artist statement for final

My webpage is on my flash drive, but here is my artist statement for it:

For this project I explored the topic of ‘mind wandering’.  Almost everyone’s mind wanders, whether we notice it or not. It usually takes place when we are doing frequently performed tasks or something that isn’t very interesting to us. What happens is an area of our brains flips into a default mode, and in this default mode we think about things that may have happened in our past or things we want to happen now, or in the future. This occurrence in people is something that no one has really found a definitive reasoning for yet, the ambiguity and possibility of it all is what interests me.

With this piece I wanted to make the experience a personal one. So the video clips used were taken at places I have noticed my own mind wandering to. Some of them are very literal, such as the clips at the lake, a place I would frequently go to walk my dog, or hang out with my friends, but some of the clips are meant to possess more of a feeling, rather than a specific place.

 The clips of the cemetery and the counting of coins are examples of this. The cemetery because we are human and as such, our lives are temporary, so I sometimes catch my mind wandering to thoughts about what actually happens once we die, and occasionally to things that were once in my life, but no longer are; The coin clips are to symbolize how I frequently catch my mind wandering off to thoughts of money. “How much money will be on this upcoming paycheck? How much money am I going to have left after I pay my rent this month? I need a job that pays more money.” Etc. 

The photos in the background on the site are all ones that my mind also wanders to mainly because I have all good memories of these places, people, or things.

The setup of the site is meant to be pretty simple. On the homepage I have a quote from an article on mind wandering that I really enjoyed. On the second page I have the clips in my own perspective, as well as if someone else were seeing them happen. I did this because when our minds wander they can do so in both of these perspectives. Sometimes we are watching ourselves in situations, or sometimes we are actually living the situation as it replays. 

The photos have lower opacity because I wanted the photos to be a secondary focus. The clips are all on auto play because like a wandering mind, it starts on its own, and I wanted them all playing at the same time over and over because since our mind goes into its own default mode sometimes the thoughts can be sporadic or mixed with other thoughts at the same time.