Abstract

Jess Damsen's MFA thesis research operated primarily in venues where evolving forms of public communication, video documentation, interpretive imagery and experimental art intersect. This research was a demonstration of the artist's interest in using easily-accessible and user-friendly technology to reshape the way art and media operate together in culture: repurposing the landscape from a passive "top down, from the authority" experience to an active and dialogic "grassroots up" messaging network.

"Media Mural" is Jess Damsen's long term project to create and distribute special video montages that are inspired by the genre of traditional public murals. During the artist's specific MFA research, Jess chose to create a new work collaboratively with local youth by way of a new genre of arts practice know as "relational aesthetics" (RA.) RA is an unfolding, experiential process in which the artist facilitates a "social context" to enable some type of targeted public communication, usually about a problem or issue.

During that MFA project, Jess enabled young students to create their own digital media messages about identity and community and then share their messages in multiple public space platforms such as Internet, TV, mobile devices as well as traditional muralist spaces like public structures. The students learned both skills and theory around digital dialogue, digital storytelling, music composition, video composition and editing, integrating content with internet, propaganda and other historic forms of public messaging, the responsibilities and dangers of using public media and more. The final MFA video work entitled "Media Mural Project Renaissance HS: Central Cali Lifestyle" was distributed on the Internet, television and at live projection performances. Several music videos and narrated video pieces were accomplished, uploaded, blogged about and presented at a projection viewing to the school.

The Journal of Arts Learning published a paper Jess Damsen wrote about this project entitled "The Media Mural Project: Empowering Youth in New Mass Media" It can be downloaded for free at http://repositories.cdlib.org/clta/lta/vol3/iss1/art11/

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