Medium Specificity

                I knew I wanted to build a diorama for this project but I honestly didn’t know if the popularly educational medium would be passable as art. Following Scott McCloud’s lead I first sought to define the medium before approaching it any further. To my surprise, the word diorama can be used to describe a whole host of displays from the classic miniature environments housed in shoeboxes to collections of household items arranged in neat exhibitions. The first dioramas weren’t even three dimensional, they were scenes painted on transparent film that could be manipulated by moving the source of light by which the display was viewed. The dictionary’s definition lacked specifics and it became a messy business trying to create a definition that truly encompassed everything that a diorama is, and everything it definitely isn’t. After some considerable effort I arrived at a definition I believed was sufficient. A diorama is a static display of elements arranged in a coherent collection.

                Now I understood my medium it was time to produce art. I wanted to challenge the definition of diorama by somehow doing everything a diorama is supposed to be but adding or removing something that could possibly disrupt the identity of the medium. I chose to manipulate the coherence of the piece. Every diorama I researched, in any shape or form, was always a display of some collective concept or idea. Whether it was battle scenes, animal habitats, or ancient relics every diorama is made of individual elements connected to one another by an overarching idea. I decided I would stage a scene that was easily recognizable, a classic diorama if you will. In the case of my piece, I chose to replicate a safari scene with two lions stalking a zebra. All elements would be particularly arranged to create a single and cohesive identity for the piece, then, I would ruin it.

                First I made everything white. From the grass in the display to the animals themselves, everything would be stripped of color. Usual painted backgrounds would be rendered blank and the false depth of field would be eliminated. It may seem an odd comparison but I drew my initial impression of the stark white display from the Mocking Jay Part 2 posters that showed their characters arranged in full color before a white throne and blank background. But just painting everything white doesn’t challenge the cohesiveness of the piece; it is after all, still a safari scene with two lions and a zebra. I then began to label each element of the piece with completely unrelated words and symbols. I was creating something else with my labels; I was forming new identities for every element in the display and therefor challenging the idea that connects them. I didn’t choose words like “capitalism” or “war”, because some words are charged with more meaning than is prescribed in their definition. I wanted to bombard the recognizable scene with unrelated nonsense that leaves the viewer still searching for the cohesive concept that unites them.