Surveillance

My life is just projects on top of projects. I can't believe I am wrapping up Week 7 (out of 10 weeks) of this quarter already. I already got my midterm evaluations, having 1:1's with my teachers before final projects begin, and I am also pleasantly surprised that I am this close to being on break and then flying out to SF to see my newborn niece and of course, Mr. Wilson (the love of my life). 

So I've been living in NY for almost 5 months now (WOW already?) and so far so good. People still ask me if I like it out here, and yes, I really do. I might be in my honeymoon phase though (I believe in these things. People can't be IN love for too long, methinks), but yeah I have to embrace the fact that so far I can't imagine living anywhere else. Well maybe SF/Portland, but not now, haha.

One of the things I like about living in NY is, things like this happen. I am causally at The High Line for a project with my classmate, and we see Yoko Ono casually walking along. My classmate J and I exchange looks, and he's like "That's Yoko Ono." And I'm like "Yeah I thought I was crazy to think that it's her, but I think it's her too." And we casually follow her and joking around that this is for our past "Surveillance" project.

Two weeks ago (ish) J and I was given a photography assignment to "follow" someone, like a stalker/paparazzi, and take photos of that person. My teacher was inspired by Sophie Calle.

Photos by Sophie Calle

And for this assignment, I was inspired by In The Mood For Love and also The Age of Shadows and decided to take my photos in Chinatown. 

Chinatown, NY

For this very specific project, I was my own subject, which I was very uncomfortable with because it's not everyday that someone follows you and takes photos of you. Unless you are a celebrity. But then recently, I came across these videos of myself on Photobooth. Before I learned that there's a voice recording function on Word, I used to record videos of myself in lectures I needed to take good notes in. Haha. I usually did that for my comparative literature class, which was very discussion heavy and just heavy overall. It was interesting to watch these videos again, mostly of me falling asleep or looking confused or at times offended by some of the comments made in class.

I guess I already had a surveillance project going on.

Enjoy.

1. LOL at the thumbnails

2. Me looking very amused

Me. Eating.

1. Why do I look like I never brush my hair? Probably because I never brush my hair.
2. Me. Paying attention.

Me. In my zone.

p.s.: I miss UCLA. Just a little.