Me...Jane
Me...Jane
Marketing design for musical theatre
Marketing design for musical theatre
Prescription
Installation art piece
Completed: Winter – Spring 2019
Role: Artist
For: Studio art class at Art, Theory, and Practice at Northwestern University, taught by Brendan Fernandes
Project Context
My first project for this studio art class was an exploration of the toxic ways I consume (and am consumed by) different things. I represented emotional addictions (mindless scrolling through social media, dating apps, etc) through food, with which I had a toxic relationship of physical consumption.
For my final project, I wanted to invert this concept and instead represent nourishing aspects of my daily life through the form of medicine. What immediately came to mind was my relationships with my friends and the unique forms of refuge I take in each of them.
Process
To depict this somewhat intangible concept, I brainstormed what a singular ‘dose’ of friendship might look like — such as a phone call or FaceTime. Once I identified the primary ways I engage with each friend, I turned these interactions into visual decorations on medicine packaging, as inspired by a few children's medications seen at a local Walgreens.
Calling Susan
FaceTiming Pearl
Being with Yvonne
I then assigned primary "effects" to these drug dosages and expressed them through language similar to what
one would find on regular medicine packaging.
Final Product
The front of each medicine box includes a vector illustration of the friendship's main "dose" and the drug name derived from the Latin word chosen above.
Like the packaging of any other generic over-the-counter medicine, the back and side surfaces list various "Drug Facts" reflecting on each friend's role in my life through uses, warnings, and directions.
Process – Critique Takeaways
Process – Exhibition Design
At the critique a week before the final exhibition, I received exciting and helpful feedback from my classmates and professor. I was most encouraged that my classmates empathized with the framework of the pieces and understood the juxtaposition between this and my prior work on toxic consumptions.
Some notable takeaways included:
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Lots of drug names are spelled with uncommonly used letters such as "z," "q," and "x"
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Thought-provoking idea of creating an infomercial on these medicines – how would they be advertised?
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Considering how to make the work more interactive – understanding the viewer's use of space while going through the work, installing it in an actual drugstore to mimic customer engagement
I generated barcodes by assigning each drug a special code and determined a "price" with the amount of time each activity takes.
The promotion ran through my birthday, on which it would be easier to engage
in these activities.
Although nearly all the feedback I received was interesting, due to time and resource constraints, I chose to implement the following suggestions:
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Create an infomercial
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Try installing them at the local CVS
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Add an interactive component
To properly place these products at a drugstore, I wanted to replicate the barcode and promotional deals (there are always plenty of those sticking out in every aisle) to accompany my artwork.
Taken at the CVS by Northwestern campus. No customers showed interest in the products despite the fact that the labels were accented purple instead of yellow
Infommercial "stills"
I thought the best way to make the installation interactive was to let viewers reflect on their equivalent forms of medication. To best illustrate this, I made prescription slips they could write themselves (to keep or pin on the wall).
