Sense of Self is a looping video installation designed for public flat screens, small billboards, or online banner ads. Characters and landscapes from prescription drug TV commercials have been isolated and collaged together. Their gestures irregularly repeat and are juxtaposed with one another—randomized relationships set against a backdrop of landscapes. The audio component is a collage of quiet ambient noise. By separating and re-contextualizing these common images, viewers have the opportunity to consider their presence as figure studies and landscapes. The ever-changing images become cultural artifacts on which we might write our own associations and narratives.

Sense of Self has been shown in a public space at the Student Union, UMass, Amherst, with support from the Student Union Gallery, Craft Center, and the Center for Student Development.