Junior Conceptual: A Junior Design Student Conceptual Project by Carly Wang (2016)

'Stuck, stuck, stuck.
This is what it feels like to be trapped.
This is what it feels like to not move at all.'' The motivation to write this poem came from my dysphoria from a few experiences. While there are many problems I have that I can fix, there are a few which I have no control over. I took the feeling and the unsatisfaction of being unable to take action, and used that feeling as motivation to write this poem. The meaning of the poem is how I feel when I can’t do anything to change the situation I am in, particularly the situations I am in that are unfavorable. When the world spins around and keeps on moving, the narrator stays in the same place, unable to move. This describes how I feel when I can’t do anything. I feel stuck and helpless, with no power to do anything. I feel like there could be something I could do, but don’t know what that is.

When I was using my concept statement to come up with ideas for a photograph, I decided to find a situation in which an object was in the wrong place, an object that is somewhere it doesn’t belong. It was to represent how I feel discomfort, when I am in a place or situation that I feel I don’t belong in. I decided at first to use jars of peanut butter and jelly, switching out the contents of the jars so that the peanut butter and jelly would both be in the wrong places, not where they belong. Since I didn’t have anything peanut butter or jam at home, I decided to swap those out for other spreads I did have. I used cookie butter, marshmallow fluff, and chocolate hazelnut butter. I chose these spreads because they are typically used in kids’ sandwiches, something so simple. Using such simple and childish objects, I express the youth and dysphoria from being a teenager in uncomfortable situations. My original plan was to take the pictures indoors, but the little lighting in my house made me move outside. The biggest hurdle I had in this was the editing process. I didn’t know how I wanted the picture to be edited, though I knew I wanted it to be somewhat simple with little manipulation. In the end, I stuck with manipulating saturation and the burn tool.