Cultural Analysis: Nature of Reality
In December 2024, I traced the emergence of a single visual motif across fashion, art, music, pop culture, and politics for my final presentation in Trends in Culture: Analysis, Insight and Forecasting, a graduate course led by brilliant cultural strategist Sem Devillart at the School of Visual Arts’ Masters in Branding program.
In a moment defined by algorithmic control, attacks on bodily autonomy, lingering post-pandemic claustrophobia, and the dissolution of shared truth, the untied ribbon became a symbol of elegant resistance. And in its fluttering—unpredictable, governed by physics, impossible to manufacture—it pointed to something larger:
As AI-generated imagery floods our visual landscape, we are instinctively turning toward the laws of nature as the last incontestable truth. Gravity. Wind. Light. Sound. Heat.
The core insight: brands have a profound opportunity to feed this craving for raw, unmediated, and honest experience.
Awarded “Best Storytelling” and “Best Overall Presentation” by faculty and peers.
100-Day Project: Ordinary Togetherness
The enemy of grief is time. Yet the aspiration of quality time is often out of reach for family members struggling to accept the diagnosis of a loved one. This project aims to equip viewers with “grief prevention” tools through access to the ordinary.
In this case, drawing my father's portrait for 10 minutes daily created an attainable structure for our time together. As a person living with Parkinson’s disease, his symptoms are full-body and ever-changing. To acknowledge the disease without allowing it to define our time together, we conducted a simple wellness check on a 1-7 scale. I hope this project inspires others to discover micro ways to form real-life connections with those they love and to see that the cumulative effect of small actions creates a meaningful impact.
Explore the full project @ordinarytogetherness.
The “100 Days Project” framework was founded by Michael Bierut. This project was developed for a course led by Debbie Millman as part of The School of Visual Arts’ Masters in Branding program.
Thank you to Emily Sogn and Sarah Sandman for informing this project.
Documentary Feature: How Big Little Is
How Big Little Is is a platonic love story and documentary feature by AJ (Jennifer) Nielsen. When Nielsen begins following Irving Feller — an 83-year-old Brooklyn fur trader and artist — through the final chapters of his life, what starts as a verité project transforms into something rarer and more unexpected: a moving rom-com and buddy-road-trip movie. Together they travel cross-country to trade with the Shoshone-Bannock tribe in Idaho, witness the closing of his Greenpoint fur shop after 100 years of business, and mount his first solo art exhibition at Cleopatra's Gallery, curated by Bridget Finn and Bridget Donahue.
Directed by AJ Nielsen. Produced by Muriel Soenens, Melissa Medina, and Macha Tsarenkov. Edited by Collin Ruffino and Jeanne Applegate.
Original Music by Daniel Rossen.
This work in progress is being shared for fundraising purposes only.