My Pursuance by Hayoung

My Pursuance by Hayoung - August 2022 Scholarship Essay

Everyone craves a new reality, somewhere we can just flee to, but are escapes truly our greatest decisions? As an observer who lives within society, I’ve noticed a trend where many people attempt to develop a world they can easily vanish to because from their standards, reality sucks. Some other reasons may be the dissatisfaction we experience within our daily life or the incapability of being ourselves in the world we thrive in today. As a result, we seek to discover a new reality where an improved version of ourselves exists. Everything in the news today talks about how the world is collapsing, how the environment is being destroyed, how mental health is inhibiting our progress. At least one in five Americans, many of which I have personally witnessed, struggle mentally, unable to endure the reality they experience. With Covid-19 and political wars raging nationally and globally, the United States has also become a polarized nation with liberals and conservatives only seeing their respective points of view. There is no sense of compromise, no common ground. Education, curriculum and the exposure to visual art may be the means of bridging these gaps for the greater good of people and humanity for the Americans and people worldwide. Since our current reality has become such an unpleasant place, people are yearning to create a new reality where they can avoid current, crucial problems and start anew, hoping these hindrances to their health and happiness might disappear, yet in the next 10 years, the reality is they might subside or may even intensify.

I want to construct a new reality for people where denial and escape are no longer an option, through my undergraduate studies in Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects (VFX) at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. I want my art to be based on a critical questioning of oneself: “Is what I’m seeing the truth?”, “Is the choice I’m choosing the best possible path for me?” While other VFX artists may work to compel the audience into the world they create, my goal is to send a message for everyone to tap back into their reality, confront the problems they so desperately want to avoid, and view the truth in their actual lives.

Everyone’s driving down the VFX lane, they want to become the VFX artist who invents new worlds but no one's driving down the lane of “How can I induce people to think deeper about themselves and their actions through art?” A world where we are able go into the 2nd level of thought, the 3rd level of thought, instead of remaining in the 1st level of thought we initially perceive. I want spectators to question themselves, the judgments they make, the thoughts they believe in, and the accuracy of their brain reaction. I am most convinced that 3D will be the most fit platform for me because it is immersive and allows people to empathize with what I present in front of them, first hand. I’m here to challenge the work of the VFX artist and reverse engineer the idea of new reality. My utmost goal is to send an alert directly to my audience to open up their eyes and confront the actual problems arising in their lives, within themselves and cease to avert them. My purpose is to not only make a positive impact on my people within the American community, but to all communities globally.