Today we’d like to introduce you to Paulina MacNeil.
Paulina, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I am originally from Canada and grew up living in Toronto. I lived in several different areas of the city and always spent a lot of time exploring. Toronto has changed a lot since then but some of my best childhood memories include spending time in Cedarvale Park, weekend afternoons in Corso Italia, and getting ice cream at Dutch Dreams. My mother has always been a visual person and she encouraged me to pursue artistic ventures from a young age. Imaginative activities were also a big part of my childhood and I believe that they shaped my understanding of the world around me. I have always been shy and so I also spent a lot of time by myself growing up and still do to this day. My work cites this experience in the way that I have taken interest in online communities that are often maintained over the barriers of screens. I have also found it easier to engage with my surroundings and other people when I have a camera to do so. I am interested in the ways that people connect on the internet and the ways these connections can provide benefits for those involved. My artistic research focuses on topics including ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response), chatrooms, and techno-spirituality.
We’d love to hear more about your work. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My work is research-based and conceptually driven. I find myself utilizing a particular medium based on what I see as relevant for the content I am trying to express to a viewer. Most often, I work with photography, video, sound, text, and performance.
My background is in photography and so I believe that this consistently guides my practice and the way I look at my surroundings. I have explored the definition of surveillance and the ways that we choose to interact with or ignore the experience of living in a world where everything is documented or recorded. I work with appropriated images from IP cameras as well as constructed scenes exploring voyeurism, exhibitionism, and our intimate relationship to technology.
Most recently, I have been trying to create work that evokes a positive sensory experience in the viewer. I am interested in connecting with strangers through methods of sound and image. The intention is to bring attention to the ways that the internet can be explored as a tranquil space to slow down rather than a place of overstimulation. I utilize techniques from ASMR performers, mindfulness, and neuro-linguistic programming in order to do so. I do not consider myself a technophobic nor a technophile, rather I think that there is further potential for alternate communities online of care and assistance beyond what currently exists.
What do you think it takes to be successful as an artist?
I don’t know if I am at a point in my life where I can answer this question. I also feel that the definition of successful changes among each artist. I know that for myself, I feel successful when I know that a work I have made has had an effect on someone, whether it is good or bad. I would prefer that it is a good effect, but bad can be interesting too.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I exhibit at galleries and community spaces. Most recently, I was included in the Photographic Resource Center’s Annual Student Show at the Lunder Art Center and held a solo exhibition in the Tower Gallery in Tisch Library at Tufts University.
My work is available on my website, www.paulinamacneil.com. I also use my Instagram, paulina.cmn to post work-in-progress and what I consider to be a digital sketchbook of things that interest me, surprise me, or that I want to share with others.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.paulinamacneil.com
- Email: paulina.macneil@gmail.com
- Instagram: paulina.cmn
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