A collaborative series of animated video essays and collages
Deep Dive is an creative-educational collaboration between myself and Paulina Dominguez, long-time friends and project partners. I provided the written and research-based elements. Paulina, who at the time was undergoing a Masters in Animation in Barcelona, Spain, focused on the visuals.
The animated video essay part of the project focuses on doing deep dives into everyday concepts and abstract ideas, following every possible lead and tangent, to see what comes back up. Deep Dive asks questions like what happens in our brains when we self-sacrifice? How has our concept of friendship changed throughout history? What do worker bees and Harry Potter have in common?
Deep Dive also does "mini deep dives" on social media, using a combination of collage, research, and poetry to create definitions of words unique to specific languages. It explores words that might only exist in one language, despite the concept being universal, such as Spanish's 'empalagoso' (referring to something overly sweet) or English's 'lalochezia' (meaning the relief one feels when using profane language). It also takes a look at allegorical concepts such as "butterflies in the stomach" or "mansplaining" and explores their role in society and usage throughout history and geography.
Lalochezia is a rare word but a common feeling. Its root “lalo” comes from the Greek “lalia”, which means speech, and “chezo”, which means to relieve oneself or, more crudely, to defecate. English also contains the phrase “word vomit”, relating to the act of spewing words without control. Words can be bodily, providing relief as much any other physical act. A study by psychologist Richard Stephens found that the act of swearing helped people endure pain. In swearing, we increase our heart rate and call forth our fight-or-flight reflex. To profane is to blaspheme, to allow oneself a moment of irreverence. Vulgar language spans human history. A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, detailing words and phrases deemed improper, was published in 1785.
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