One Hour Study
Research Forum
during the Freshman Research Forum, I was really nervous while talking to upperclassmen and professors for basically the entire time, but I feel like it was a good opportunity to let the department get a glimpse of what I'm thinking of or what I find interesting, and to showcase my artistic skills other than my dance. I am appreciative of this experience first and foremost because I discovered several things I could have included in my study and ways I could have improved the results of my research. Part of those discoveries included the responses of the people who came to my small gallery. I feel that hosting a forum during research processes is crucial to developing a more comprehensive project with multiple frames of reference to draw from and more information that I would not have found if it hadn't been for them. Overall, this experience was overwhelmingly positive and it was fun to be a part of this process with my friends.
"Throaty Displacement"(2017)
By Sutton Coffey
colored pencil on toned tan paper
One of the physical sensations that was described in the data was a heavy, sinking feeling in the area of the neck down into the stomach. This piece depicts a hand clutching the exposed midriff in a way that seems as if the fingers are trying to pierce through the skin. Although the painting doesn’t depict the exact sensation, I hope that the viewer will experience an instinctual tightening of the gut while staring at the scene in this drawing.
"An Ugly Reminder"
My research project this semester delves into the sensations of embarrassment and the sources of what was felt. I am taking a small sample of about 50 people, and I am going to have them write down answers to several questions relating to the incidence of embarrassment they faced. After collecting this data, I am going to translate the sensations of what these people felt and the specific situation into a body of art. This will be a series of drawings or paintings that will then be presented at the Freshman Research Forum.
Everyone’s experiences are never the same, so in the same way, I am hoping to get a variety of different responses. That being said, I am also seeking common trends in the data I receive, so that I may emphasize them in my artworks in a way that is recognizable to the audience. After getting responses from these people, I will look at the source of their embarrassment and whether or not they still carry that sensation of embarrassment from memory.
For example, if someone were to trip and fall and people laughed as a result and the person who fell still shudders upon recalling, that could very well be the source of their feelings. I would then look at that experience as more of an outward response that triggered the instance of embarrassment rather than an inward experience. I will then translate this into a series of artworks that will exemplify a variety of different experiences of the cited causes of embarrassment.
"Bittersweet Elixir" (2017)
By Sutton Coffey
Blue ballpoint pen on toned tan paper
This scene is more abstract than that of the other experience and shows a multitude of human heads and bodies. The presence of the heads with similar expressions of dread on their faces marks the recurrence of embarrassment with scrutiny from their peers of a habitual coping technique the use. The two figures facing each other represent a past and future of these instances of embarrassment. These figures do not physically interact, but the existence of both in the same volume remains constant since their conception.