RAB 2021-2022

This piece is meant to capture the idea of isolation and loneliness that is brought by having your education take place through the computer screen.

University is meant to be a time to bond with like-minded people and make connections with your classmates and professors. Furthermore medical students have even more of an interpersonal aspect in their degree. We need to interact with doctors and patients.

That is why the transition to fully online learning was extremely jarring. Problem based learning went from a classroom to over zoom. As someone who has experienced both in person and zoom sessions I can say that through zoom, discussion became less collaborative and lively. Verbal expressions and facial cues are missed and overall it feels more disconnected.

This piece is intended to depict that disconnect and loneliness. Even though the central figure is sitting with other people and seemingly in the middle of a lively discussion, they are looking into the camera instead of interacting with their environment. Furthermore the other people at the table have obscured faces and one cannot make out any discerning features. Although the figures can make gestures of interaction with one another, they cannot truly connect.

The lighting of the piece is head down, subtly isolating the central figure and separating it from the rest of the figures.

Overall, all the elements are trying to demonstrate the dichotomy or contrast between the inherently collaborative nature of medical education with the robotic and stiff interface of online education.