EXPLANATION

Too scared to make a movie for my second actlab project, I decided, with the help of my TA Joe, to make a storyboard. Since I did not know that storyboards are actually really minimalist-looking, I created these elaborate drawings that told a story.

MEDIUM AND SIZE

Crayola pencils; 9" x 12"

HOW THE STORY EVOLVED

I originally wanted to draw a straightforward story with me as the main character. The original story was about me getting annoyed by things people say, then becoming a superhero and beating them up.

But then, I decided to make the story more symbolic. I drew different storyboards of an abstract character shutting other characters' mouths. However, I quickly decided that I do not want the story to end with all the characters' mouths shut. Instead, I made the main character dejected at the loss of speech he had created (by shutting the mouths), and had him re-open the other characters' mouths, and moreover, join them in emitting speech.

The "speech" is presented by the "black stuff" coming out of the characters' mouths. I am the villain of the story--the man in the white robe.

At the time I drew this story, my class was often discussing how cultural memes control our thoughts and do not give us the freedom to communicate authentically. However, I find the dynamic exchange of memes in society to be the only thing that keeps us interacting with each other. Interaction and communication are essential parts of life. Even if we often want to shut up the corporations, the politicians, and the dumbasses of the world, it is important to recognize that communication is what keeps our culture alive. You know what kind of societies promote silence? Cults!

Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. Basically, my project is trying to show one's inability to shut up the world, and one's ultimate desire to join the world in emitting speech, to join the global discussion, despite how hopeless and ridiculous that discussion often seems.

This is a completely abstract concept, and the project is abstract, too. You may ask yourself, "what does that creature have boobs for eyes?" Well, I kept the project abstract for a reason. I wanted the reader to imbue the project with his own interpretations, to join the discussion, if you will. I put in strange images like the pregnant-lady-with-stork-legs, and did not make the "black stuff" look distinctly like words or speech, so that the reader will put in her own interpretations of what this whole thing means. Plus, putting eyes on boobs is just funny.

THE END