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Within the happy crowd

Shannon, Katie Ann

Abstract Details

2007, Master of Fine Arts, Ohio State University, Art.

Within the Happy Crowd explores one facet of America's inexorable relationship with the pursuit of happiness, depicting hyper-real environments where many people congregate in order to experience enjoyment. Visiting these types of places has become an American ritual, an experience associated with happy moments and memories. The presence of my camera interrupts these moments, resulting in an image of a peculiar and dramatized environment, one that is at times humorous but always a little unsettling.

These images are the result of a brief encounter between the individuals within these places and myself, an exchange created, mediated, and solidified by the camera. I was attracted to people who seemed simultaneously isolated from, yet tragically bound to, the saturated, plastic environment. A young boy is caught in an ambiguous gesture while standing in front of a carnival game, his overweight body personifying the larger than life, overly saturated environment in which he is situated. An employee wearing a Frisch's Big Boy costume is standing alone quietly gazing at the camera, his or her identity completely veiled by a smiling advertisement. A man quietly poses beside a giant, red and yellow Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, his protruding belly mimicking its shape. "Money is the Root of all Evil" is the simple message printed on his hat. These adults, teenagers, and children are situated in an environment where experience is commercialized and individuality generalized. They exist within a dichotomy of the prosaic and the spectacular, a tension between desire and delight.

Like the individuals in my images, I exchanged an admission fee in order to enter a place conceived and constructed around the idea of providing opportunities for enjoyment. This environment could be considered an exaggerated, fantastical simulation of a society in which each individual is incessantly encouraged to assume a position Within the Happy Crowd.

Robert Derr (Advisor)
82 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Shannon, K. A. (2007). Within the happy crowd [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392719034

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Shannon, Katie. Within the happy crowd. 2007. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392719034.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Shannon, Katie. "Within the happy crowd." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392719034

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)