Fabricated Nostalgia

During my last year at MICA, I worked night and day on my senior degree project titled Fabricated Nostalgia. I devoted the first half of my senior year to research, case study analysis, and project development. The second half of that year, I worked on developing the art direction and set design for the visual narratives, digital content, product design, packaging design, garment construction, social media marketing, and post-production editing.

Fabricated Nostalgia is a visual exploration of the tools used in commercial marketing and advertisement through a synesthetic lens. Synesthesia is a neurological and cultural phenomenon that allows a synesthete to experience the occurrence of secondary sense through the activation of the first one. For example; someone with Chromesthesia; the occurrence of sound to color synesthesia, will automatically and involuntarily experience color through the presence of sounds. Pharrell Williams may hear a low base sound but sees is visual as an indigo blue, where a high pitched note might look like a bright yellow to him.

After conducting a series of four case studies surrounding the concept of synesthetic marketing being applied in real life scenarios, we can further learn how consumers interact with products, what associations are assigned to products based on their shape, color, and textures, and scent. Synesthetic marketing allows for creatives to develop abstract marketing visuals that correlate to these findings. Companies like Starbucks, LATAM airlines and MTV have adopted synesthetic marketing for consumers interaction and brand awareness by targeting one of their senses to activate a second one to establish a sensory experience that represents the brand.

There are various types of synesthesia that exist. However, due to its idiosyncratic qualities, everyone that has a type of synesthesia experiences it differently. This is to say that someone with Chromesthesia, the experience of color through sound; might not experience the same color for a high pitched sound that another synesthete would experience due to its idiosyncratic qualities.

As part of my senior thesis I wanted to develop a visual index for some of the most “common” types of synesthesia that exist as a form of educating and explaining how these occurrences take place, are manifest, and most importantly what they may look like. It was important for me to develop an environment that felt clean, sterile and non-invasive for these synesthetic occurrences to take place in. I developed a few experimental garment pieces that functioned as anti-stimulating synesthetic gear while enhancing the general aesthetic for the synesthetic visual index. The same thought process and art direction were applied to the set design.

Color association and color depletion was something I found myself exploring to a deeper extend throughout my thesis. I found that color Highly influences the perception of a product, down to its shape, size, and texture. This is something that changes through cultures and socializing factors, which led me to develop a series of sculptures influenced by popular culture. I was curious to see how the human brain would respond to a product if the color was removed from its identity; including its packaging.

I developed, designed and produced a series of silicon plaster molds from a popular culture sparkling water company that became the vessel for color depletion testing. La Croix offers a wide range of flavored sparkling water, some of them with indicative color packaging that is supposed to indicate the color of the fruit used to produce that essence of flavored water. I was curious to explore how that previously established color association would stand if the color was removed from a product and it’s packaging. By distilling my own natural essential oils I was able to develop a unique method to infuse Plaster of Paris for casting these sculptures. This allowed me to further push my color-depletion testing.