Where We Used To Live

Author

Cody Tracy, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

5-1-2022

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

Mass Communication and Media Arts

First Advisor

Needham, Jay

Abstract

Cody C. Tracy, for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Media Arts, presented on March 25, 2022, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: WHERE WE USED TO LIVEMAJOR PROFESSOR: Prof. Jay Needham Where We Used to Live in conjunction with the thesis project Light & Death are essayistic and poetic approaches to story telling. The writing in this written portion of the thesis are combinations of my methods, influences and the fundamental engineers of what my process looks like from text to my art practices. The essays in this thesis are intertwined with critical ideals around my art practice and personal stories of what, why, and how I make art. Thematically the essays find themselves toiling with the ideas around familial deaths, loss of long time lovers, the past, and the color blue. I also tackle thematics around labor documentary, performance and what it means to tell a story cinematically. In that realm the thesis project Light & Death is a combination of the thematics above that was performed in the MOE Blackbox theater at the communications building at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The performance will include cinematic visual elements combing the everyday images of what it looks like inside of the domesticated space of my home after having lost my long time partner. Within the live performance I will be reciting poems that will act as the essayistic narrative for the piece. Musicians Andrew Beyke of this same MFA program and my brother Lucas Tracy will provide a live score to combine this piece into a post-cinematic experience. I am focusing on the light in our lives that we must seek out if we are to avoid the darkness and find ourselves out of bed and in the world, we were used to live.