English lecturer Emily Hostutler created the art installation ReVisibility which is a collaborative community portrait installation that transforms discussions around invisibility into moments of creative expression.
Emily spent 10 months studying immersive design and experience design (across the disciplines) but especially how the practice intersects with educational pedagogy, community engagement, service-learning and collaborative writing and artwork.
Based on those studies and research, she developed a project, prompt and created a call for participants, which was sent to community partners. Emily then facilitate dialogues (blending communities that might not ordinarily mix) and had conversations about “invisibility”.
Through various workshops, community events, individual encounters, and immersive experiences, ReVisibility contributors have open discussions about what invisibility means to them. Participants create a portrait of themselves that symbolically/literally/
The installation is birthed from community dialogues but it is also intended for viewers to take pause and grapple with the unseen; honoring and recognizing the complexity for others who don’t feel seen or for those who are historically forced into hyper-visibility.
This growing reciprocal art piece seeks to reframe visibility in all its forms and was featured at The New Frame in November 2023 on Broadway at Gibney Studios in NYC.
Early this January, the installation was installed in the art collective space, The Paper Moon, in Oakland, CA as a feature of an immersive and experiential design salon centering the new book, Experience Design; A Participatory Manifesto by Abraham Burickson.
The project is on-going and all are invited to participate here or through the linktree.
Emily will be presenting on this project at the Arts & Humanities Faculty Scholarly and Creative Works event on April 9th, 2024.
ReVisibility will open here at The University Library Gallery in Fall of 2024.
