinging in her hammock. The porch, often the heart of the house, reflects the warmth, simplicity, and joy of family life. With a hammock gently swayed by the wind (a fan,) scattered chairs, and symbols of Puerto Rican culture, the space invites viewers to connect with the tranquility I felt growing up, surrounded by the sounds of coqui frogs and the embrace of clean air. Through this work, I honor my abuelita, celebrating the tradition she embodied and the lasting influence she has had on my life.

The porch serves as a symbol of tradition and memory, preserving the everyday joys that shaped my identity. It reflects the love and culture my abuelita passed down, offering a reminder of how family roots us in life's most cherished moments.

This piece invites others to share in the feeling of home, love and connection.

[natashara]

Concept Board 3: The Labyrinth

This concept focuses on the idea of life as a labyrinth, where choices seem endless, but in reality, we are often guided along a predetermined path. The maze is constructed from natural materials sticks, branches, leaves, and dirt, collected from the outdoors, creating an organic and immersive journey through the room. One of my main inspirations is Double Steel Cage Piece, by Bruce Nauman. Nauman’s emphasis on controlling the viewer’s actions, the labyrinth will be designed to give participants only one route to follow, reinforcing the theme of fate and the illusion of choice. The rough, earthy textures of the materials evoke a spiritual, primal feeling, further connecting the viewer to nature and the unpredictability and predictability of life’s journey. As you step you might step on various natural elements but you have to keep moving forward, as in life. All other inspirations are listed.

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Concept Board 2: The Creative Room

This concept explores the boundless nature of creativity, emphasizing that it will thrive regardless of the setting it’s placed in. By transforming this room into a makeshift creative space, the artist will use their portable MPC to compose a musical beat within three minutes. The bare walls and solitary environment serve as a blank canvas, proving that artistic expression can flourish anywhere, unconfined by physical or environmental constraints. The process will be recorded to capture the flow of creativity, demonstrating how inspiration can emerge in the most minimalistic settings. All inspirations are listed.

[natashara]

Concept Board 1: Abuelita’s Porch

This concept will be focused on recreating my grandmother's humble porch in Lares, Puerto Rico, as a tribute to my cultural roots and the peaceful times I spent swinging in her hammock. The innocent act of sitting or swinging on her porch, listening to the sounds of the coqui frogs and fresh air brought a sense of tranquility and connection to my early life. I will include a hammock swayed by a fan, scattered chairs, and symbols of Puerto Rican culture, evoking the warmth and simplicity of those cherished times. This space is more than a physical representation, it’s a reflection of the joy found in the everyday pleasures of family and culture. I included influences for my project.

[natashara]

QCQ: “Dependent Participation: Bruce Nauman's Environments By: JANET KRAYNAK”

Quote:

“Technocratic society, therefore, sees a dramatic shift, in which participation leads not to self-determination but, paradoxically, to alienation. 'Ours is a society of alienation,' Touraine writes, 'not because it reduces people to misery or because it imposes police restriction, but because it seduces, manipulates, and enforces conformism.'”

Comment:

I picked this quote because it captures the contradiction of our modern sense of freedom. We often think that the more choices we have, the more control we have over our lives, but Touraine's quote suggests that this freedom can actually lead to an alienation of our society. Instead of allowing us to be truly independent, the system subtly guides us towards conformity and manipulates us into accepting a preset range of options. This resonates with me because I experience a similar sense of surveillance and illusion of freedom in my daily life. It makes me question whether our so-called freedom is an illusion crafted by those in control and how we might break free from those constraints. Touraine argues that modern society's promises of freedom and choice are not true, and can actually lead to a loss of individuality through manipulation and control.

Question:

How do you think the manipulation of freedom and control affects our ability to express ourselves authentically? Are there ways we can push back against the pressures in place? Will we ever have true personal agency again?

The manipulation of freedom and control stifles our ability to express ourselves authentically, offering an illusion of choice. Society crafts a path, we, unknowingly, follow it. True freedom feels out of reach, yet our art offers a way to resist it. Through creation, we reclaim that lost individuality, pushing back against the constraints imposed on us. We might not fully escape, but in questioning and challenging we can be our authentic selves and push back.

[natashara]

1. Anya Gallaccio, The Light Pours Out of Me, 2012, Materials: Amethyst chamber, surrounded by hornbeam and obsidian, in barbed wire enclosure.

2. Anya Gallaccio, Chasing Rainbows, 1998, Materials: glass beads and light dimensions.

3. Anya Gallaccio, Preserve 'Beauty', 1991/2003, one thousand eight hundred red gerberas, Materials: glass, gerberas.

4. Anya Gallaccio, The power to be true to you, 2003, Materials: Gok lame nand knotted fishing net.

5. Anya Gallaccio, As long as there were any roads to amnesia and anaesthesia still to be explored, 2002, Materials: oak trees.

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A Room: Ghost of Technologies Past 2024 / by Natasha Ramos

Materials: Mixed-media installation featuring electronic devices, performance and sound

Dimensions: 20’ x 18’

My installation showcases a chronological timeline of the advancement of technology and electronic devices. From a record player to early iPhones, laptops, game systems, and more, all highlighting the evolution of design and function in technology.

At the center of the installation is an extension cord, laid out from newest to oldest device, symbolizing the continuous link between past innovations and present advancements. The devices are arranged to emphasize their transformation over time, showing the impact of technological progress. Moving through the space, I embody the spirit of technology’s past, Cyndi Lauper’s "Time After Time" plays in the background, reinforcing the theme of temporal connection. This installation invites the audience to reflect on the ongoing journey of technological progress and its profound effects on our lives, as well as the enduring influence of the past in our present.

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Concept Board 3: A Room: Physical Footsteps and Space

White/clear string will wrap around and through crocs shoes so they hang to insinuate walking or taking steps forward. Each shoe will seem as if it is levitating above the ground but it is an illusion of footsteps. Every step we take in the present was possibly thought of in the past or planned for the future. The space underneath our steps are equivalent to the space in our journey through life. The crocs represents the modern steps we are taking in life, crocs are a modern traveling shoe that occupies minimal physical space. With every two steps we journey into something new that is invisible to us before we see it. The space emphasized underneath the shoes is the force we incur through life. My use of space is inspired by Tomas Saraceno’s spatial explorations and Tim Hawkinson’s kinetic sculptures, they both show how space can be manipulated to reflect balance and tell a story. Strings and shoes will be arranged to create interaction, suspension, and a sense of equilibrium, further showing the journey of taking steps forward.

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Concept Board 2: A Room: Journey Through Physical Electronics

I will be showing technology from different generations, showing a physical and emotional evolution of electronic devices, highlighting the design and functionality of items from retro electronics to technology of modern times. I am focusing on the physical and symbolic journey of these technologies. I was inspired by Nam June Paik’s exploration of media’s role in culture and Angela Bulloch’s work with aged digital systems. The devices will be arranged to emphasize their transformation over time, with each representing a milestone in the history of electronic, physical technology.

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Concept Board 1: A Room: String and Connection

I am exploring the interwoven history and connections created by string literally and metaphorically. String can represent a connection between one idea tied to another, coming together as one story. History links one moment to another just like string; it can make multiple pathways, representing invisible threads that bind moments and generations together. Inspired by Chiharu Shiota’s installations and Eva Hesse’s use of materials, my focus is on how string can create connections and pathways in multiple ways. It can show the continuity between all connections. Strings will physically link to each other, creating a web of connecting points to show a flow of time, history and information. Strings tie to points in time and space.