Semester 3

Arts TRYathlon #1: Arts Scholars Event

October 3rd, 2025, Art Scholars Maker Mixers, Bel Air Lounge, Prisms & Pals: DIY Suncatchers

#visualart, #jewelry #suncatchers #jewelrymaking

For the Art Scholars Maker Mixers event I attended, my friends in art scholars and I built suncatchers. We did this using a combination of beads, chains, wire, suncatcher making kits, and charms. I have always loved suncatchers growing up and was excited to learn how to make my own. However, as the event progressed it became clear that there was not enough materials for the many people who were continuously showing up throughout the time frame the event took place. Because of this, I had to use my creativity to make the nicest thing possible with the least amount of materials so as to save some for others. Looking at my artwork now, I can see how something as simple as even the simplest of suncatchers can inspire hope in people. When I am saddened by the news or stressed from my classes and my eyes catch the rainbow rays reflecting from my suncatcher, it reminds me that the world is not all doom and gloom. As a religious person, it reminds me of the promise God made to the world after he flooded the earth, that the rainbow would stand as a symbol of his devotion to never allow such destruction to happen again. In this way, my simple suncatcher consisting only of a chain, crystal, and charm uplifts me and restores my faith in humanity and inspires me to bring positive change to the world. In this way, even the simplest of art can impact and inspire people to want to bring about positive change in society.

Arts TRYathlon #2: Choose Your Own Adventure

October 16th, 2025, SEE UMD, Grand Ballroom, Haunted House

#theater, #interactive, #immersive, #costume, #psychology

To celebrate my 20th birthday, me and my boyfriend decided to attend Trunk or Treat and the Haunted House at UMD. To make the day even more special and Halloween-like, we decided to dress up as Gomez and Morticia Addams from the Addams Family which made the Haunted House more immersive for us. However, outside of our costumes and experiences, the haunted house proved itself to be a terrifying work of art. Every room we wandered into had different themes like clowns, bodies, hospitals, and more and each room was decorated to the fullest. The scare actors had striking costumes and were quite terrifying. I was particularly scared of the chainsaw man. One thing that struck me as we traversed the haunted house was how influenced it was from the culture of horror movies. For example, I myself have never seen a horror movie, but I know about the clown from IT and how it was the film that began using clowns as a scare tactic in the media. Then the chainsaw man, a character here likely influenced from Micheal Myers. It makes me wonder if these characters came about from pre-existing fears, or if these characters and movies have influenced modern movie culture so much that our own fears have developed from these new associations. Would the Ballroom at UMD include a clown room if horror movies didn’t fixate on clowns so much? How much has culture changed our fears and associations? What would the Haunted House look like without our popular horror movies? These are all questions I pondered to myself after my terrifying tour, for I believe the event would be vastly different without the influence of fear and movie culture.

Arts TRYathlon #3: Choose Your Own Adventure

October 17th, 2025, UMD SEE, Hoff Theater, Rocky Horror Picture Show

#music, #theater, #film, #interactive, #dance

I attended the Rocky Horror Picture Show screening with my roommate and boyfriend. This was our first experience seeing the film and we were unsure what to expect, however I was thrilled to realise just how much of a community this film has created and how it reflects in its screening. Despite the film’s unpopularity when it first released, after fans revisited the movie enough times at its late night screenings in small theaters, fans began to memorize the dialog and turned the movie from just a visual, audio form of art, into a theatrical performance with audience inclusiveness, singing, dance, props, and humorous yelling and quoting from the seats. Fans dress up and throw toilet paper when a character goes through a wall, snap gloves when the characters do, put on party hats, spray water over their heads, light up the theater with flash lights, and throw cards among other traditions. Though the funnest part of the screening is the yelling out insults and humorous cues to the movie to make sub-par audios hilarious to the crowd. Without this interaction, the movie would have fallen through the cracks of movie culture and likely been forgotten about, but it was because it drew in such a community of people together who found, or made their own humor in the film that the movie went down in history as a cult classic. Joining the theater felt like joining a community, even when I knew nothing about the film going in, the immersiveness of throwing things together and shouting in unison brought us together and I am excited to rejoin the community again for my next screening.

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