Digital Exchange Portfolio - S O C I A L D I S T A N C I N G

This page is dedicated to our exchange portfolio.

The theme this year is:

S     O     C     I     A     L          D     I     S     T     A     N     C     I     N     G

John Mark Goeke

While thinking about our theme of social distancing, I reflected on all of the places that I used to go to in Nashville as part of my regular routine. I always thought that I would be able to say goodbye to them in my own time, but COVID-19 had other ideas. In this tumultuous time, I've often thought back to my internship this summer, since things were so much more care-free for me back then. My time from that summer taking the DC transit system inspired this piece, which is a metro-style map of the places in Nashville I would frequent. I divided them into separate lines based on my reasons for going to them, though the stops are not geographically accurate. In the middle is a "You Are Here" stop, which isn't connected to any of the lines anymore. This symbolizes how I'm no longer connected to these places thanks to the quarantine. I then mocked this map up in a subway, and I also put it into an animation, which shows a subway that's never stopping. This is meant to further symbolize how detached I am from everything.

Shay Kiker - Butterfly Hand

I have felt during quarantine that life feels a little bit like it is in a fishbowl. Even with the freedom to leave the house to sit in the sun, go on a run, etc. Everything that gives a lot of life feels a little out of reach right now even though it is so close. I wanted to find some sort of imagery to represent that. One day walking back from a sunset walk, I had the idea of capturing the reflection on my window with someone trying to touch life outside from inside the glass. I thought what better than the idea of a butterfly landing right on the fingertip of someone’s hand inside. So I had my roommate stage her hand, added a butterfly in Photoshop, and then conceptualized the whole thing in illustrator. 

Andrew Engel

With the theme being social distancing, I tried to depict what most of our time is occupied by nowadays-- lying on the bed bored

Allison Mendoza - Bull Skies

The poem piece is called Bull Skies. I’ve been running with my humor-laced-with-seriousness of things and felt that my bulldog Rooney really fit the outward expression of the way I was feeling inside. He’s always hunched over and his face is in a permanent from (but he’s so cute you can’t help but love him). I paired the image of him with a Rupi Kauer poem that really spoke to me; she posted it at the beginning of all of this pandemonium. I think about it any time I feel lonely and it makes me feel better. 

Allison Mendoza - Keep Your Distance

The second, which is unnamed, is a rendition of my original litho print. A lot of news networks have been advertising different ways to measure 6ft distance to help social distancing efforts. Some companies will feature their products too (ex. 6ft is 8 of our limited edition water bottles!). I wonder often how our world will be affected by all this, how our culture will change, and how companies will capitalize off of that shift. However, the ponytail is significant in that it represents a constriction, or loss of freedom, which is the current product of our situation. 

Julia Lubarsky - Sunset at a Distance

There have been these weird moments recently that I keep noticing. When we finally decide to leave our homes to say hello to a friend, because we're craving the human connection, it’s a completely different type of social interaction. It’s so strange, but so sweet, that in the toughest of times, people will do whatever they can to connect with the people they care about. There has been a lot of bad news around us recently, but this moment, sitting in a park with a friend or significant other, separated at a safe distance, felt like too sweet a moment to ignore.

 Harrison Thomas - The Party's Over

For this work, I was inspired by the emotions I've experienced was a result of so many exciting events and special occasions getting canceled due to social distancing restrictions.  I had expected the spring to be filled with many momentous life events, but for the time being, we are forced to find ways to celebrate these moments (graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) in isolation.  This image tries to capture how celebrations in a state of social distancing do not bring the same sense of joy, and in a way can feel empty and pretend.

Sydney Kaemmerlen - Social Distancing (2020)

I was inspired by the concept of cans on a string as a way of communicating during this time of social distancing. I decided to go with the grayscale environment and the red cans and strings to both make the cans stand out and emphasize the importance of communicating during this time, even if the means seem slightly odd to us. 

Malia Latimer - Digitize

I wanted to focus on how much people (especially myself) have depended on the internet to cope with social distancing and staying at home. As a senior who’s final moments in undergraduate were abruptly cut short, I’ve noticed myself and my friends (and people all over the world) struggling to adjust to life “in the real world” without any warning and without our normal support groups. The fact that the world is kind of paused, it feels more like we are in some type of social limbo, and there’s no real end of our college year or start to the rest of our lives, so we wait and try to occupy ourselves best we can. At times, I spend so much time in front of a screen, doing classes or video calls or Netflix, I don’t notice the rising/setting of the sun and I don’t even know what day it is. It can be easy to start to forget about the physical world when so much of my life is digital.

Kalen Scott

Since classes became group video chats I personally found that the distinction between work and play has been blurred. I've met with my academic advisor, had a surprise birthday party, joined a study group, went to my cousin's 13th birthday party, and even attended midnight office hours all on zoom. As time has progressed I've started to use zoom more than facetime. The weirdest thing is feeling like I'm a vlogger and letting professors, classmates, TA's, and even deans see into my personal space. It's actually starting to feel almost normal, but in a "big brother is watching you" way. This is just a reminder that seeking normalcy through virtual social interaction will never be normal.

Mark Hosford - Desperate William

I usually do a print for the exchange portfolio so I thought I would still participate even though it is now digital. This is from a series of images where I am redrawing works from past children's books and altering or updating them to reflect the realities of social distancing and life during a pandemic.