Stress Web

For my identity project I wanted to create something which would represent both stress and tension, and how those infleunces can either make or break an individual. In doing so, I ultimately wanted to create a web, in which after its construction was complete I could literally break through, in a act representative of my conquest over the never ending battle of stress. To begin, I initially set out on this endeavor through literally constructing a stress web, as I cut 48 white plastic bags into strips, with each strip being a different length and width to refelct how each stress effects me with different levels of severity. After completing this, the next step was to record the factors and influences which cause my stress on each strip. Writing these factors in red, blue, and black markers, I initially selected the color to write at random. Nonetheless, as I progressed, I soon noticed my unconscious use of the red marker to emphasize more intense stresses. In continuing my process though, upon completion of this grueling process (which took several hours), I then connected all of the bags together by creating a gigantic web out of them. This was done to represent how all of these stresses are connected, and how the culmination of these can cause one large stress. After several hours of tying the bags together, it was then time to hang the web. The web was hung in site specific area located in the backyard of my parents home. I choose this due to the fact that my stress stems from my parents, as their stress oftentimes becomes my stress, and at times, they themselves actually become the cause of my stress. With the web being approximately 8-9 ft wide and 6 feet tall, it was hung between two pine trees in my parents backyard in the middle of the night. I chose to construct the web during the day because that is when my stress begins, and hung the web at night because that is when I am at my breaking point. It was important to me to only include one light source because the goal of reaching the light represents overcoming stress, and ultimately becoming a successful graphic designer. The actual process of breaking the web took around 30-40 minutes, and while I had no idea of the amount of strength a web made of plastic bags would have, I had my entire weight on the web at all times, and used all of my force to break the web. After seeing the strength this web could have using only 48 bags, for the final resting place of this web I am considering making a hammock out of it. Of course, if I did this I would have to add more bags, however I think it would be a positive thing for my stress web to make the transformation into something I could use for relaxation.