IN FLUX POETRY

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IN FLUX POETRY

INTEGRATED DESIGN PROGRAM

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IN FLUX POETRY

PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN, BFA 2018

Table of Contents

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46

Introduction Student Work Noor Alali Claudine Brantley David Canedo Leo Chang Brian Cole Quinn Constantini Nico Contreras Daniel Cuhen Yuning Dai Anthony D’Angelo Chloe Davis Calli Sara Goldstein Ines Gurovich Britt Haegglund Dominique Kaplowitz Cass Karim Harry Koepp Ana Mariá López Madeline Macartney Louise Maltaverne

48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90

Michaela Manzieri Charles Margaritis Elena Margulis Cinder Maunwacha Claudia Min Shanley Mitchell Sharon Montanez Andrea Parra Asia Perrotti Angela Portillo Carolyn Sarno Hannah Schmelzer Araceli Segura Paola Segura Liam Starr Sara Stojchevska William Tuesca Flore Van Den Akker Yu Ling Wu Tracy Yuan Vivyan Zhang Acknowledgments

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Introduction Jessica Walker, Integrated Design Program Director 6

Instead of a single title for this exhibition you’ll encounter a string of words that acknowledge a constellation of ideas. “InFluxPoetry disconnect interaction exploration personalizing systems empowerment internet kinky resilience educate beauty inequality furry…” points to the conversations we have negotiated as teachers and learners, makers and thinkers, non-conformists and innovators.

Integrated Designers know how to resist. They hold a curious power to challenge an authoritarian “no” and transform it into a “yes.” They occupy a studio practice that is at one moment tragically paralyzed and at the next feverishly productive. They engage in deeply personal inquiries to explore a vast range of materials and methods including object-based artmaking, service design, creative entrepreneurship, communication design, performance, fashion, media design and social practice.

They carve pathways that didn’t exist yesterday.

It would be hard to ignore the technological muscle of this exhibition. The row of glowing interactive screens is like a vending machine of small personal vignettes.

Amidst all the LEDs, the objects, garments, and books remind us that physical making remains central to the Integrated Designer’s process and that fire does not have the power to stop creative production.

Noor Alali N/A MAGAZINE

Being an avid dreamer myself is what led me to fall in love with the magical world of fashion and choose it as a career. Fashion is a place where creativity, imagination, and storytelling flourish, and one can lose themselves in the reverie presented before them.

I strive to continue creating those dreams and bringing them to life for others.​However, today there is a lack of art and fantasy in the industry, as collections, designs, and stories in magazines continue to grow more commercial and mainstream.

Therefore, for my thesis, I aim to rekindle the storytelling and fantasy essence of fashion, by creating a visually fantastical and tactile magazine which will feature solely images, as the photographs will speak for themselves, and focus on the themes of femininity, glamour, nature, and the nocturnal underground.

Noor Alali

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Claudine Brantley 10

To Live in Peace is a coming of age story that examines the intimate intersectionality of one's personal identities and how they exist within their kindred relationships and beyond. Taking place in the early 2000’s, the narrative follows two families in New York City as they are pushed closer together through a sudden marriage proposal. The bonds between them are tested, all while lightly exploring the intersections of Japanese Americans and African Americans and the complexities of growing up in POC households.

Cast: Kit as Teslyne Junior Renee as Monique Warren Wilhelmina as Shiho Matsuoka Renton as Haruka Koszer Hisoka as Kota Fudauchi Venrick as Malik Johnson MC as Malik Brantley Crew: Stage Manager: Dinorka Concepcion, Assistant Director: Adam Setton, Book and Lyrics: Claudine Brantley, Music by: Sterling Overshown and Claudine Brantley, Additional Music by: Ivan Cabrera and Kwaku Opoku,

Music Direction by: Sterling Overshown and Paul Pegler, Producer: Claudine Brantley, Scenic Design: Daniel Cuchen and Robert Brown, Costume Design: Lashun Costor, Graphic Design: Saul Jean Charles, Choreography by Gabrielle Fairfax and Jeion Green, Multimedia by Jeion Green, Sound Design by Youngkuyng Kim

Claudine Brantley

David Canedo Breadwinners 12

Breadwinners is a collection of art objects and textiles that explores the complicated labor relationship between the US and Mexico. By using different materials to construct cloth, I intend to create analogies and stories rooted in the participation of Mexicans in the US economy and how the intertwining of the economies impact both sides. In the current political climate, I found the urge to break down the history and the system in which I am about to participate.

As a national Mexican, I have experienced the admiration of Mexican society towards America.

Living in the US, made me aware about these affairs and helped me to reconnect with my own culture, have a deeper appreciation for our national craft and culture.

I decided to explore different craftsmanship that could tell history in a different way through materiality.

Conceptualizing the industrial with craft, and radical transformations, a sense of material freedom is used to represent key elements found in the fragmented history of Mexican labor. The collection focuses on textile techniques, and traditional craft such as needle felting, sewing and knitting.

This collection of objects invites the viewer to think about, interpret and structure how these objects and stories can communicate new meanings and reshape different aspects of this labor history.

David Canedo

Leo Change Lovelorn

Lovelorn is an exploration and celebration of gay millennial love in a digital age. Eight months ago, I found myself feeling frustrated by the lack of reciprocity I was receiving in finding romance in New York City.

This led me to explore how other gay millennial men were falling into relationships, especially after learning that 80% of gay men today meet their partners through online dating.

The accessibility that the digital domain affords is so unique to how this generation makes connections that I wanted to have a dialogue with the men in my community about what their experiences are in navigating the online sphere.

Lovelorn documents my journey photographing 10 gay millennial couples within their homes, interviewing them not only on what it means to be in a queer relationship today, but how cultural positionality can greatly affect individual experiences in gay culture.

Leo Chang

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Brian Cole Flum Book Wars

Political correctness over the past couple years has dominated news headlines and been the root of many social problems in the United States.

Flum Book Wars is a card game to look at how PC is extremely pr esent in our lives and how it influences us daily. To show how this phenomenon works I want to create an analog, social media based game that has absurd or extreme examples of PC being used. I also want to touch on the way we interact through social media and how, more often than not, theses “wars� happen all the time in comment sections across the internet.

Through playing the game I want players to be aware of the issues that PC may cause, how social media can be detrimental to the progression of how we think, and to have fun.

Brian Cole

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Quinn Constantini so...how do you feel about that?

so… how do you feel about that? is a daily visual and written art practice focused on exploring emotions and thoughts associated with mental illnesses. This interactive piece is intended to incite introspection, conversation and discussion in an attempt to normalize mental illness.

The roughly 100 loose pieces of various papers, envelopes, receipts, and gum wrappers are scattered in an open box. Societal archetypes have taught people to box up emotions and “put them away,” which is why this box cannot be closed – the emotions are to be open and normalized in a new way. The contents have no specific order. Although each writing and art piece is dated, they move as freely as our emotions.

The piece is interactive in that the viewers are invited to (delicately, as emotions are fragile) pick up, sift through, sit with, find matching dates, talk with and about, read, think, move, touch, and feel with the piece. so… how do you feel about that?

Quinn Constantini

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Nico Contreras The Chanel Generation

My senior thesis is a 3-tier project that focuses on reworking Chanel’s 1993-94 collections in a series of visual advertisements to give the brand a contemporary edge. As trends in luxury streetwear continue to rise, my project focuses on expanding Chanel’s client base to a younger audience. My interpretations of Chanel advertisements intersect graffiti and collage elements with classic motifs from the house’s history. The final project consists of a digital strategy, PR event press release, and printed zine to be distributed at the opening event.

Nico Contreras

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Daniel Cuhen

While working on a documentary series in Bali, Indonesia, Cora 7 Designer, Danny Cuhen, was faced with the harsh effects plastic pollution is having on our oceans. Doing further research, he found that it is estimated that 40% of our oceans surfaces are covered in plastic trash.

With plastic taking around 400 years to decompose what does that leave us with? What can we do? What is a solution designers and artists can come up with to help combat plastic waste? Cora 7 is dedicated to finding a solution to this problem by participating in one of its largest contributors: Merchandise; ranging from clothing, bags, wallets, shoes, and jewelry, from it’s packaging, to the endless amount of shopping bags used, merchandise is destroying our planet. Cora 7 will be creating a line of handbags made out of recycled plastic. With new developments in 3D filament production we are now able to create 3D plastics out of recycled plastics. With this new process Cora 7 will be creating Luxury Merchandise with one goal in mind: Changing The Way We Value Plastic.

Daniel Cuhen

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Yuning Dai NICHÉ SKINCARE PACKAGING DESIGN 24

Niché is a skincare product brand that promotes a natural healthy skincare routine. In the domain of beauty and skincare, “Youth preservation” and “anti-aging” have been overused on labels suggesting “youth” plays a key role in the value of women in the society. Many cosmetic advertisements use images of young women to be seen as natural, while aging is ‘unnatural’ and wrinkles should be reversed. Women feel pressured to meet the idealized beauty standards, and the cosmetic industry takes advantage of this by offering a “solution” to this insecurity.

Instead of promoting the fear of aging, healthy skin and the emotional and physical health of women, should be promoted in cosmetics industry.

In developing a new skincare line for women, I have taken into account both the inside ingredients and the external message to women. Lotus has been chosen as the key ingredient in Niché skincare line, not only for its beauty values, but also to signify purification, as lotus rises above mud to bloom, I hope women see their age as something that makes them more graceful and valuable.

Yuning Dai

Anthony D’Angelo Alphanet 26

The Internet means a lot to me. I love the Internet. It’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and as valuable as a friend or family member.

During my academic career I found that the Internet receives harsh criticism. People focus on its detriments, ignoring its undeniable potential for good. I believe the good outweighs the bad. I deeply want people to see the Internet differently, to see how it has changed life profoundly.

While brainstorming how I could encapsulate my thoughts and feelings, I reached an idea: the Internet is my third parent. After that I wanted to create more metaphors to express the gravity of its impact.

To organize my thoughts I used the alphabet, arising from initial themes of parents and childhood.

For each letter of the alphabet I came up with a word beginning with that letter. Then I created a visual, a graphic, to portray that metaphor.

My choice of medium for these graphics shifted throughout the process. I kept coming back to the idea of tshirts, another thing I’ve felt passionate about for the better half of my life.

With this project, I pay homage to the Internet with the creation of graphic tshirts.

Welcome to the Alphanet.

Anthony D’Angelo

Chloe Davis 28

Creativity and identity are formed through a child’s “free” play mode.

Imagination gives children the power to think and feel for themselves. Sadly, many toys and TV shows rob children of this natural ability. These consumer based products and our societies ever growing hunger to consume is detrimental to the development of a child’s identity and health. Prolonged exposure to this consumerism hyperactively causes lifelong anxiety and destructive behavior. True selfactualization and happiness are achieved through the support of a consistent and selfinitiated placement.

As a child, I equated my selfworth to my materialistic toys and parental wealth. This caused deeply root anxiety and self-consciousness that I still struggle with today. This is a relatively new problem that my generation has had to deal with and greatly contributes to the growing mental health crisis in our nation.

This is a series of visual and conceptual pieces exploring the specifics of mass-produced products that contributed to my life as a perpetual consumer. I found that my most intimate moments of development were all crystallized in

the plasticity of products marketed to me. If this is where I placed sentimental value and accredited my self-development what other unhealthy mentalities were glorified?

Chloe Davis

Calli Sara Goldstein Radical Innovation in Pedagogy 30

I am investigating innovative learning opportunities at The New Schoolinstances where skills are applied and expanded upon outside of the typical classroom context, and with real world practitioners and experts.

To effectively model a strategic path towards the further success of these practices, my findings are synthesized into a three part compilation: a project brief (1), a case study (2), solutions and prescriptions (3).

1. Radical Innovation in Pedagogy: Driving Urban Transformation Through University-Community Collaborations 2. A Standard for Success: Designing and Building in Urban Public Space 3. Curricular Development: Sustaining Vision and Maintaining Continuity This research outlines the yet untapped potential to pipeline university talent and knowledge into the world in which it belongs.

By amplifying The New School’s participation in 21st century problem solving, perhaps we can play a bigger role in the solution towards the transformation of the New York City ecosystem.

Calli Sara Goldstein

Ines Gurovich

In the yogic world, there is the concept of practicing the eight limbs of Yoga.

These are personal and practical observances we must practice to reach our highest potential. These eight limbs are part of the tree of life.

THE EIGHT LIMBS YAMA—Moral Vows NIYAMA—Self-discipline and spiritual observances ASANA—Postures PRANAYAMA—Breathing techniques PRATYAHARA—Withdrawal of external world DHARANA—Focused concentration DHYANA—Meditation SAMADHI—Enlightenment

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To celebrate and commemorate our ancestors, allows one to grow stronger. In order to achieve our ambitions and strive, our roots must allow for such actions to balance.

This is balanced energy; to grow inward, allows to grows outward.

In this project, I found the opportunity to celebrate my passage to this earth by the history my grandfather has written as a memoir.

By publishing and deepening my understanding of my family’s

trajectory, allows for a study of my past, present and future relations.

The published book is accompanied by paintings celebrating my family members. I have chosen to paint my immediate family, in the context of their inner worlds as I perceive them. We are all members of this genealogical tree, thus seed must be remembered for stronger and complex fruits to blossom each generation.

Ines Gurovich

Britt Haegglund Mid-Century Modern 34

Britt Haegglund’s interior design service is an online resource that strives to educate, assist, and connect consumers to all available vintage mid-century furniture dealers, and to make good design more accessible.

The site features a curated collection of vintage mid-century furniture pieces with accompanying photographs, illustrations, and technical drawings for each chair.

A biography is provided for each model in order to help the consumer learn more about the designer and chair itself. By incorporating these educational tools we hope to highlight the importance of buying vintage furniture opposed to reproductions.

The Explore page of the site features images of interiors that incorporate vintage mid-century furniture pieces. This component aims to assist consumers by demonstrating the versatility of each piece of furniture. The gallery is interactive - when the viewer hovers over the image with their mouse, a pop-up displays the name of the specific model of furniture with an accompanying link to that piece’s page on the site.

The Shop page provides images of vintage mid-century pieces that are currently available for purchase online. Each image provides a link to the seller’s original posting where more information is available. Britt Haegglund has close relations to vintage mid-century furniture dealers around the world, allowing us to keep buyers up to date with the most rare vintage pieces on the market.

All features of the site are constantly being updated and added to as pieces are sold and new items are listed.

Britt Haegglund

Dominique Kaplowitz Synthetic Fruit 36

I’m in conversation with myself and the material world around me.

Synthetic Fruit II is meant to make something of the entropy—specifically, form and action; not just “interaction,” but deep connection. Feeling!

I am reactivating the garbage, and specifying the connections (that already exist) through making.

Repurposing chains, linked and unlinked. Heavy lifting. Rejuvenating my own practice through investigation of the intersections of art and design.

Utopia. Dystopia. Apocalypse.

Embracing the contradiction. RERE-RE-RE synthesis. “Authenticity is dead.” So is the unreal, so is the inauthentic, so is mythology.

I am reBuilding myself through alien characters. WE TRIUMPH! Then, re-re-re-re THINK. REform. We REwork ourselves using our hands, all cut up and infected. We bare wild fruits; beautiful, edible, and substantive.

Dominique Kaplowitz is a costume, set, and sculpture designer focused on installation and video performance. Her work centers on utopian/dystopian dichotomy and queer Black futurist identity. She explores these themes though design thinking in fine art and film practice.

Acknowledgments: Asia Perrotti, April Kaplowitz, Baseera Khan, Colin Pieters, Gabi Asfour, Helen Polson, Javarius Jones, Kadin Herring, Julia Moses, Cameron Downey, Marin Vesely, Oskar Sinclair, and Octavia Butler

Dominique Kaplowitz

Cass Karim Spi(Cy-Fi)lms www.spicy-films.com 38

Spi(Cy-Fi)lms is a series of three responsive 4d works by the artist Cy-Fi, that aims to create solidarity between Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPOC), through video, film, performance, animation, and other 4d mediums. This series was presented at BronxArtSpace. In this physical space, the film series was screened along with other works by QTPOC working in 4D, a discussion with the artists and ways in which they could connect with one another after the event. This series is an outstretched hand, from Cy-Fi to you, in which viewers can choose to listen, participate, and create their own works in response to the series, and build solidarity through 4D mediums.

Cy-Fi’s three-part video performance series begins with a video performance piece, “Left Unsaid,” which contains interviews with QTPOC who address their definitions of microaggressions within institutional settings. It speaks on ways we can de-construct colonial mindsets that have been instilled in us, and re-construct language to empower and support us. The second video performance/music video, “Except Me,” is about the

surveillance of muslim communities in NYC as compared to the privilege given to white supremacists who commit acts of terror. The final video performance/animation, “Boxing” extends on this looming NYPD presence , specifically within Cy-Fi’s community where two new surveillance cameras and NYPD helicopter surveillance becomes the norm in her neighborhood.

This is compared to her partner’s experience in Williamsburg, where gentrification also creates another form of silencing marginalized communities. All three videos do not have a resolution, but rather moments of relief where the protagonists find peace within themselves and their solidarity with one another.

The videos are also collaborations with the artists who show up in each piece. They are meant to blend and challenge the boundaries of video, film, performance, animation, and identity. These films are an ongoing series on www.spicy-films. com and part of the larger QTPOC collective www.cravemorebk.com.

Cass Karim

Harry Koepp LE FREEPPORT | TRIBECA 40

History, and notions of a shared past, have been supplanted by an amalgam of images and information– a composite of a composite, ceaselessly self-replicating as they drift, fractured and disoriented, through space. The great styles of the past slowly fragment and disperse, and the conviction that something real exists outside of the abstraction vanishes, into the ether.

LE FREEPORT | TRIBECA is a group exhibition staged in a private residence, and conceived as a kind of secret museum– the title of the show references the extra-territorial art-storage facilities that have been popping up in and around tax havens the world over. The works on view in this ‘Freeport’ seek to investigate the transformative, destabilizing effects of global capital and technology and the ways in which these forces have obliterated long-held conceptions of how we represent cultural identity, the nature of images, and even meaning itself. LE FREEPORT | TRIBECA at times presents an almost celebratory appraisal of this deracinated milieu, as we also view this moment in history as an unprecedented opportunity– extricated from illusions of progress,

we are prompted to question what meaning, if any, these images ever possessed, and thus begin to envision new and better futures.

Harry Koepp

Ana Mariรก Lรณpez Sense-motion sensemotion.org 42

Sense-motion is an inclusive and evolving space which explores the relationship between the senses and motion. This space is explored through three main tactics and discovered through various embodied, somatic dance, improvisational, and sensorial practices. The first tactic involves doing sensory ethnographic explorations to attend the ways in the senses interact with our surroundings.

The second component is the sensemotion (parenthesis), a platform to put in-practice the insights gathered in the sensory explorations combined with the practices considered. The third and most integral element is how the sense-motion (parenthesis) is enhancing participants quality of life. Sense-motion aims to embrace the uniqueness of each body and the possibilities that are available within. These three main tactics are an opportunity for participants to explore how the senses (either internally or externally) can be impacted through somatic dance, sensorial contact, and improvisational forms in order to foster new modes of acting and perceiving. The development of sense-motion is an ongoing question of how dance knowledge might

thrive beyond the realm of dance to transform its perception and how nondancers might adopt these methods to improve their quality of life.

Ana Mariรก Lรณpez

Madeline Macartney “Why Don’t You Just Ask Me About It” 44

So often we only get to know our friends on a surface level. We know where they like to go out and what they like to eat but, enthralled in our own day-to-day, we neglect to delve deeper into their experiences and learn how they have come to be the people that we know and love.

In the medium of a podcast, I use intentional conversation and questioning to get to know more about my friends, and in doing so paint a portrait of myself through the people I surround myself with. You are said to be the sum of those with whom you spend time, therefore I have carefully curated my guests from different circles in my life: school, work and location, ranging from where I grew up in Northern California to people I have met over the past five years I have lived in New York City.

Accompanying the audio are portraits I have taken of each participant. Photography is not new to me, I have been freelancing and shooting film as long as I have lived here, however this is my first time working with audio. I consider myself a private person and sometimes wonder, ‘why did nobody ever ask me about that?’ in relation to my

own past discretions. This project calls upon the listener to ask more about themselves and the people they are surrounded with.

Madeline Macartney

Louise Maltaverne Adaptive Replica 46

Adaptive Replica creates a dialogue between different mediums using a specific aesthetic and artistic approach as a basis. The aim was to develop and expand a 2D practice by letting each technique and piece answer and inform the other. The project explores the idea of intuition, experimentation and process.

Each piece was created using different techniques, textures, colors or shapes with the intent of presenting an organic, poetic and diverse but also consistent and coherent body of work.

My abstract drawings inspiring the aesthetic, hence creating a structure for the project, allowed me to develop it with more freedom, following my curiosity and want to explore this world of art and craft.

I believe creativity opens up a place for conversation and connections to be established between people, objects and ideas, leading to new ones being generated.

The physical outcome of the project is a representation of its creative process, during which different mediums; techniques, colors, textures and shapes were put together as a way of a dialogue.

Louise Maltaverne

Michaela Manzieri 48

The colonization of the Americas resulted in the founding of European settlements through the repression and near-extinction of native populations. However, adaptation of the indigenous– such as the Seminole Indians who took refuge in the Everglades– can be seen as a process of transformation similar to that by which a cell develops resistance to hostilities through lateral gene transfer and mutation.

Another example of transformation is the resistance of hybrid urban corals to the bacteria ​Serratia marcescens.

The latter is an opportunistic human pathogen that has been identified as causing White Pox disease in the reef-building stony corals of South Florida and the Caribbean. Recent research speculates a connection between diseased coral and untreated human sewage, suggesting a causal link between wastewater and disease outbreak. There exists a disturbing relevancy linking this infectious process with that of the Christian conquest of the Americas, as well as the contemporary influx of humans on the defective infrastructure of the metropolitan area of Miami, in lieu of the future sea-level rise. The

volta of this piece lies in the facts of resistance present in all these cases.

The Seminole wars and various other revolts against the colonial force in the 18th century resulted in the successful survival of native people and tribes. Similarly, the process at the base of survival of coral populations in Miami is one of transformation.

These histories and developments have been charted using bacterial aquaculture through a researchbased installation. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, ​Glades & Limestone: The Biopolitics of South Florida​focuses on this area, a major colonial hub, and a port of arrival and departure, with all attendant contentions and extinctions, new hopes and foundations– in a word: transformations. This area is also my home, and the home of Staghorn and Elkhorn stony corals– the first true real estate developers of the tropics. As particulars of our species, we share histories of violence and destruction, resistance and survival.

Michaela Manzieri

Charles Margaritis Systems: A Way of Thinking 50

This painting of a mountain range is reinterpreted through the lens of a coded artistic system. Comprised of a sixteen step grey scale, each color has been compressed to be nearly indistinguishable from the next. The result is an image which confronts the transformative nature of systems as well as the boundaries between them. A system can take the most monumental and seemingly simple element, a mountain, and render it nearly invisible. In this case each instance of each color was separated out into sixteens keys which organized the painting process. Keys or blueprints are a basic component to understanding and manipulating a system. Systems have become so pervasive in contemporary life that thought is no longer conceptualized as foundational building blocks, but as sprawling decentralized networks.

This work represents the intersection of the artist’s study of Service Design and a passion for understanding. Like systems, services are omnipresent in western economies from healthcare, and education to insurance. It has been said that “services are at the very least, relationships between providers and customers, and more

generally, they are highly complicated networks of relationships between people inside and outside the service organization.” The aim of Service Design is to take these complex services which unfold over time and make them visible so they can be understood, designed, and improved.

Simply stated, Service Design aims at making the ‘invisible visible’. This project utilizes principles of Service Design to reverse this transformation, turing the visible mountain into an invisible abstract system.

Charles Margaritis

Elena Margulis 21st Century American Dreaming 52

The past two years have been a rollercoaster of social and political turmoil. At some moments it has seemed like the world may be burning, but truly persuasive and compelling art can be created from the ashes of these fires. Chosing a modern topic that I myself had experience within, I decided to create an audio-visual experience that showcased my passion for creating and styling clothing as well as my interest in telling stories through art.

I wanted to make a statement about what womxn go through on a daily basis without creating a documentary about a very specific experience and consequently exluding anyone outside of that perspective.

Because so many of the forces that womxn struggle against in our modern era are abstract and systematic, I made the video abstract as well. I also wanted representation both in front and behind the camera, so the entire cast and crew of the video is female or gen-derfluid.

The video is split into three stories, cutting back and forth between (1)the main character while she struggles with the projected vision of what society wants her to be and her true

vision of herself, (2) a woman whos space is violated as she is forced to wear a mask with a smile on it and (3) a group of five womxn who are an abstract representation of the effects that modern society leaves on womxn’s minds and bodies.

Elena Margulis

Cinder Maunwacha 54

My Work is an exploration and interpretation on the correlation of traveling and Buddhism. Buddha’s enlightenment originated from his travels through different beliefs and cultures to find inner peace.

My goal is to create a slow fashion brand which combines conceptually designed products inspired by travel and Buddhist Philosophy. Through all the years of traveling, I find traveling experiences enable me to relate to Buddha’s teachings best. Traveling allows me to see reality through different cultures and perspectives, which according to buddhist’s beliefs, leads to enlightenment. Buddha teaches, “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” In my own observations, traveling widens my perspective as it teaches me how to see the world in different points of view. There are always more things out there to be seen and learn from, which I believe will lead to continuous enlightenment in order to reach Nirvana. For me, this is a way to bring fashion back to

an art form, to provoke and inspire people through different cultures.

Cinder Maunwacha

Claudia Min For the Unspoken Furry Angels

This project is to bring awareness to the sad and brutal reality that dogs have to face in the secular dog meat industry. The goal is to bring awareness and let the audience empathize and understand through a sensory stimulating installation.

In addition, I designed a pamphlet providing factual information that I hope would create a change of heart.

My goal is to initiate action in each individual to make a difference in the current situation, by revealing the ignored ones to public disclosure.

Claudia Min

F T U FA

35.9078° N 127.7669° E

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Shanley Mitchell Nation Branding & Environmental Behaviors within Bhutan 58

The future of our planet and the life it sustains is now dominantly influenced by human activity. Extreme overconsumption has caused resource depletion and degradation at alarming rates. Climate change is an issue that will affect all facets of the world we know, thus, we must imagine alternatives to the way our societies function. In 2016 I spent a semester studying at The Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environmental Research in Bhutan.

I was fascinated by how Bhutan has managed to maintain policies of Gross National Happiness (GNH) and protect their environment despite becoming a successful tourist destination after the late 1970's. Through my research, I found connections between religion and nation branding in Bhutan and how they impact tourists’ behaviors.

Understanding how Bhutan’s strategic branding has an effect on the way tourists’ value and behave within the country’s environment could give insight into the power that marketing has on behaviors in the context of conservation. As a student graduating from both Parsons and Lang in the BAFA dual degree program, I wanted the deliverables

for this project to challenge me to exercise my ability to present in-depth research in a well-designed, creative, and compelling way. This project includes a thesis paper, a narrated animation that summarizes the research, and a graphic design book.

Shanley Mitchell

Sharon Montanez 60

In Mexico, the systematic engraving of labels has contributed to a division within communities. By this I refer to how social, political, and economic forces all mold each individual a certain way as they live through impacted life experiences. This selfcaused social stratification enforces the idea of “other� through the causal and subtle use of labels while also sustaining and reflecting larger effects of systemic injustice. Due to such, targeted groups may respond by ignoring or abandoning Mexico.

Yet, others live unaware of the very factors influencing their experiences.

American and Mexican society both often place blame on individuals and their decisions, rather than looking at the situation at largescale. They do not recognize or honor the value within each decision, a decision that will resonate with future generations.

I started this conversation with hand made patches which integrate printmaking, painting and embroidery. These patches showcase my own family story, presenting specific moments of decision making which have all caused me

to be here. I am essentially the outcome of these decisions.

Sharon Montanez

Andrea Parra 62

Visuals that capture the small essence of Interior Design, where new conversations will spark and shed a new light in the world of interiors/furniture.

While I was in the process of applying to the Interior Design department at Parsons, I was curious on how I can learn outside of the classroom. I went to Youtube and was presented with videos that were long and hard to stay interested in. It seemed like there was so many videos and perspectives in the fashion world and that’s what I hope do develop through time.

Sitting W/ Andrea is a space where Interior Design, could be digested and presented in different forms.

“The intro” Chair, It presents me building a chair, simple and clean.

I wanted to present how building something like a chair could be so satisfying to watch. Creating a new dictionary, building a verity of chairs from different designers is the main goal. Where you can watch me build the chair to its natural form, given steps by the designer and spreading some knowledge on the piece.

“Creating the set”, laying out an environment is key to having a great

conversation, it’s a way to present where I will invite my guest to speak on Interior Design. The chairs are symbols of different creative, who I hope one day I’m able to interview.

“The talk”, I wanted to the viewer to sit and look at the screen to give the experience of them sitting with me. I’m expressing what I’m developing, making it as relatable and fun as possible. I hope someone who is interested in Interior Design but has no clue on how to start or even what it initials can watch enjoy and take something out of it where they create their own perspective in the world of interiors.

Sitting W/ Andrea is a concept I’ve developed through time; I hope to present my passion for interiors and my perspectives through videos in way where anyone can take something out of it.

Andrea Parra

Asia Perotti SEX CELLS 64

In a society full of hypersexual media, it is ironic to see people become tense, timid and judgemental when discussing sexual preference, gender identities, and bodily functions. Why can sex be sold to the masses, yet when someone takes ownership of their sexuality they are given a scarlet letter? SEX CELLS aims to combat this hypocrisy by creating unapologetic outward expressions of sexuality via apparel & accessories. The merchandise will use science, pop culture, and bold imagery to take cheeky stabs at the stigmas plaguing our society.

Our phase one product line will include a variety of laser cut earrings that allude to various topics. These range from reproductive systems, to hormones, to fetish lifestyle. As a second and third phase to our brand, we aim to unroll more goods such as chokers, t shirts, and eventually collaborations with other designers and sex positive community icons.

Through the vehicles of trend and humor, SEX CELLS hopes to spearhead education, awareness, and a sense of community for all the freaks, perverts, and deviants among us.

Asia Perotti

Angela Portillo

My work explores the nostalgic concept of romanticizing loved memories. Often, when an individual experiences nostalgia, one seeks for a memory that does not physically exist. Such memories that shape an individual contribute to one’s identity and consist of romanticized customs. What an individual clings to are encapsulated within our minds, which can be accessed when escaping reality.

I hope that my work speaks to those who feel isolated and at a state of displacement. My memories are encapsulated within these preserved personal artifacts, cultivating altered tangible recollections. By trapping these recollections into new material, the viewer is able to look from the outside into my own memories. The viewer experiences my own consciousness and reflects on their own, catching their own reflection when seeing the mirror.

Angela Portillo

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Carolyn Sarno DeepThrought www.carolynjsarno.com

The eroticism of the imagery aims to titillation the viewer thus engaging their reception. The depiction of pleasure through movement reveals the destabilization of imagery connotation established within western hyper masculine society.

The use of tantalizing imagery of the female gender created within the context of the male gaze in conjunction with bodily imagery and elements of consumerist culture create a narrative of empowerment through female liberation of sexuality within the patriarchal climate. The juxtaposition is supposed to provoke the audience to think about the picture they are seeing and how it should be interpreted given the presentation and preconceived connotation. The physical way with which the piece is presented is evidence of the many layers of subliminal connotation that is taught in contemporary society.

The multiple renditions that focus on the female form through different medium choice is symbolic of the multidimensional way women should be represented in the world.

Carolyn Sarno

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Hannah Schmelzer 70

Moving to New York City highlighted a growing tension within me.

This tension was, and continues to be, the result of a disconnect between me and my essence.

This tension and disconnect has been conceived through the term sludge. Sludge is muck that accumulates, is even imposed upon, around the soul, causing a false sense of self. Aspects of the city’s nature continue to exacerbate this tension.

This project is an expression of all the sludge that continues to pile up inside.

The piling of sludge on the soul is something that one cannot really see, and is often not aware of. Yet, it has the capability of manifesting on a physical level. I would say that internal, emotional sludge bears a physical weight. The relationship between the piling of sludge, what is easily unseen, and the weight accumulated from this process accumulates, informed my choice in medium for this project. I found that the thick, gooey, translucent nature of silicone contrasted by the darker element of black embroidered thread speaks to the essence of soul sludge.

*This project was inspired by various Chassidic texts, parts of which I have directly incorporated.

Hanna Schmelzer

Araceli Segura The Nude Prude

Nude Prude: “A woman who is nude in her way of being, and a prude for being in control of her freedom and having the power to be whoever she wants to be.�

Made in Peru but designed in New York, The Nude Prude is a brand and concept that was created by the collective mindset and attitude of all the inspiring women around us. The brand’s purpose is to transmit the battle women have with themselves in order to find emotional freedom.

The Nude Prude is a community that allows and inspires women to be transparent and genuine not only with others but with them-selves.

Through fashion, art, and design a reflection of women was made.

Inspired by a combination of the confident, liberal and daring Parisian woman; the bold and feminine Greek goddesses, and of the strong, independent and determined woman around us; The Nude Prude was born.

Araceli Segura

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Paola Segura Jai Fachon 74

Political theorist Fredric Jameson defines globalization as imperialism and cultural imperialism as the subordination of local cultural expressions through strategies that include their displacement and standardization. In the same way, representation of Dominican culture as hybrid hides historically unequal relationships between the ethnicities that make it up. Eurocentric influences are easily evident in all of Dominican culture, where economic domination has thwarted the development of a robust and inclusive national industry. In fashion, these effects are exaggerated, shopping malls are dominated by Euro-descendant brands and fashion shows promote aesthetics that exclude a large majority of the population.

Jai Fachon addresses this; its a sartorial exploration of Dominican identity, combining opposing aspects of the cultural hierarchy in the country. The collection celebrates and empowers the autochthonous, so that in addition to its European heritage, fashion in DR can showcase its African and Taino descent, its adaptability, its temperament, and via its own unique formula; its

individuality. The collection focuses on closet staples so it is accessible to every Dominican with t-shirts branded with modified Dominican logos that showcase the country’s dialect and popular brands, jackets made of fabrics that adjust them to the Dominican climate, pants inspired by the traditional Dominican/Spanish costume, and modular pieces that showcase climactic adaptability and Dominican iconography and symbolism.

Paola Segura

Liam Starr 76

We all have relationships that implode in front of our eyes. A father, a friend, a love. Sometimes we are at the root.

Sometimes those roots are ripped up suddenly and without closure. How can we, in collecting these memories and analyzing them, come to find meaning and growth in them, while remaining introspective and objective?

Largely inspired by the two books So Sad Today by Melissa Broder, and Smash Cut by Brad Gooch, my thesis is a book entitled We’ve Always Known That, a series of personal essays reliving the origin and downfall of most of my relationships—whether they were fleeting or unfathomably intense.

The title comes from a line Jessica Lange had in the first season of American Horror Story—her daughter says, “The dead can walk freely on Halloween.” She turns slowly and says, “Well we’ve always known that.”

Every human being has relationships that evoke raw and at times uncomfortable emotion—whether this is sanguine, melancholy, elation, destruction. These experiences have the power to connect other human beings. Think about your own loves; what have they done to you?

Liam Starr

Sara Stojchevska StyleSipher 78

As a woman involved in entrepreneurship and fashion, reading and researching the latest about the two, I have seen a gap within the industry. Fashion brands are missing a huge portion of their audience, with that leaving clothing for the market of the ‘regular woman’ untapped. Secondly, women who are entrepreneurs and working hard are not able to sit at home and browse for new clothing online. They need more direction and exposure to the right brands, but just enough, so they can still make their own decisions.

Finally, we live in a digital era where we can buy anything at the comfort of our homes and digital devices, hence, retail is not as successful as before so we need to adapt to the market instead of trying to save it.

StyleSifer is an online platform bringing retail at your fingertips. It understands your sense of style through a Tinder-like swiping algorithm and offers various options of work-appropriate assemblages and new items based on your previous likes. StyleSipher offers anything and everything you need, to make you looking and feeling your best!

Sara Stojchevska

William Tuesca Electric Plants 80

My creative process reconsiders a rhetoric to meditate around social, economic and environmental challenges faced by developing nations. The “Plantas Electricas” series (“Electric Plants” in English) started as a representation of the electric generator units commonly used in Dominican Republic’s households. This phenomenon conveys coping against the perpetual national electric crisis, which has made constant blackouts a natural part of Dominican’s daily life. The natural and the artificial merges into visually appealing aberrations as a counternarrative to provoke a conversation. This strategy mirrors American media and telecom monopolies’ emotional marketing and its influence over less developed nations, often claimed as intended for human connectivity and access to information rather than its fundamental intention as a marketing tool with specific political outcomes.

This body of work aims to reconcile science fiction and Virtuality as a form ideal reality that is not actual or abstract. The visual references embodied within Plantas Electricas embraces a

freedom of creative imaginary, reclaimed as a form of liberty to articulate non-geographical localism outside of political conventions of development and social growth.

William Tuesca

Flore Van Den Akker 82

Although growing as the daughter of a diplomat, I had not become aware of the monitoring within our household until the past year, and it was a topic discussed between my family members and me. It is an intrusion on a space I always considered to be private. My interest was piqued when I came across a website which had displayed live streams from surveillance cameras all over the world; with the user being given the option to search for live footage from any city or neighborhood. While the cameras are publically accessible, I spent the majority of my time reviewing footage within semi ‘private’ spaces.

My work combines my interest in surveillance and psychology, with a focus on family dynamics and identity. Combining family history, cultural identity and aspects of religion with surveillance.

Each camera represents a member of my family. The objects attached are items my family members interact with every day, many of them being health related. These also being examples of personal or private actions. Intimate moments we don’t tend to share with the world.

Exploring the limits and boundaries between the comfort and intimacy of family life at home, and the invasion of that privacy.

Flore Van Den Akker

Yu Ling Wu A Modern History of The United States of America

While conducting research for this thesis a few months back, I asked a former educator of mine, "What's the hardest thing to get students to do in your classroom?" He answered "to have them emotionally connect with the history". The central question of this piece then, shifted to: How do we get people to care? What can we question in our relationship to what we learn in order to recognize that we are all active players in a nonlinear historical timeline? What do we shift when we begin to question what we know and how we know it? A Modern History of The United States of America my response to these thoughts. It takes shape as a textbook of sorts, and examines the ways in which our individual personalized (hi) stories intersect with a larger historical narrative. This piece asserts the notion that our narratives have equal, if not more, weight than those presented to us in traditional, standardized, and authorized texts of our nation's past.

Yu Ling Wu

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Tracy Yuan PropSwap

Sustainability has been a discussion in the fashion industry for years.

Manufacture and development of garments are most well-known for contaminating the environment. Most people do not realize how much waste is produced for events and shows in the industry. In order to reduce this waste, I invented Propswap, an online platform to access and reuse props beyond the fashion industry.

The website is to connect prop makers with prop users (retail spaces, schools, theaters, ad agencies, fashion brands) for second or third use.

Propswap is a non-profit organization and dedicated to the expansion of art and reduction of waste.

Tracy Yuan

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Vivyan Zhang Mimetic Gesture 88

This project began with sixteen weeks of intensive research spanning from Asian American history to my parent’s experience during the Cultural Revolution and in the United States post Cold War. I couldn’t figure out why my research wasn’t yielding answers, and refused to acknowledge the absence of an actual question. I turned to daydreaming about myself looking glamorous in a traditional Chinese qipao to ease my mind.

After stumbling upon a street sale with the perfect qipao, I finally had the chance to actualize my fantasy.

Alone in my room I realized the dress I’d purchased did not fit. As I pulled the tight fabric off, my arms bound backwards in an unreleasable bind leaving my bare chest vulnerable. My growing frustration led to blinding rage as I envisioned a blonde girl fitting perfectly into my dress. The same fantasy I used to distract myself only brought my internalized hatred, self pity and shame to the surface.

Months later, I confronted these emotions by recording myself dressing and undressing into the same qipao. I translated the self performative video into screen stills, which later became the subjects in my body of watercolor

paintings, silk screens and ceramics.

The qipao experience represented in “Mimetic Gesture” reflects the process of moving beyond a projected identity to ultimately address my skewed and racialized self perception.

Vivyan Zhang

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the Integrated Design students for their resilience, humor and voice.

Thanks to Scherezade Garcia who curated this exhibition with incredible patience and tenacity.

Thanks to the Sheila Johnson Design Center gallery team for their pragmatism and attention to detail.

Thanks to Jessica Corr, Sammy Cucher, Gabi Asfour, Jessica Walker, Andrew Shea and all the Parsons faculty who create dynamic learning experiences for our students.

Thanks to Jane Pirone and Lisa Norton for leading the School of Design Strategies with thoughtful vision.

Thanks to the School of Design Strategies operations team who make all our work possible with their logistical and creative prowess.

Thanks to all colleagues and guests who have participated in presentations, individual advising and conversations with our students throughout their journeys.

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Thanks to Olive Burd who designed this beautiful catalog.

The book was set in Cinetype and Akzidenz-Grotesk..

Integrated Designers come to Parsons School of Design to collaborate and make interdisciplinary connections that didn’t exist yesterday. Rather than choosing a disciplinary major these undergraduates choose to experiment across academic boundaries and forge new trajectories of practice. Students in this program are social innovators and creative makers who care as deeply about their aesthetics as they do their business models and research methods. Integrated Design sits within the School of Design Strategies, a hub of creative makers, entrepreneurs, and scholars who are responsive to 21st century design challenges in a global context. While the approaches and outcomes to problem-solving are quite varied, all Integrated Design students are making impact through collaboration and a socially-engaged creative practice.