Title
Grad project Description
-BackPlaces is a web-based anthology that explores intimate and -emotional spaces on the internet. It consists of four pages, each -embodying an archetype. The sunrise, the nosebleed, the star, and the -hand.
-These pages trace a thread of online emotions: of shared grief, -collective processing through writing, youthful excitement, and finally, -of being on or off the internet. They present stories in the formats in -which they were originally told, allowing you to imagine yourself as one -of these pages, wearing your own clothing as a costume and reenacting -the play of your first kiss.
-This project tenderly pays tribute to the rawest emotions found -online. It seeks to diversify the conversation by reminding us that the -internet is a reflection of the people and feelings that inhabit it. The -web is an artifice—a house built by others where we live and communicate -together. If we all left, the internet might cease to exist.
-However, the internet can be a harsh landscape where sensitive -individuals find refuge in backplaces, rooms where they can be more than -their physical selves allow. Here, they meet, whisper secrets, share -laughter and pain, and grow together until they move on. These stories -reflect these moments, drawn from the collective knowledge of people -I’ve loved online. Their words have been woven into stories to protect -and celebrate them. Some were social media comments, some were friends -sharing cake, some were emails, and some were conversations.
+Hi.
+I made this play for you. It is a question, for us to hold together.
Is all intimacy about bodies? What is it about our bodies that makes +intimacy? What happens when our bodies distance intimacy from us? This +small anthology of poems and short stories lives with these +questions—about having a body without intimacy and intimacy without a +body.This project is also a homage to everyone who has come before and +alongside me, sharing their vulnerability and emotions on the Internet. +I called the places where these things happen backplaces. They are +small, tender online rooms where people experiencing societally +uncomfortable pain can find relief, ease, and transcendence.
+I made three backplaces for you to see, click, and feel: Solar +Sibling, Hermit Fantasy, and Good Pie. Each of these is the result of +its own unique performance or project. Some of the stories I will share +carry memories of pain—both physical and emotional. As you sit in the +audience, know I am with you, holding your hand through each scene. If +the performance feels overwhelming at any point, you have my full +permission to step out, take a break, or leave. This is not +choreographed, and I care deeply for you.
+Solar Sibling is an online performance of shared loss and the complex +pain that siblings can sometimes bring. This project uses comments +people left on TikTok poetry. I extracted the emotions from these +comments, mixed them with my own, and crafted them into poems. It is an +ongoing performance, ending only when your own feelings are secretly +whispered to me.
+Hermit Fantasy is a short story about a bot who wants to be a hermit. +Inspired by an email response from a survey I conducted about receiving +emotional support on the Internet, this story explores the contradiction +of being online while wanting to disconnect. It is a web play inviting +you to navigate both of these feelings.
+Good Pie is a great big play of pies, a performance that took a year +to bring together. It had three phases. First, as my friends left, I +baked each of them a goodbye pie. Then I hosted two performances. In the +first, I asked participants to eat cake, sitting facing or away from +each other and sharing their stories about cake and the Internet. In the +second I predicted participants’ future lives on the Internet using +felted archetypes and received stories from their Internet past in +return. This website is a reflection of all these experiences. Each Good +Pie has a filling that tells a story, merging the bodily with the +digital and making a mess of it all.
+I love you and hope you see what I saw in these stories.
+Safe dreams now. I will talk to you soon.