Soft Reboot: Control + Alt + Delete
"Control + Alt + Delete" takes its name from the universal keystroke that interrupts and restarts an operating system. Embracing the spirit of this halting action, Fall 2024 BFA Thesis 01 students present their work at a crucial juncture in their development, transitioning from student-learners to autonomous individuals authoring work as artists. Engaging in deliberate acts of disruption and recalibration, they re-evaluate, reconfigure, and redefine their emerging practices.
Through an intensive process of research, mentorship, experimentation, and reflection, these artists have deepened their practice through foundational coursework and core classes like Research & Development and Creative Practice to advanced studio concentrations. The Department of Art + Art History fosters a unique environment where digital arts students collaborate with traditional studio art students, evident in the variety of media represented in the exhibition: painting, photography, video installation, multiple forms of animation, sculpture, performance, and digital works.
Students began the class by writing personal art manifestos, contemplating what it means to make art in the present moment. They documented their work in work-in-progress presentations, sought guidance from mentors, and participated in a pop-up exhibition titled "Toy Models Vol. 3" on September 18, 2024. This event provided a space to collaborate, test ideas, and work within constraints to create a “toy” model of their Thesis 01 work. In the final stages, they conducted one-on-one studio visits and presented work-in-context video presentations where they were asked to situate their work in relation to contemporary artists.
"Control + Alt + Delete" explores themes of reconfigured identities, trauma and healing, the endurance and transformation of cultural rituals, the collective need for new mythologies and speculative worlds, and the rapidly changing contours of human cognition through technology. Across these works, the artists reconsider familiar systems and habitual modes of thinking and making to initiate a “soft reboot’ of their creative practices.
Artists: Tijuan Allen, Briana Angulo, Eric Arista, Alex Baker, Isabella Bru, Luisanna Cardenas, Damien Carrie, Reinier Castellanos, Miguel Chamah, Tristan Cuenca, Jorge Agustin Cuina Pace, Juliette De Armas, Estefania Escobar, Anai Fonte, Marcos Garcia, Nicole Giselle Gomez, Valeria Granda, Alessandra Henriquez, Marilyn Hernandez, Catherine Hernandez, Alice Ho, Rin Martin, Amber Martinez, Riley Mayer, Roswell McCarthy, Megan McFarlane, Jose Perez, Jenna Prieto, Themis Perez Quinones, Alexandra Ramirez, Anastasia Rodriguez, Andrea Salazar, Alexis Hayleigh Schuffert, Karen Torres
The Permanence of the Moment is my first animated short that uses symbolic imagery to explore themes related to the psyche, consciousness, and memory. These existential and experiential aspects of humanity have long been explored across various art forms, including visual arts, literature, cinema, and theater. With this project as part of my thesis, I aim to delve further into these themes through the lens of digital art and 3D animation.