Tape:
1.) Now that's what I call sticky

Before:

                                                 
                                                   

 After:

Video:

I have always wanted to create a duct tape dress and sought this project as an opportunity for me. Although, rather than having the dress in a normal fashion, I had decided to put the sticky side up and stick to things I pass by. I chose to walk around Ponce and St. George street because I not only wanted to experiment and see how dirty the places really were, but to also create this performance and see everyones reactions. I wanted to try and hide the fact that it was tape by making it into a dress, yet show it was tape by the sticky side being up. While making the video, I wanted to give it a sort of funny sense by adding in instant replays as well as effects and sounds. Because when you really think of it, it is a funny concept. Especially when I started sticking to benches and everything else because it was hard to get up due to the stickiness. It was also pretty funny when I was able to hug an actual person and see the reactions of people. 

2.) Rundown

I had created these series of duct tape shadows In order to further expand the chalk and tape outlines we see in crime scenes. I had decided to fill them in rather than leaving them an outline because it shows more experimentation with the tape itself  and shows it as its own material. I drew my friend Ashley over and over again. Once in the the middle on our hallway in the dorm, another in the middle of Ponce, and the last on the stairs in the student center. Each had been removed except for the one in our dorm which is still there today. 

3.) Opposite day

For this part of the project, I had decided to use tape in order to play around with words. Iv'e noticed in most cases that police always have banners or tape that says "Caution: Do Not Cross". I wanted to play around with this idea a little bit by drawing out the words with the tape. Instead of forming words that we already know due to the ways we were taught, I had decided to add on and take away from the words to give them a new meaning. Such as the first one. That was my own recreation of the caution tape but instead I had created the word cross out of tape instead of do not cross. This continues with the fire alarm where I taped the word "pull" and next to the exit sign where I taped the words "do not", next to it. Each picture I had decided to tape the exact opposite of what it was saying to have people notice it and stop and think. Especially with my favorite one, the one with the chair. I wrote stand instead of sit and I found a girl standing on the chair when I walked back into the hall and she was looking up at the celling for something, because she thought the chair told her to do that. 

4.) All wrapped up

For this project I wanted to give tape a more 3D approach like the duct tape dress. I wanted to show that tape is a material capable of doing anything you want it to do, especially creating objects. For this I decided to wrap a series of different items to show the different shapes and textures you can make with the tape. These items I had wrapped included a bracelet, hanger, water bottle, and a non slip shoe. Because it is so sticky, it is a great adhesive. Never underestimate the power of tape and what it can do!

5.) Sturdy, or not to be sturdy. This is the question.

For this project I also wanted to go along with a 3D type approach, but a little bit differently. Working with water and noticing how it made paper stronger when you wet it and then stacked it to another piece made me realize that water mixed with paper wasn't the only item that could create something sturdy. I had also noticed that tape was similar when I made the sticky duct tape dress. The more layers of tape, the sturdier it got. Believe it or not, for this project I spent a good fifty minutes just tearing off pieces of tape and stacking them one on top of the other. The more tape I added, the stronger it got and harder it was to bend and rip. That is why I took two process pictures to show just how structured the tape got as well as sturdy. 

6.) Follow in my footsteps

For the last and final project for tape, I had decided to show tape in a more formal and emotional way.   When I think of tape, I think of the straight lines they make. This made me think of roads and airplane paths and so on. All tape comes in little rolls that are just straight lines that overlap one over the other. I wanted to kinda show my thoughts through tape by making my own path in my dorm hallway. This path consisted of different sizes of arrows that started out big, then got bigger, and then smaller as it approached the door. Originally I had no clue what I wanted to do at the end of the path until I started making it. The arrows reminded me of peace signs due to the three specific lines that are within a circle. To me, they look like arrows. And so I thought of the idea of this being my own path to share with others. The arrows lead me out the doors which lead out of Ponce in a way. This leads to peace. The piece of me starting my own new life once I graduate college and walk out of those doors. I also considered it to be somewhat like the afterlife. For the video I performed me creating the piece as a performance until a huge group of girls walked in the hall and messed with my camera. There I decided to show some of my performance as well as the camera taking its own walk along the path and leading it out through the doors. Tape is sort of like the bread crumbs of Hansel and Gretel in this case.