LUKAS SHEEHAN

Line Project

G-TAIN

6 TAIN

L-TAIN

I’m a people watcher. I always took comfort in viewing strangers as a story, whether happy, sad, rich or poor everybody is remarkably individual. The line project prompt seemed to me to be based around the conversion from that individual story to the hard data perspective that is often reserved for formal analysis. Art rarely intersects with that sort of viewpoint, so this project was of interest to me. I take the subway almost every day. Whether it is and from work, getting groceries, seeing my friends, it’s an essential part of my life. I am not alone in this. In fact I was curious how this conversion would affect the documentation of the average subway goers. I created an algorithm to translate where subway passengers sit, how often they get up to leave the train, and, because it’s 2020, whether or not they are wearing their mask correctly. I took my seat on three different trains. The L train, the G train, and the 6 train (my most commonly used train lines.) I sat and observed the train passengers. I recorded the data on a diagram I created in my notebook and when I got home I further translated it into my drawings. I created a graph that would record what seat the passengers sat in represented by a horizontal line, and a diagonal line if they sat without a mask. I also included the duration of their trip, whether one or two stops.

NEWS PROJECT

The news has been too overwhelming for me to participate in recently. I was glued to channel four only a few months ago. Every day it seemed to get worse. Everyday a new disaster. It’s almost hard to weigh any one incident as being impactful after being bombarded with tragedy after tragedy. It numbs you to catastrophe. When presented with the newspaper project prompt, I was reintroduced to the cycle of tragedy that is contained in the paper. I wanted to express this overwhelming feeling for my project. I decided to cut out all content relating to any story printed in the paper. In doing so, I aimed to create a sense of anxiety as the viewer is forced to view these stories not as they are but rather the space they take: wiping away the specificities, leaving only the weight of the story.

SHAPES

MEDINA'S WORKSHOP

COLOR

3D PROJECT

model by Lukas on Sketchfab

ZINE PROJECT

We were tasked to create a zine around the theme of how we were doing. I have had quite the few months. Without getting too too personal, after receiving a new mental illness diagnosis I felt extremely hopeless. In a strange --entirely new-- way. I have been the same person my entire life, but having a new definition for your problems opens the door to a whole slew of new fears. I’ve seen what my specific diagnosis has done to not only people in my family, but also people in the media. “Crazed Celebrities at it again!” is the first information about people with my mental illness in the public space. It has been a truly frightening experience. What I aim to do with my zine, and in my art in the future, is to be able to find catharsis. I want to share my deeply personal writing with images that I feel represent my destructive thought patterns.