Design media arts student fulfills dreams through surreal films
The UCLA Department of Design Media Arts offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to media creation that fosters individual exploration and innovative thinking. Within the context of the department, design is a process and way of thinking, and media arts foreground experimental media creation.
Joaquin Barlow turned a dream about his death into a film project that consisted of Russian ants, steak and sugar water.He said the Russian ants were just figments of his imagination conjured up in a dream, and his reveries serve as just one of his many sources of inspiration.
“They come from random places and very specific obsessions,” said the fourth-year design media arts student.
The project, “Ant Study,” is one manifestation of Barlow’s interest in experimental and cutting-edge artistic style, which draws from his background in film and graphic design, he said.
After his ant dream, Barlow constructed a cardboard box that blocked out all light except for a single spotlight. He then placed a steak covered in sugar water in the box and created a sugar water trail to the meat, waiting for the chance to film ants attacking the food.
Barlow began studying videography and film during a high school program that his friend had recommended to him. He focused on the craft extensively in high school and applied almost exclusively to film schools. However, he decided to go to UCLA – but not as a film student.
“Design media arts fully incorporates video with design and every single digital art in between,” he said. “I had a history before that, working in graphic design and more mixed media, so I thought it would be a more interesting major to pursue than strictly cinematography."— Saidra Rashid, Oct. 9, 2017
Read the full article at the Daily Bruin website.