Time and Art
Student, Artist
Recording In Progress
Olivia Luke and Stella Shoemaker
TIME OUT // TIME IN
Harrisonburg Innovation Hub, Room 212
May 2, 2025
We live in an ecosystem of energy and information, one that we are constantly affecting and being affected by. In this pool of energy, our movement, sound, and the light reflecting from us act as fluid, moving in waves as we disrupt the pool. It is intuitively human to standardize these sensory effects into units of measurement for us to record and observe time, space, and energy. The human nature of perceiving and trying to materialize this true reality, which we otherwise cannot see, is convoluted and imperfect. What does my voice look like? How does my body sound? In this space, with multiple data translations one can experience these inquiries in immersive synesthesia. When data processes are systemically layered in this environment, the question arises: can truth be defined, visualized, materialized?
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Infinity Anti-Gazing Pool
For this project, we were asked to use the artistic concepts of interconnected elements, audience engagement, and feedback loops in a small-scale project. I decided to create an infinity mirror with a projector and a camera with help from my friends Alex Tuszynski and Ryan Michalowicz.
I was most interested in how this affected our movement and experience of the space. It felt like we were wading through past reflections of ourselves. Due to the time delay, it gave the impression that we could see back in time. The vantage point of the camera gave us as viewers a reflection that we almost never see: the top of our heads.
Boxing "Indecent"
This is a video of myself presenting in class, with volunteers Elisha Hill and Connor Dawson. We were asked to present an art piece related to a box: a square container which keeps some things in and keeps others out.
I wanted to create a project that was dynamic, responsive, and ephemeral; one that required audience participation and which could only exist in that specific moment with our specific group of people.
A metaphor for our modern engagement with the world--the social internet--this piece examines what happens when two non-experts reflect and project only a small "box" of information, and how that information continues to distort.
"Time and Art: Theory and Practice in Time for Interdisciplinary Collaboration" was an integrative arts class I took with professors SangJun Yoo and Gui Hwan Lee through JMU's Office of Creative Propulsion. The class focused on interdisciplinary art practices, using time as our subject matter. Often being drawn to projections as my medium, I was able to collaborate with my classmates on creative projects, which culminated in a final exhibition of "Recording in Progress".
Being surrounded by artists from different disciplines, I grew to realize that my artistic voice was not only supported by my theatre design background, but also my teaching background. The pieces I was most proud of were collaborative, responsive, dynamic, and ephemeral. They were incomplete without the participation of the viewer, and sought to facilitate active exploration and discovery.