Description:
I created this GIF as a playful representation of learning challenges. The figure in the GIF sits typing on a computer, a task which has become unexpectedly challenging as they simultaneously balance an umbrella to protect themselves from a downpour of numbers. For many of us with learning differences, completing tasks which are supposed to be simple can become overwhelming, just as the figure in this GIF is experiencing. Where one person may have to enter values on a spreadsheet, those with learning differences have to do the same while also managing a thunderstorm of difficulties processing, focusing, organizing, and more.
I chose to represent this sense of overwhelm with spreadsheets and colorful numbers because this is an task that can be particularly challenging for me due to synesthesia. Grapheme-color synesthesia is a condition in which numbers are involuntarily associated with a specific color. Each of the numbers in this piece are written in the color I experience seeing them. Their movement is intended to give the viewer a sense of the overstimulation that merely looking at a spreadsheet of numbers give me.
Creative Process:
I began this project by creating three different collages on photoshop.
I liked particular aspects from collages 2 and 3 the most, so combined them into a single collage. After this I created additional layers of numbers to create the final animation.
Artist Inspiration:
Common Ground by Charles Luna is a piece that inspired me to explore human interaction with technology in my artwork.
https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/charles-luna/collections/techno+humanity+2d
0 through 9 by Jasper Johns is a painting that inspired the way I played with layers of numbers in this piece.
Annotated Bibliography
Johns, Jasper, 0 through 9, 1961, painting, https://whitney.org/collection/works/17166.
- This painting inspired my use of layers and numbers.
Luna, Charles, Common Ground, 2013, painting, https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/charles-luna/collections/techno+humanity+2d.
- I like the surrealist nature of this painting, and it inspired me to explore reflecting on technology and data.
Nadai, Aline, Woman holding red umbrella standing near tree at daytime, 2018, photograph, Upsplash, https://unsplash.com/photos/woman-holding-red-umbrella-standing-near-tree-at-daytime-motsTck381I.
- I found this image of someone holding a bright red unbrella. I really liked the red color so decided to build a composition around it.
Wachowski, Lana, and Lilly Wachowski, dir. The Matrix, United States: Warner Bros., 1999.
- My idea for raining numbers originally came from the raining code that is present in The Matrix movie. However, I chose to make my numbers the colors I experience with synesthesia as opposed to the green color from The Matrix.
