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thecohortaa-blog · 5 years ago

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A brief interview with Amanda Taylor

Amanda is our friend. She is a senior at the University of Michigan Stamps school of art and design. Some of her favorite things are frogs, the color teal, and small things that are meant to be large.

Delaney: Where are you right now?

Amanda: We are here in Tomukun noodle bar and I have just ordered some spring rolls and some creamy ramen that I’ve looked forward to all week.

D: What are you wearing?

A: I am wearing a denim shirt underneath a wonderful polo knit v-neck that’s oversized on purpose, and then some weird green hat with some Russian writing on it that says ‘crew’. Then some black pants.

D: Awesome. What kind of art do you make?

A: I make art that people interact with and have fun interacting with and it usually can benefit them. This can range from installations where people write down what they feel towards a question to a see-through book that people have to take time to read, to a bus station that I am currently designing, and learning civil engineering through.

D: I love that. In what ways do you see your identity, in any aspects, coming through in the work that you make?

A: I love when people ask me questions because usually I give a little too deep of an answer. When it comes to my identity in the work that I create, I really enjoy people and culture because I don’t really have a singular culture of my own. So then I usually look towards cultures that are already pre-existing and look in awe, but then I realize that the culture of my own is the culture that I experienced growing up, and it’s not necessarily tied down to an ethnicity, nor nationality. So, coming from that I focus on people and things that have a common trait that I have, and that I try to use the information that I know and expand on it and try to help them in any way I can through design.

D: Is that merging of your experience with cultural identity a deliberate thing when it comes into your art? Or is it subconscious?

A: I think it’s both. I try to be very self analysing in order to understand why I’m doing things. I realize that I have a minor in socio-anthropology because I’m very interested in people, and I try to find a way to combine art and anthropology which comes together at design and specifically urban design for spaces.

D: I understand you like urban planning!

A: I DO like urban planning. Urban planning usually has an impact on not only today but also the future, it just takes a long time to realize, and I really like long long projects.

D: What sort of things, people, or feelings influence you and your work?

A: Usually whoever I’m talking to most at the time, and whatever friends I see and talk to. Classes I’m taking or a cool professor talks to me for a really long time and just wows me. I took an urban planning class last year, and ever since then I’ve been like “well, shit. that’s what I like! I didn’t know it had a name.” So, here we are. If someone talks about something for a really long time because they’re passionate about it usually I get some of their passion if not just a little, and I try to learn about it and incorporate it into what I do.

D: Yay. What do you wish existed in Ann Arbor? In terms of art, or not art.

A: I wish the CCT [Central Campus Transit Center] was better designed in order to incorporate and accept all the people that use it including people that don’t know the language, including people that don’t have visual abilities, and people who need a place to lay down. Non-hostile architecture. Also, a place for people to take some time and relax during this one layover time they have during moving from one place to another. I have been thinking about this question a lot.

D: Yes! That is definitely needed. Lastly, what are some things in the future that excite you?

A: I guess the fact that the future is unknown, that every moment could actually impact it. Even though it usually sounds like there is a lack of control, I feel like it really helps me feel grounded in the fact that I, in the moment, can control what will happen in the future whether that is in two minutes, two weeks, or two months, or two years.

#ann arbor #artist #frog

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