Project Title: The Bennie Bucker
Abstract: A study on the Bennie Bucker—a fictional character who exemplifies the signifiers of millennial success within the framework of Corporate America. The final project will be displayed visually through three physical mixed-media pieces, two videos, and one short story.
Intro to Project Idea: The Bennie Bucker is a character I am interested in studying and developing through my artistic practice. Drawing inspiration from personal relationships, work experiences, and trends in contemporary culture, I will present visual and textual imagery crafted around aspects of the Bennie’s existence.
Basic facts about the Bennie: he is in the millennial age range (25-35), he is recently married and considers himself to be a family man. He lives in a trendy part of the city, and he works for a new media conglomerate in the corporate headquarters while earning a large salary. His job function is to analyze customer data through targeted advertising technologies and present his findings to executives, which in turn increases the corporation's profits. He holds progressive political beliefs as part of his identity while maintaining no engagement in civic or community affairs. He has a limited higher education, yet is outspoken about current events, believing himself to be a well-read, intelligent person, and he has lots of internet followers that reinforce his moral superiority. He is obsessed with politics and sports, and he spends most of his free time consuming food and alcohol at social functions every weekend with people from his social class, and doesn’t question the transgressions of his coworkers or friends.
Background: This project is a departure from my previous work related to the news media, as I am choosing a composited human subject to focus on. However, this is an extension of my art practice as a form of documentary. It is also a project that serves as a type of anthropological study—one that explores the daily life of a subject that is valued within the capitalist system, as well as an investigation into new media marketing companies that are using data analysis and extraction as a business model situated within a neoliberal capitalist ideology.
Work Plan: Phase one will be a conceptualization of the character, through researching various aspects of the Bennie’s life: where he lives, where he works, how he spends his social time, how he posts about his life on social media. Phase two will be a documentation of the Bennie in the urban environment, by physically going into the city to sketch, write, shoot photos and video of the Bennie in his natural environment. Phase three will be a process of taking the physical research, digitizing them, and experimenting with different mediums—manipulating the video, drawing and painting from the photos and sketches, and refining the writing into a short story.
The finished project will consist of two 60-second videos—one depicting the Bennie’s life from “inside” his perspective, and the second will depict it from an outsider’s point of view. There will be three physical 12”x12” mixed media pieces, including a digital collage of photographic imagery, a painting, and a drawing, and there will be one 10-page short story.
The production plan will be fluid and overlap with each other, but I will phase in each part of the project one week at a time.
Research: 10/25-11/8
Documentation: 11/1-11/15
Focused/Continuous Artistic Production: 11/8-12/5
Final Revisions/Installation: 12/6-12/13
Project Due: 12/13
Significance: Through this project I hope to accomplish returning to a practice of more traditional forms of artistic expression, rather than solely working with digital tools and digital materials. I intend to spend more time in a creative mode of activity, drawing and painting, rather than in a systems-oriented thinking mindset. I will conceptualize the character's day to day life, and create work through my inner feelings toward the character that is being built up over time. I am interested in questions of how identity is crafted and how social capital is accumulated, and take a critical position on the Bennie’s attitudes and behaviors.
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