Sustain is a response to today's climate crisis. This app works by teaching users how to make more sustainable choices in their lives, through a series of lessons and tracking the user's progress.

Pursuing a more sustainable lifestyle is generally blocked by cost, time and convenience. It is also fairly difficult for people to create and maintain new habits over the long term. This app was designed keeping that in mind, so that starting to use and maintaining use of the app is as streamlined and easy as possible. Offering a free, approachable way to form sustainable habits is the perfect way to break down the barriers to entry for sustainable living.

This version of the project is created in Figma, and is a high fidelity prototype. It is not a fully developed app, but it is built with animations to make it as close as possible to a fully constructed version. less -

Align, a digital critique of dental normality, is a web-based project that is comprised of two elements: narrative and self portrait. The project furthers the conversation of dental influence in our lives. It is not simply an anatomical part of our human existence but a visual representation of our personal ideals.

Align presents an overview of the various aesthetic styles of dentistry that have been present throughout history, further expressing the fact that dental aesthetics is geographically and socially influenced. Each dental aesthetic examined will be presented with background information on its reasoning, importance and social influence. less -

The relationship between mankind and Earth has recently evolved into an issue of power. In the face of a changing climate, we assume that our planet is at the mercy of humanity's agenda. But is that really the case? Can we really claim to have such definitive power over the Earth?

Genesis is an art installation that challenges this perceived dynamic. It tells a different story, one that focuses on Earth's future instead of ours. It begins by asking "what might the world look like after we're gone?" Genesis presents three speculative, narrative-driven depictions of a post-human Earth. But rather than playing into the dark, dead wastelands that we associate with humanity's wake, these landscapes are teeming with beauty and life, relentlessly inventing new versions of themselves as the human legacy fades away. It is a testament to Earth's natural resilience, and how, despite everything it faces today, our planet will find its beauty once more.

This is a digital mockup of the installation. less -

How do you come to terms with being alive? How do you cope with the incomprehensible vastness of reality, the complexities and contradictions of your own existence, and the persistent sensation of something profound just beyond your grasp?

I Hold the Universe Within Me is an essay film about the search for meaning in life, the intersection of personal philosophy and psychology, and the depth of human experience. Framed as a story told by filmmaker Julia Ehlert to her younger sister, it sweeps the audience along on an introspective, evocative journey. Through both textual and aesthetic storytelling, it explores the dynamic nature of the mind, reveals the poetry of the cosmos, and proposes the resounding notion that through our existence, we embody the universe. less -

Social interactions are informed by hyper-attentiveness to competitive dynamics, inherently overlooking the immense prevalence and evolutionary role of symbiosis and partnership. Are we selling ourselves short?

In a biosphere marked by complex interdependencies, there are immense collaborative potentials of human relationships with one another and with the environment of which they form a part. Embedding both political and media-scapes with ecological principles and democratizing civic imagination has the ability to nurture greater civic engagement by sowing rather than eroding social cohesion.

By crafting two alternate scenarios via soundscapes, this project offers participants the ability to directly experience the impacts of external conditions on their decision-making in real-time and expose the capability of repetitive narratives and auditory stimuli to affect one's capacity to collaboratively create. less -

Modern Bruja celebrates alternative faiths and spiritual practices that many know nothing or little of, and which perhaps even give people a sense of discomfort and fear.

This project focuses on the religious beliefs that permeated Latin America and the indigenous communities of North and Central America prior to the violent colonization and mass genocide inflicted upon these groups, and the covert way in which some of these beliefs have managed to survive under different guises in modern-day orthodox religion.

The crown jewel of the project is an illustrated oracle deck, a spiritual tool used for the discovery of the unknown and/or communication with spirits. The oracle deck is accompanied by a guidebook that details abstract spiritual concepts and their historical-cultural context. This work seeks to both educate and demystify religious subject matters and spiritual practices that are considered 'brujeria' and to present the oracle deck as a work of art and an instrument for self-reflection and self-realization. less -

As the Birds Fly explores the culture of bird watching in Los Angeles and its intersection with climate change and sustainability. This thesis takes the form of a short documentary, which includes interviews with birders, as well as scientists and researchers who speak more directly to the issues facing birds, as well as trends in our environment.

A subculture that is often portrayed one-dimensionally, As the Birds Fly captures the subtleties and intricacies of birding culture. Bird watching is one of the most widespread pastimes in America, as over 45 million people reported watching birds in 2016. The National Audubon Society, which was founded to protect birds, has over 500 chapters and over 500,000 members. Bird watchers have their own social norms and language, and while what they are doing is recreational, through their observations they are also seeing the real effects of climate change, often before others do. Birders have noticed changes in bird populations, and many are considering the implications of climate change for their hobby and for the animals they admire. less -

EM.body is a digitally mediated performance art project which explores the idea of mutable identity on the internet.

On dating sites, social media platforms, and gaming forums, individuals are represented digitally through avatars. These avatars give other users an idea of who the person being represented is IRL. These digital identifiers, however, can be manipulated to differ greatly from our physical biology, resulting in digital representations that don't have physical equivalents. Examples can be found especially in marginalized identities attempting to near a status quo.

The dance project EM.body utilizes muscle sensors to gather data directly from the body to manipulate a live video feed creating a more direct relationship of manipulation between biology and digital creature. The muscle sensors pick up minute changes in muscular tension as a result of changes in an emotional state. What elements of humanity are evidenced? What new tolls are taken when manipulation of your digital avatar requires physical effort? less -

Raja's Journal is a transmedial novel set in the year 2042 about a young man dealing with the death of his father. Using an intergenerational, cross-cultural narrative, the story attempts to reimagine how we as human beings relate to climate change.

This project takes the hopelessness of climate change and looks to provide a speculative design narrative to retarget our personal investments in the issue and build the world of the near future. Research on speculative design, edutainment, and the role of narratives in social change is incorporated into the writing and creation of the project. With a grounding in these research forms, Raja's Journal attempts to provide an answer about why we as humans should care about the issue and to renew the way we perceive the concept of hope - as hope for the future survival of the human race.

The original format of this was intended to be a physically printed book, with assets in it that can be interacted with as well as online assets. This has been adjusted for an online format. less -

Photography Gallery is an interactive gallery space that displays the artist's photography in a novel way. Users explore the 3D gallery space using a mouse and keyboard, approaching images that radiate voiceovers explaining their stories, meanings, and photography techniques.

The gallery space is also gamified, requiring the user to view more images in order to open doors and collect camera parts to exit the gallery. This offers a unique presentation of the artist's photography portfolio. The photographs and their stories are designed to both engage users as an audience, and to encourage them to share their own stories through a photographic medium.

The original project was intended to be shown in a physical exhibition. In the transition to hosting the project online, the visual quality was reduced in order to allow it to be run in an internet browser. less -

This project addresses the problem of the traditional packaging culture in the beauty industry, which heavily relies on plastic and other non-recyclable materials. It proposes a potential solution to optimize the packaging system: an Augmented Reality experience that visualizes product information on a digital platform, promoting the use of sustainably-produced raw materials while maintaining the efficacy of marketing strategies.

The project features two experiences: one using a Microsoft HoloLens and the other using a mobile application. The installation version features a pop-up cosmetic store with a minimalistic and monochromatic design. When wearing the HoloLens, the interactive branded content will appear. The mobile application is a more practical real-world solution, which is designed for users to look up any product information either in-store or after purchase. less -

Finding What's Lost is an in-depth exploration of the connection the African American family has with their ancestry all the way back to Africa. It endeavors to re-engage the Black Community with their lost history and culture by allowing participants to investigate their own preconceptions of their ancestry and to be inspired by the artist's own investigation and journey into her past.

The viewer is asked to confront the question of "where do you come from?" and to determine how that shapes their identity. By the end of the experience, the participant will hopefully have a new desire to uncover their past. This project does not give definitive answers to the question of the artist's ancestry, but it does create discussion around the way we identify ourselves based on location and how knowing our ancestry is a key aspect in understanding who we are. less -

We live in a world of ubiquitous data collection. This was true before the outbreak of COVID19, even as the pandemic amplified the need to gather data to track people's movements in the name of health.

This project, which consists of a short film housed in a Scalar site, is to show the downside of data collection, especially when paired with facial recognition algorithms, which essentially makes everyone subject to the panopticon and the gaze of 'big brother'. Today, our health, location, browsing history, social activities, and many other behaviors have records in different databases. They can certainly be helpful. In fact, the Chinese government has been using mass data and facial recognition in the area of crime battling and mobile payments. Meanwhile, alongside the advancement of spatial computing and wearable devices, these data could be used against you. less -

Artificial intelligence and handheld technology can play a vital role in alleviating 21st century loneliness and social isolation, as these devices often become an extension of the individual. Universal attachment to handheld technology is nurtured by shared and stored history across the life-span of the device.

Acquiring a new state of the art device does not preclude the memories stored on sim cards and cloud data, allowing feelings of reminiscence to persist. The lifecycle of posthuman repair, destruction, recycling and replacement is indeed worthy of commemoration. Post Human Angels creates a ceremonial and experiential shrine that celebrates and punctuates a human/device relationship, an attempt to honor people's attachment to their handheld technology. This installation presents a place and a process for detachment that honors the emotionality of this emerging paradigm. less -