Earthstronaut

• Juno Dulaney, Fine Arts, University of Delaware

• Jazmyn Crosby, Arts & Sciences, University of Delaware

Many of us go through our lives feeling alien. We relate to alien characters, seeing ourselves in their ostracization. For a multitude of reasons, we feel we don’t quite fit in with the rest. In my project, Earthstronaut, I told one of these stories through four animated vignettes. We follow a young girl, seemingly completely normal, except for the green antenna sticking out of her head. There is a part of herself she can’t quite manage to hide – she is an alien. She spends her morning covering up her alien features, except the antenna that she can’t seem to hide. Once she feels presentable, we follow her to the bus, where she is surrounded by humans, and she can’t fit in amongst them. There is always something that makes her stand out. However, there is hope. She arrives at her destination, uncovering her alien features, now proudly presented as her true self. She is finally surrounded by friends, other aliens, at the alien alliance club.

This story was told through my medium of choice, digital animation and comics. I decided four looping animations would be core to the theme of the project: repetition. Though the panels are placed in sequential order, the comic doesn’t stop when you finish reading. The first panel continues to move even while you’re reading the last one. This speaks to the nature of masking and self acceptance. Masking is when a person deliberately changes their behavior in order to seem more socially acceptable. Though there are places where we can unmask so to speak, we still have to go back into society at large at the end of the day. There is no end to the cycle – there is only the ebb and flow of revealing our true selves.