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- Creators: School of Art
- Creators: Beiner, Susan
As creations made for purely personal interests, OCs are an excellent elevator pitch to talk one creative to another, opening up opportunities for connection in a world where communication is at our fingertips but personal connection is increasingly harder to make. OCs encourage meaningful interaction by offering themselves as muses, avatars, and story pieces, and so much more, where artists can have their characters interact with other creatives through many different avenues such as art-making, table top games, or word of mouth.
In this thesis, I explore the worlds and aesthetics of many creators and their original characters through qualitative research and collaborative art-making. I begin with a short survey of my creative peers, asking general questions about their characters and thoughts on OCs, then move to sketching characters from various creators. I focus my research to a group of seven core creators and their characters, whom I interview and work closely with in order to create a series of seven final paintings of their original characters.
There is a wide intersection where animal and human lives interact or mimic each other behaviorally or biologically. A lot of the products that are part of our day-to-day were first validated by animals, and eventually found their way to us. From food to beauty products to scientific developments, animals deal with a lot behind the scenes. Some humans are cognizant of what is happening backstage, while others only see the final presentation. Either way, all of us have our opinions in support or against animal treatment. The project is heavily inspired from my experience in a neurorehabilitation lab, so the foundation is similar to the structure and function of neurons. Through this project, I am focusing on one aspect of this debate, which is animal testing in the scietific setting. The goal of the project is not to force the viewer to choose one side, but to understand the big picture and the reasoning of the opposing side.