OBJECTIVE: IAS students develop their critical and creative thinking abilities by learning how to identify assumptions, and to work out how those assumptions inform results. They assess multiple perspectives, with an eye to understanding why and how they differ, and developing the capacity to engage in controversy productively. Students learn to identify central questions or concerns informing other work, and to develop their own work with clear animating questions. Students develop a range of skills in interpretation, analysis, argumentation, application, synthesis, and evaluation.IAS outlines critical and creative thinking as key skills. It’s important to understand conflict, controversies, and situations from many perspectives. Critical thinking means to analyze, understand, and ask questions through many sociopolitical lenses rather than assuming the dominant opinion. By expanding your knowledge, it opens opportunities to creatively think from different views to construct your own response or solution.

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            In my work, “Barbara Kruger: Personal is Political”, I’ve critically engaged in Kruger’s works as a feminist artist to inform my own voice. In this project I learned how identity, experience, and social critique can influence your art.  Kruger was touching on subjects such as the male gaze, patriarchy, beauty standards, political corruption and many more through her appropriated image and strategic captions. It was important for her to implement her political voice. One should investigate artwork and study context in relation to the time period and social politics for a better comprehension. Art shouldn’t be constrained to just formal elements of technique, medium, and aesthetic.

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            I learned how to intersect my artistic skills with social awareness and activism. I created pieces in conversation with Kruger by imitating her aesthetic and process. I made images, You Follow Our Codes (2017) discussing how beauty standards are imposed on women to look a certain type. My Land is Your Home (2017), discusses how Native Land has been stripped away from indigenous tribes. Their Power is My Garment (2017), is about how we, as consumers, feed into the success and power of elite industries. In Hate You Trust (2017), I criticize the rhetoric of Donald Trump. I came to a strong position of needing to incorporate my political voice into my art. Formal elements like color, composition, and medium are important, but I did not want to solely rely on artistry. I believe it’s important to talk about current issues to bring awareness to those who are being marginalized. It shows I’m engaging with the world we live in to do productive work to educate myself and those who view my art. Have them question their perspective and our society.

 

            In, Khmer American Confession, I explored how to use the camera as a documenting tool, video as a platform, and also video art. It was challenging to work with a technology I had no experience. But because I was at UWB, I was able to check out the camera and get hands on experience. I critically engaged in the technicalities of how to be a video creator from taking shots, perspective, lighting, and editing. Professor Bodle taught me to always experiment and test the boundaries of seeing from changing angles to concept. As an art student, I had to understand the process of using video to convey messages but also aesthetic that will please the eyes. I had to center my role and how the viewer may see it. With those skills I creatively engaged in the video making process to make a meaningful story through the confessional genre. I decided to use video art to confess my struggles with my Cambodian American identity. I combined disciplines of cultural studies, creative writing, and video art into one project. I had striking visuals of artifacts, costumes, music, and a dancer to convey my admiration for my culture. But I juxtaposed those visuals with a dark monologue of the cultural gap I feel with my heritage and the issue of assimilation in the U.S. Through this process I critically and thoughtfully took into consideration what it means to use the camera as a powerful medium for vision. I used my creative thinking to provide an abstract take on confession that centers on my culture and experience.