Brook LeVan
BA, Visual Communication
Minor, Film and Digital Media
Statement
My capstone project is focused on fears. I was interested in how many different fears there are, how they differ from person to person, and how it can be hard to understand the fears of others. For this project I have created an infographic showcasing the top ten fears based on a survey that I conducted. The infographic is organized in a treemap graph to visualize the most common fears versus the less common fears at the same time and is made up of scenes from movies. With ten different clips playing on the screen at all times, my goal is to overwhelm the viewer in the same way that fear can overwhelm people.
All rectangles are to scale in regard to the fears and their percentages. Since death is the most common fear (22.3%), it is the biggest rectangle. Since water is the least common fear (6.7%), it is the smallest rectangle. Showcasing all ten categories at once with ten different clips and their audio will make the viewer uncomfortable and overwhelmed, while still accurately showcasing the data from my research. It is my intention that the majority of people will not watch the entire video, or even more than a few seconds/minutes, due to how overwhelming the combination of the imagery, audio and subject matter is. Whether their fears are showcased in the video or not, viewers will have an uncomfortable and fearful reaction.
Bio
Brook LeVan grew up in the small town of Bellefontaine, Ohio before moving to Chicago, Illinois in 2016 to begin college. While Brook primarily works digitally, she also has experience in photography, illustration, and printmaking. Moving from a small rural town to the big city of Chicago opened Brook up to a world of new experiences and opportunities. She loves to travel and spent a semester studying abroad at the John Felice Rome Center in Rome, Italy during the spring of 2019. Brook’s experience abroad expanded her curiosity and allowed her to visit and be inspired by the works in many museums, churches, and cities all over Europe. She interned at Susan G. Komen Chicago during the fall of 2019 where she followed branding guidelines to create signage and promotional material to help raise awareness and money for the company’s fight against breast cancer. Brook has a deep love for movies and includes that passion in many aspects of her work, as can be seen in her senior capstone project. She also draws inspiration from many personal aspects of her life including challenges such as multiple medical issues as well as experiences from her travels, those closest to her, and causes that she is passionate about. Her endless curiosity encourages her to take on new projects, find new ways of tackling things, and to create as much as possible.