hercanny.unstory
working definition of uncanny: the past intrudes into the present via DNA as the physical and inescapable ghosts haunting us through our lives.
process: i took old family photos and altered them to morph into a current screenshot of my face. notable are some of the photos of the women where the transformation is barely noticable. i resized the images and inserted them underneath my ancestors' erased faces. i created a sound environment from discussions with my ancestors, their channeled voices, and noises from around my home in austin.
results: they did not like this at all and i had nightmares for a week. however, i was satisfied with the piece and when i presented it in class, i did so from a white rocking chair. after the video completed playback, the spotlight came up on me, on the stage, rocking and murmuring "we are germans, germans work hard." this was meant to both claim and ultimately reject my ancestral heritage, the story of a people 'just doing their job.' many of the problems in my family, problems i have partially inherited and struggle to avoid, involve acceptance of duty, the primacy of familial desires over personal ones, and a thirst for individuality through a fear of it. the repetition of my face is meant to suggest this conflicted dialogue with individuality viewed through the lens of my history.
to what extent are our reactions our fate? encoded in our genes? is there such a thing as being haunted by history? if so, can we hope to escape? we don't choose our lives or our pasts. do they choose us? or are my ancestors as dissatisfied with me as i am with them? my project explores my questions about the uncanny family.