The project will center around the development of a short episodic stop-motion series that explores the collective memories of lesbian coming of age, using the internet as a tool for self discovery.  When there is no one we can ask our most intimate questions, we ask the internet––how to kiss, how to know if I’m gay––because typing is so much easier than saying things out loud. And much of the time, the content that we are consuming is not made for the queer and lesbian community, but about us, made by and for a male-gazing crowd. The series will explore not only how queer youth interact with and twist online media to make it relevant to our burgeoning identities, but also how it feels to reflect back upon these digital worlds as an adult, living a life that a young closeted girl could only dream of. The series follow a 20-something girl as she gets sucked into her computer and guided through her internet history by the personified cursor, Mousey. He’s the one who pulled her inside the computer and only he can let her out, but first she has to relive the computer history of her sexual awakening and the tools she used to do that (online tutorials and quizzes, old text messages, porn, photos of herself, etc) . . . And also figure out why Mousey brought her into computerworld in the first place. Each episode explores a different moment in her internet history. As the episodes go on, Mousey also starts pulling out memories from her mind. 

The physicality of computerworld is essential to the story––this world plays by different rules than our own. Computerworld is fun, funny, and fuzzy. The initial setting of the world is Bliss, the utopian grassy hilltop popularized as the default Windows desktop, but the world is vast, and is arranged in arbitrary ways: file folders float in the sky like clouds, video clips are acted out as plays on stage, search history takes physical form as a grocery store, with each search a grocery item that must be 'checked out' to be revisited. Computerworld takes the flatness of the real internet, turns it inside out, and stitches it together, making it weird, wonderful, and incredibly touchable. A majority of the clips will be stop motion animation, emphasizing this tactility, but other mediums (puppets, drawn animation, previous quilt works, videos) will be mixed in, mimicking the frenetic collage of internet space.

Stop motion animation is incredibly time consuming, so for their 30 day Playbook project, Dohner and Comai will focus on creating puppets, building initial sets, storyboarding, and creating keyframe shots of the first episode that will serve as a stand-alone piece. This will serve as the launchpad for the creation of the series, which will also be accompanied by a gallery show, featuring the video series as well as the physical pieces created. Comai and Dohner have previously collaborated on an animated film, Little Pink House, which they created with a limited budget in two months. One of the joys of stop-motion and miniature making is that it's not expensive to create––most materials used are repurposed, found, or inexpensive. However, time is the most expensive resource––filming a simple five second shot can take hours, filming a one minute clip can take days, and creating the puppets, sets, and props from scratch can take weeks. This grant will allow the artists to properly compensate themselves for their time, focus fully on the project, purchase necessary materials, and rent studio space for filming. It will also allow them to further their skills in production design, stop motion animation, cinematography, screenwriting, editing, and artistic promotion, laying the groundwork for future projects in this medium. Most importantly, this project will create work that speaks personally to the lesbian and queer community, giving viewers an opportunity to connect, discuss, and reflect on the ways that their own online experiences impacted their self discovery.

Olivia Comai is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago who works with puppets, painting, print media, drawing, video, and performance. Comai makes little airplane noises as she buzzes her spoonfuls of nostalgia down the gullets of her audience, using this ease to make her work accessible to all generations, and to those outside of the capital-A Art world. She uses humor, puppets, music, and other colorful visual art to make complex topics such as lesbian identities, isolation, and loss more digestible for a wider audience. She firmly believes in the integration of play with art. She weaves in this playfulness both materially through Mr. Sketch scented markers, as well as conceptually in her juxtaposition between Muppets from memory and their mortality. Comai received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Summer of 2021. Most recently her work has been featured at Side Street Studio Arts and in the Elgin Short Film Festival (Elgin, IL), Wormfarm Institute (Reedsburg, WI), Mayfield (Chicago, IL), Purple Window Gallery (Chicago, IL), the Comfort Station (Chicago, IL) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Galleries (Chicago, IL). instagram.com/officialoliviacomai

Rachel E Dohner is a Chicago-born artist who works in fibers, sculpture, furniture, video, and designed objects. No matter the medium, tactility is essential—Dohner makes things that want to be touched, things that beg to be played with. Her work springs from intricate stories, thorough research, and the uncontrollable urge to make her inner world tangible. Inspired by camp, lesbian coming of age, and the World Wide Web, Rachel's work is made to play with the shape of everyday life––to miniaturize it, to warp it, to personify its objects. She uses maximalist materiality to transfix viewers, to draw them into her imagined world and always keep it in the back of their minds, even when they leave. She holds a BFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, and has shown work recently with Side Street Studio Arts and in the Elgin Short Film Festival (Elgin, IL), Wormfarm Institute (Reedsburg, WI), Fulton Street Collective (Chicago, IL), The Comfort Station (Chicago, IL) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Galleries (Chicago, IL). racheldohner.com instagram.com/