Critiquing the World through Unchartered Art

Dorothy Peng is a student in the prestigious School of Cinematic Arts at USC. Throughout high school, she studied a variety of different art forms. Her last two years in high school, she did a lot of film, so it was natural to choose the Cinema school at USC. Yet, she’s not studying film. She is studying media, arts, and practice, which is a subset of the School of Cinema. This field lets her utilize many different types of software and art forms to find ways to have people engage with her work. Media, arts, and practice is such a new, and broad, form of art that it is tough for Dorothy to even define what it is that she does and what her field of study is about. So, I sat down with her to see if I could get a better sense of what she strives for and what she sees in the field of media, arts, and practice.

Interviewer

What’s your earliest memory of exposure to the arts?

Dorothy

When I was five. My mom is a composer and artist so when I was little, I took a lot of art classes and just drew a lot.

Interviewer

What kind of art does your mom do?

Dorothy

My mom mainly did painting. Traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. So, I did a little bit of that but did not follow that.

Interviewer

Is your Dad artistic?

Dorothy

He’s so not artistic. He can’t even put plants in a vase to this day. It’s just so embarrassing.

Interviewer

Did your mom pretty much decide for you that you would be going into art?

Dorothy

It was part of that, but to me it was really relaxing and it came easy. I kind of just stuck to it because the path kind of just paved itself for me. It was a magnet school. To get into the magnet school, you had to choose a major and I was just comfortable with the arts so I chose the visual arts and performing arts major. It included acting and the rest of art stuff.

Interviewer

So, what kind of art did you do in high school?

Dorothy

A lot of fine basic arts. Learning how to draw, paint, sketch, see. I also learned a lot of basic Adobe programs like Illustrator and Photoshop. When I got into junior and senior year, I did film and graphics and animations on after effects. Do you know after effects?

Interviewer

Yes, I do. It’s a great program. Lots of fun.

Dorothy

It is! It takes a lot of time though. Lots of time. It’s killer.

Interviewer

What would you define your major to be specifically? A lot of people have different definitions for it. What would your definition be for it?

Dorothy

My definition would be combining theory with design. Exploring how design affects human beings and how people see it. And then invoking a certain feeling from it. There’s a lot of ways to go about doing it, but for me I like the interactivity of a computer or new technology and a human.

Interviewer

Cool. That leads me to my next question. So, right now, what is your weapon of choice? What is the tool that is your go to right now? You obviously experiment with a lot of different programs, but what is your staple that you tend to go with right now?

Dorothy

I love installations. Interactive installations. So, something that is physical and tangible that someone can play with. But also, there’s a digital component.

Interviewer

So, more specifically to do that type of thing, what program would you choose to use? What program do you love to use?

Dorothy

I like using Processing a lot as well as Arduino and P5JS. They are all very similar but they just have a camera that captures your movement.

Interviewer

Very cool! So, currently, what projects are you working on?

Dorothy

Okay, I’m working on two projects right now. One of the projects is a game that I’m making. It will be a physical, tangible game that critiques social media. So, I’m still working on that. It is still conceptual and I have no idea how I’m going to go about doing that. The second one is how to create empathy through space. So, my idea is to put people in environments where they can experience someone else’s life. But, you have the capacity to press play and pause. But, the reality is that person can’t. I’m still doing a lot of research on how to do that in a non-hurtful way or offensive way.

Interviewer

That sounds very interesting! I’m excited to see it, to see what you come up with! Okay, so since being here [at USC] for three years, what has been your most successful project or installation so far, in your mind?

Dorothy

I think my favorite one was basically this cup that every time you took a sip from it and then put it down, it would make an ‘ahhhhh’ sound of satisfaction. It was just a model, but then my professor just said “Okay, now imagine it is in a gallery space and the cup is in the center of the room. And after a sip of water, all around the gallery in 360 sound, it makes the ‘ahhhhh’ sound.” And I was like, ‘Woah that’s so cool!’ Because I never worked with Arduino before and the code was very confusing and just being able to… That was one of the projects that I did from thinking of it conceptually to actually executing it the way that I wanted. That was so simple yet so cool.

Interviewer

Yeah, that sounds like it would be very exciting. So, where do you find your influences? Do you look at other mixed media artists? Paintings? And so on.

Dorothy

I like looking at classical art. Just understanding people who do classical art, like performers and dancers. Also, people who do pottery. I feel like I could be more inspired by multimedia artists but most of them are based off classical artists. So, why not look at what the foundations are. So, I kind of look at them for inspiration for why they do what they do and how they keep up with it. What are the challenges of it? For example, pottery. I used to think, ‘Oh, that looks so easy,’ but now I think ‘okay, I understand you have to be firm but also sensitive enough so that you wouldn’t crack it. And wow, that’s amazing, you wouldn’t know it unless you talked to people who experienced it and practiced it.’ So, I don’t really have a specific influencer because of how broad the field is. Mostly, I like hearing people talk. I like hearing their stories. Little things would bother me around this campus. Just in terms of, ‘How many people are on this campus and look at how many people are fortunate and how many people and how many people are not. The gap is huge. That little thing would bother me and then I’d ask myself, ‘why does that bother me?’’ I take that information and data and then see what the community thinks and then proceed to conceptualize what I want to point out that is not as blatant as saying ‘hey, we need to give money to the poor.’ It’s more like ‘how can I subtly put this into my art and address it in a way that would engage the people.’’

Interviewer

That sounds very interesting. I like that. Yah, that probably plays a huge part in how to approach your new ideas. Okay, so when you do have a free moment, which I’m sure is not often, what do you do in your free time? What do you do to help your mind both breathe and absorb?

Dorothy

I love being in nature. Nature takes me away from myself and help me look at things in a bigger perspective. That’s what nature really does to you. It’s a great thinking space.

Interviewer

So, you probably do have some late nights, right?

Dorothy

No, I don’t!

Interviewer

Wow, so you like going to bed early and waking up early?

Dorothy

Yes. I love waking up early because it’s so quiet and it is really a great time to think.

Interviewer

Good for you that you don’t go to sleep late! So, do you look up to any specific artist that is in your field? Like, oh wow, someday I want to be good as her or him.

Dorothy

To be honest, I haven’t really found someone that I really aspire to in that sense. I think it’s because there is a very limited choice. I do look up to some artists in general. I really love Chuck Close. Do you know him?

Interviewer

Yes. Go to San Francisco MOMA. They have so many of his works on display!

Dorothy

Oh my gosh his pieces are huge! It’s absolutely amazing. He’s amazing. I like him because even though he’s painting and depicting people’s faces, he’s able to do it his way. Every detail, you know? And now he’s older and he can’t really do the details so now he’s using shapes, yet you’re still able to recognize the faces. I love people in general. I want to incorporate them into my art. His ability to capture emotion in them as well. And he’s not in the conventional way using a paintbrush or pencil. He uses his fingers.

Interviewer

Okay, so what is your desk like? I know it’s a broad question, but do you have an organized desk? A messy desk?

Dorothy

That’s a great question! Amazing. I have a decently organized desk. In the space that I want to be organized, it’s organized. And then there’s a pile of things that I don’t know what to do with. The confused pile. We’ll deal-with-it later pile. I actually love post-its.

Interviewer

Okay, so that leads me to my next question. What is your inspiration board like? Do you like Pinterest? Print out things to make a collage? Do you just make a folder on your computer?

Dorothy

I have like four notebooks. Post-its of ides that just pop into my head… I put those post-its in my notebooks. People that I meet who are artists. I’ve gathered a database of people I admire and collect that. When you are young just starting as an artist, you meet people who are so passionate about their art. I love collaborating. That’s my favorite thing to do. I look through it and maybe get ideas and look at how I could work with them.

Interviewer

So, how has your confidence grown in your work since being at USC? Has it grown at all? Do you feel more and more confident about your work and what goal you are going towards?

Dorothy

I’d say this writing class has really forced me to take a closer look at what it is that I really am doing. It’s helped me figure out where I am at and what I really like to do and focus on. I’ve been super challenged coming here because at USC, you are exposed to so many different forms. There is that pressure of needing to know everything. As of right now I am confident in that I don’t know. I don’t know where I am going. I’m not just stuck on one platform. I like that I can explore many different platforms when I want to. Whenever I get frustrated, I like to reflect on it and put that into my art. How, sometimes, gets confusing. But, it just comes to you. That frustration blossoms into a project.

Interviewer

So, if you could drop all the work right now that you are doing, and pick one thing to do, what would be your dream project to focus on for the rest of the semester?

Dorothy

Okay, I would want to travel to as many countries as I can and really understand the culture and walk in their shoes and see how things really are there. I think one thing about coming back to USC is that everyone is so focused on their career that we forget everything around us. So, to learn about stories all around the world and bring it back, and create this environment where people can experience what others are experiencing all around the world, I would love to work on that project.

Interviewer

What is your strongest trait? What makes you better than everyone else who you are studying with or who’s in your field. Don’t be shy. What do you take pride in that you have and other people don’t?

Dorothy

Knowing when to stop and reflect. I think especially in my school, I mean this is just USC, everyone is trying to just make it to the next internship. Everyone is just trying to get more and always ask for more. In terms of VR, it’s a huge thing right now. They are like ‘Oh my gosh, I want to use it for video games, and art, and learning, etc.’ I don’t know, I don’t like being dependent on technology that much. I feel like if it doesn’t have a purpose to it, right, I am a little hesitant to it. I’ve been studying it and asking how it will benefit our community in the long run. It hasn’t like affected our community as much as you’d think it has. Like, where are we going now? The other day, for example, I saw this little kid playing Pokémon Go and he was taking a picture of it and behind his phone was a beautiful swan. And just seeing that, it’s so embarrassing. And so, just getting out and seeing nature and reminding myself where everything started. I just write all those reflections down and store it for one day in the future when I will turn it into something special.

Interviewer

Well thank you so much!

Dorothy

No, thank you, I feel so honored.

            Throughout the interview, it became evident that Dorothy is a deep thinker. Her art does is not just simply a way to show the technical skills that she has developed over the years. Instead, and in my opinion, contrary to many other developing artists at USC, Dorothy tries to take artifacts from the world that have meaning and make her art a way to comment on what she thinks is wrong in this world.  In a powerful sense, she sees her art as a way to express her views and commentary on the world better than her words. The most exciting part is that Dorothy is expressing herself in an art form that is still very new to the world. She has the ideas for some special projects, so it will be interesting to see how they come to fruition soon.