When COVID-19 hit, time stopped. Handshaking turned into elbow bumps, and awkward waves, meetings turned out to be something you could do from home and walking to class turned into walking miles and miles on the phone with friends. Like most people, I started to do a lot of reflection during this time at home. There was no longer a strict path I felt like I had to be on, everything was disrupted. Things I thought I would do in college, like study abroad, were no longer viable. I started to understand that I’m not always going to know where my path in life is going to take me, and I was just going to have to take it one step at a time.
My IP project, Leaving Home, is a video installation that explores the idea of what it means to leave home, and not always knowing why your feet are going to take you in a certain direction. Walking can be a mundane activity that is extremely universal, but there are lots of different ways, styles, and speeds that we use when we walk. A lot of times when we walk places, we are focused on the destination. To mitigate this focus, Leaving Home exhibits a video loop that invites you to get lost walking in the space, following along the perspectives of others on their journey leaving home.