DO-MES-TI-CA-TED (original) (raw)
DO-MES-TI-CA-TEDUbsbu8624862023-04-08T12:02:00-07:00
DO-MES-TI-CA-TED (2009 -2015)
This body of work entitled DO-MES-TI-CA-TED (2009-2015) explores the cultural values that lie behind the interaction between animals and humans, while demonstrating the great variety of forms this relationship can take. In addition, it expands upon the standard definition of the term “domesticated” to include animals whose existence is altered by human interaction. Thus, we would find trophy hunts that decorate the outside of cabins; the coloured fish and taxidermied animals that embellish our indoor and outdoor living spaces, the landscaped garden that determines the type of insects that would inhabit it, the fences that mark our agricultural land and limit the movement of animals in the landscape, the exotic animal that stands at the core of our eco-tourist industry, and finally, the scientific manipulation of animal behavior for the protection of our forests and ultimately of our human habitat.
Inspired partly by the sequential photography of Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), known for his groundbreaking work on animal locomotion, I intended for the viewer to become aware of every still frame, as well as of the sum of the fragments that encompass every action. By transferring his approach into stop-motion animation, I hope for the observer to appreciate each individual scene, and at the same time, to perceive the complexity of each sequence in its totality. The segmented title of this project that reads simultaneously as separate syllabic fragments (do-mes-ti-ca-ted) and as a full word echo the representation of each video as a set of fragmented images (single frames) as well as the totality of the whole sequence (encompassed under each individual title).
I am thankful to Carlos Vela Sandquist for the music and Juan Kai Mejia and Carlos Angel for their technical support.