EDUCATION

JEN AGOSTA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES DESIGNER JUNE Los Angeles, California PRINT | INTERACTIVE | TANGIBLE | SOUND 2018 B.A. in Design Media Arts (DMA), GPA: 3.793

1225 BOSTON STREET #205 LOS ANGELES, CA 90026 AWARDS AND HONORS 503.734.8104 | [email protected] UCLA DMA Undergraduate Exhibition, Award of Highest Distinction, 2018 WWW.JENAGOSTA.COM | INSTA: @JENAGOSTA Anderson Ranch Arts Center Brooks Fellowship, 2018 Tina and Martin Sarafa Scholarship, 2017

GROUP EXHIBITIONS UCLA New Wight Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. 2018 ABOUT ME Hammer Museum, UCLA Game Arts Festival, Los Angeles, CA 2017 Ars Electronica, Linz Austria, 2017 I found graphic design, photography and visual communication Various national musical performances, 2010 - 2015 through music. A native of the Pacific Northwest, I immersed myself in Portland, Oregon’s rich music culture, cutting my teeth as an electronic music artist while honing my skills as a designer to RELATED WORK support the branding of my musical arts. From there, my love for visual design and communication quickly flourished, leading me to 3D TANGIBLE DESIGN + FABRICATION take on several freelance clients who were small businesses and 2017 UCLA Game Lab, Los Angeles, CA independent artists. Deciding to take a more serious step toward - 2018 The Game Lab has invited me to work on various projects including design being a designer, I relocated to Los Angeles in 2014 to finish my and fabrication of vintage arcade-style game consoles for museum undergraduate degree in Design and Media Arts at UCLA and exhibitions including the Game Arts Festival at the Hammer Museum, Los immerse myself the vibrant world of design and contemporary art Angeles, 2017, and the Victoria Albert Museum, London, 2018 (forthcoming). in Los Angeles. The only thing I miss more than Portland’s coffee is its rain. However, it is no match for LA’s lively contemporary art WEB DEVELOPMENT, GRAPHIC DESIGN scene and numerous tiny dog sightings. 2010 The Jasmine Pearl Tea Company, Portland, OR - 2018 Adapting their existing brand identity to various packaging and marketing materials, The Jasmine Pearl Tea Company has been one of my longest PERSONAL SKILLS running freelance clients. We just launched a new e-commerce website as they head into their thirteenth year of business. • ••• Publication Layout • ••• Graphic Design GRAPHIC DESIGN • ••• Web Design + Development 2015 Michigan Public Radio, Ann Arbor, MI • ••• Typography - 2016 Various graphic design projects closely following the National Public Radio • •• Photography design identity guidelines. • •• Sound Design • ••• Music composition + motion picture scoring 2015 Girls Rock Camp Foundation • ••• Editing sound, video and music I was invited to do post production to recreate eight iconic record covers of the foundations choosing replacing the photographs of the original artists with photographs of girls. The project, titled Record Covers Reimagined, was SOFTWARE SKILLS a fundraiser for the Girls Rock Camp Foundation which provides grants to various Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls organizations nationally. The reimagined DESIGN record covers and fundraiser were featured in several magazines including • ••• Illustrator Rolling Stone, Spin, Essence, and Pitchfork. • ••• InDesign • ••• Photoshop MUSICAL SCORE • • Maya 2014 The Night Is Ours, Directed by Aubree Bernier-Clarke, Produced through the Directing Workshop for Women, American Film Institute WEB Having previously collaborated on other projects and being an avid fan of • ••• HTML my music, Aubree invited me to produce a score for her 15-minute short film. • ••• CSS Under her direction, I crafted a dark and moody musical score, creating the • • p5.js sonic foundation of this short, fantasy, coming-of-age film which debuted at • Javascript the Directors Guild of America in 2014.

SOUND SELECTED PROJECTS • ••• Logic • •• Cubase BOOKS • •• ProTools 2017 Meet Me There • ••• Reason Research, photography, writing, layout, and typography for the 168-page • • Ableton Live monograph featuring 61 photographs and 8 illustrated neighborhood maps connecting the history of the extinct Los Angeles Railway to the remaining MOTION stairs-streets laced through the hills of Echo Park and Silver Lake in Los • •• Premiere Pro Angeles, California, illustrating the story of Angelenos lost pedestrian travel. • • After Effects MUSIC WRITING, PRODUCTION, BRANDING OFFICE 2010 Jager • ••• Word -2018 Since 2010, I have written, produced and performed electronic music under • ••• Excel the moniker Jager, releasing two full-length records - Polygon, 2011, and • •• PowerPoint Night Driver, 2015 - in addition to a handful of remixes. RHAPSODY

of RAPTURE RECKONING and RELEASE

Senior thesis, 2018

Two mutoscopes, 1200 frames each. Four cyanotype prints One book of photos and essays. Limited edition flip-books for gallery visitors.

While many things in our lives are much like a song - following predictable patterns with varied repetition and the occasional surprise or climax - the act of letting go is more like a rhapsody. The piece of music that takes you on a journey from one end to the other without repetition or reliance of a return to familiarity bears an uncanny resemblance to the journey through the unknown when we reach a point of necessity to release what binds us, whether we want to or not. Rhapsody of Rapture, Reckoning and Release is an observation of letting go through observation of a Peace Lily dying over the course of 30 days. Captured in time lapse photography, the images will be reassembled into a mutoscope in which viewers must turn the crank to watch the plant dying. The act of peering inside the box along with cranking the handle are important aspects of this experience. The viewer is participating in the process by turning the crank to animate the motion. The privacy of the experience by peering into the box through the eye hole keeps the secret between the viewer and the plant as the viewer is actively participating in the slow extermination of the plant. In addition to the mutoscope, a series of prints cyanotype prints will capture intimate details of the Lily’s withering process, displayed in a deep blue hue to match the mood. A collection of images and writings will also be collected in a book detailing the journey.

JEN AGOSTA, 2018 [email protected] 503-723-8104 RHAPSODY

of RAPTURE RECKONING

and RELEASE

The process of a process

Observation of letting go in 30 days

Light study

JEN AGOSTA, 2018 [email protected] 503-723-8104 REFERENTIAL JEN AGOSTA MAPPLETHORPE: HISTORICAL

Madonna for for

2014 2013 TOM MUNRO TOM

Madonna and Katy Perry in V in V Perry Madonna and Katy 2011 503-723-8104 TOP: GIOVANNI BIANCO, STEVEN STEVEN BIANCO, GIOVANNI TOP: KLEIN BOTTOM: L’Uomo Vogue, 2014 L’Uomo Vogue, Magazine, 2014 Magazine, [email protected] TOP: ANTHONY MAULE ANTHONY TOP: KOBIELSKI MACIEK BOTTOM: Model Anna Selezneva in Ford in Tom Model Anna Selezneva 2011 Vogue, advertisement, Russian Homme, 2011 Artist JD Samson, Vogue

TYPYOGRAPHIC JEN AGOSTA MAPPLETHORPE: DISCURSIVE + REFERENTIAL

- - portrait portrait JEN AGOSTA, 2018 JEN AGOSTA, This expression of gender non- conformity has long been displayed in art young English girl and fashion, some times in authenticity authenticity in times inevitably an overlap. inevitably an overlap. Peter, a and sometimes in chic and sometimes in chic fashion, there is fashion, there is mimicry. Artists such as mimicry. Artists such as men’s fashion or queer men’s fashion or queer shows us a moody and shows us a moody and Romaine Brooks - whose Romaine Brooks inspiration comes from inspiration comes from portraits in the early portraits in the early to this trend. Whether the to this trend. Whether the 1900’s focused her eye 1900’s focused her eye on women is no exception is no exception women on on the people close to her – on the people close to her – “edgy,” masculine fashion “edgy,” masculine fashion lifestyles deemed “fringe” or lifestyles deemed “fringe” or captured in oil paint laid captured in oil paint laid As fashion is often inspired by carefully on a stretched canvas – 1945 and 1965 respectively. – 1945 and 1965 respectively. the reality that gender non- conformity has been expressed until decades after this painting until decades after this painting long before it was fashionable and “transgender” were not coined and “transgender” were not coined or safe. Like Mapplethorpe’s own the terms “transsexual” selves in 1925. After all, all, 1925. After selves in controversial image subjects, Brooks’ even a question one asked them paintings were a message in a bottle

identified her gender, or if that was identified her gender, or if that was delivered to future generations, delivered to future generations, into question how the preserving the history of the sexually, preserving the history of the sexually, and clothing. The name Peter also brings socially and gender non-conforming. socially and gender non-conforming.

a young man by the presentation of hair Romaine Brooks herself was a lesbian the painting’s title, would be assumed to be and is best known for her portraits of respectful painting of a person who, without respectful painting of a person who, without women masculine and androgynous women. women masculine and androgynous women. of a young English girl Her 1925 portrait WE WILL PERSEVERE WILL WE CATHERINE OPIE CATHERINE Angela Scheirl, 1993 Angela Scheirl,

JEN AGOSTA VICTORIOUS, UNAPOLOGETIC COMPOSITION

COLOR + VALUE COMPOSITION JEN AGOSTA DARK TO LIGHT

is part Lisa Lyon is part

1990

1989 IF A PICTURE PICTURE IF A PAINTS A THOUSAND WORDS fabric. and portfolio. Paper, project Research pages. 2018. 42 inches. x 11 17 Imogen Cunningham’s of the pairing A photo Robert and Design Agave photograph 1920 with an exploration Lisa Lyon 1981 Mapplethorpe’s includes analysis overall The of content and context. color examining infographics and dissection image The value, composition and geometric volume. the image - making creation of a third finale is the recreation of the duo into a trio - and a typographic descriptive, referential the composition highlighting two photographs. impressions of the and discursive PICTURED LEFT , Lisa Lyon 1981 Mapplethorpe’s of Robert Analysis displayed top right. 1988 Robert Mapplethorpe dies, age 42 dies, Robert Mapplethorpe PATRICK DEMARCHELIER PATRICK “” cover shooot, 1990 cover shooot, “Justify My Love” put in deliberate juxtaposition the concept of of concept the juxtaposition deliberate in put and feminine the nested within masculine the celebrated their synthesis within one person. A muscular A muscular woman’s leg extends into the air with confidence. We the leg from see toe to thigh like a barefoot, upside down ballet with a relaxed point. dancer The opposite leg is bent two the and knee the at thighs are pressed firmly together in an erect pose reminiscent of a 1950’s Betty Page pinup. The flesh of the bare legs is smooth and tan, dramatically reflecting bright light shining from the right, casting a dark shadow on the backside the legs. The leg extends of up between two dark, charcoal colored right mirrored on each side of triangles the photograph, creating a third upside-down, white acute triangle in the negative space between. This composition of black and white creates a provocative letter “V” background spanning the triangles entire background of the picture frame. two mirrored, black The right triangles have a subtly darker black strip running along the inner edge of their longest angle transforming the appearance shapes geometric monochromatic of background a of men’s a lapel of the mimicking composition a into could leg The underneath. shirt white a with jacket suit even be comparable in positioning and proportion to MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE a long suit tie. Mapplethorpe’s 1981 of a series that deliberately questions gender and expands the possibility of androgyny what is often gender-ambiguous considered and hyper-sexualized, often hyper-sensualized, and boasting sexless, sexes, female and male both of qualities robust the to being as opposed to a reduction of features from each. Bodybuilder Lisa Lyon thought of herself as an artist and sculptor – a body sculptor. Her body was her artwork, and together, she and Mapplethorpe crafted a series of images that GRAYSCALE VALUE GRAYSCALE COMPOSITION OF PERCENT The gray scale values scale values gray The into have been divided and the eight regions, meausred photograph In this black and white phogotraph The image divided evenly into one hundred evenly into one hundred image divided The dark to from reordered then equal divisions, bottomlight beginning at the left at and ending evenly into one image divided top right. The the from reordered then equal divisions, hundred bottomdark to light beginning at the left and top right. at the ending

48% 48% 97% 1983

4.8% 84% 1981

2.1% 70% 1980 MAPPLETHORPE ROBERT TOP: BOTTOM: ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE ROBERT BOTTOM: Lisa Lyon, 1981 Lisa Lyon, 1983 Lady,

2.7%

56%

1979 1978

3.9% 42% 1977 ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE ROBERT Lisa Lyon, 1981 Lisa Lyon,

4.4% 28% 1975 Lisa Lyon, 1981 Lyon, Lisa 20.6% TYPYOGRAPHIC JEN AGOSTA14% Madonna moves to NYC from Michigan from Madonna moves to NYC 0% 13.5% MICHAEL MCDONNELL MICHAEL Fashion shoot with pop artist Madonna at with pop artist Madonna at shoot Fashion old, just after to New arriving 20 years fame, 1978. hit City, before she York ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE ROBERT Image value analysis Lisa Lyon, 1981 Lisa Lyon, ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE MAPPLETHORPE ROBERT

MAPPLETHORPE: DESCRIPTIVE + DISCURSIVE + REFERENTIAL value divisions, reordered by 100

like a a s message on paper, in duality in duality Sometimes I would play the victim and victim and Sometimes I would play the in a bottle, “ with cry of a bedroom in my shoebox a window that faced a wall, watching pigeons shit on my windowsill. the if it was all worth it, And I wondered I would pull myself together but then Kahlo of Frida and look at a postcard sight of her taped to my wall, and the consoled me. Because she mustache what care was an artist didn’t who She her. I admired people thought. a hard gave her was daring. People time. If she a hard time. Life gave her so could I.” Madonna could do it, then of years first struggle of her the recalling living in NYC. November 2013 Bazzaar, - Harpers captured in silver gelatin IMMOGEN CUNNINGHAM IMMOGEN Frida Kahlo Rivera, 1931 Rivera, Kahlo Frida 44.3% 44.3% 97% and synthesis, ONE, and without fear. to express oneself to express oneself of non-conformity, of non-conformity, softness with force, 2.1% 84% with true conviction SPACE handsomely portrayed preserving the history for future generations. masculine with feminine, and deviation with pride; 0.8% 70% of lightness with darkness, strength with vulnerability, abstraction with precision, Yves Yves Saint Laurent,

INVERSE, NEGATIVE

1.1% 56% they FORM Agave Design, 1920 Design, Agave in SILVERY 2.8% 42% “The idea was a man-woman standing idea was a man-woman standing “The at night.” - Helmut Newton, street in the 1988 Magazine, New York an HELMUT HELMUT NEWTON French Vogue, Rue Aubriot, Paris 1975 Aubriot, Paris Rue Vogue, French IMOGEN CUNNINGHAM IMOGEN Agave Design, 1920

IMOGEN CUNNINGHAM CUNNINGHAM IMOGEN 11.4% 28% 1954 21.3% 14%

acute-TRIANGLE 1953

0% 16.2% ERECT, ERECT, CONFIDENCE vertically EXTENDS she EXTENDS SMOOTH UNWAVERING GRACE UNWAVERING GRACE MUSCULAR LEG, her MUSCULAR LEG, PERSEVERING and BRONZED, with and TOP & BOTTOM: IRVING & PAULA KLAW KLAW PAULA & IRVING BOTTOM: & TOP Bettie Page, California, 1953 California, 1953 Bettie Page,

BOTTOM: BUNNY YEAGER BUNNY BOTTOM: TOP: BUNNY YEAGER YEAGER BUNNY TOP: Bettie Page Reclining on Sofa at on Sofa at Reclining Bettie Page Gables, FL, 1954 Coral Bettie Page, Florida, 1954 Florida, 1954 Bettie Page,

1924 instead of an ambiguous reduction instead of an ambiguous reduction of gendered and sexual qualities, a robust synthesis of them all. a celebration of gender-nonconformity, a celebration of gender-nonconformity, we are being asked to reimagine what androgeny can look like - like an erect fallacy, like an erect fallacy, regal monument, or a mid-century pin-up girl, upside-down. provocatively emulating provocatively emulating a tie hanging between the “V” of the suit’s lapels, of gender by of gender by juxtaposing a female bodybuilders leg suit jacket, questioning the performance mimicking the lapel of a men’s EACH SIDE ANCHORING right-TRIANGLES MIRRORED BLACK BLACK of DUO a ROMAINE BROOKS BROOKS ROMAINE Peter (A Young English Girl), 1923-24 (A Young Peter Timeline of referential imagery relating of referential imagery relating Timeline 1981 Mapplethorpe’s to Robert Lisa Lyon photograph, Referential and typographic representation of Robert Mapplethorpe’s 1981, Lisa Lyon. 1981, Mapplethorpe’s representation of Robert and typographic Referential

a s ONE, SPACE INVERSE, they FORM NEGATIVE in SILVERY an acute-TRIANGLE

EACH SIDE a DUO of BLACK MIRRORED right-TRIANGLES ANCHORING MEET ME THERE

Book, 168 pages, hand-bound. Paper, fabric, thread. 5.25 x 8 inches. 2017.

“Meet Me There” is a collection of photographs, maps and essays retracing the steps of the historic stairways lacing the hillside neighborhoods of Los Angeles and their juncture with the now-extinct Los Angeles Railway (LARy) lines. Carrying electric cars, trains, and trolleys from roughly 1896 to 1963, the LARy tracks covered every section of Los Angeles and beyond. I imagine that the stairs and the trains had a symbiotic relationship: two halves of a whole in a system of travel - a romance of complementary kinetic motion. Once the railways were ripped from the ground the stairs were left watch time pass - widowed in the system of transit. I imagine the stairs long for the trains as they gave the stairways a greater sense of purpose.

JEN AGOSTA, 2018 [email protected] 503-723-8104 BLUE LINES

Original music and music video, 2017.

The music video for Blue Lines sought to invoke the haunting mood of the music, the handling of the “me, myself and I” of the song lyrics recreating the relationship we have with ourselves through layered projections over multiple live performances to create the illusion of multiple selves. Hand-drawn scribble animate like lighting over the video visually mimicking in time the rhythmic thunder cracks of percussion hits.

VIEW: vimeo.com/210375427 LISTEN: soundcloud.com/thejager

JEN AGOSTA, 2018 [email protected] JEN AGOSTA, 2018 503-723-8104 [email protected] 503-723-8104