'Champs Funeral'
'Champs Funeral'
'Champs Funeral'
'Champs Funeral'
'pal'
'pal'
445241254_17961834407765776_4042027182917246770_n.jpg
444776709_17961834461765776_2343827808912045950_n.jpg
445387077_17961834416765776_6112531766255257262_n.jpg
scrap metal sandals
scrap metal sandals
scrap metal sandals
scrap metal sandals
'Sensory deprivation mask'
'Sensory deprivation mask'
'Sensory deprivation mask'
'Sensory deprivation mask'
I Yawn, You Yawn, They Yawn, We Yawn

yawning is particularly thought-provoking, it is extremely social and means a couple of things in the realm of communication. For example, yawning is a symbol of boredom, yawning is also a symbol of tiredness, it can be a subtle cue that ‘it's time to go’, a yawn may communicate that you had a good sleep or that you haven't had enough- a yawn can ‘mean’ many things especially when coupled with other paralinguistic expressions, or mannerisms.

Yawning is social beyond these stereotypical understandings of what you may be saying by a yawn however. One of the most interesting characteristics of the yawn, to me, is that yawning is contagious. Why is yawning so contagious? A Google search will tell you that yawning is contagious “due to natural human empathy”, weird… right? Natural human empathy doesn't make me cry every time i see someone else cry nor does it make me laugh every time i see someone laughing, but for some reason 9 times out of 10, if I'm talking to you and you yawn, I will too. I will now acknowledge the part of my last statement where I said “ if I'm talking to you”, this is an important detail- in my experience, it is fair to say the better I know you, the more I am interacting with you, the more I care, the more likely I am to yawn. While this observation alone points to the contagiousness of yawning being primarily empathetic in nature it is important to note that I said (as reiterated from many websites) this contagiousness is a natural “human” empathy response- however, yawns are contagious across species, not only do almost all vertebrate animals yawn (this includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and even fish) yawns are contagious across many of those species. I find this fact captivating, yawning is something we share with species that live in the ocean, it is a very common experience of the living, as is this contagion.

I could go on and on about all of the elements of the yawn which tantalize my mind, like the fact that we are even yawning in the womb, our heart rates significantly increase when we yawn, yawning cools down our brains yet also appears to be a reflex to make us more alert, or that it synchronizes our behavior, even thinking about yawning makes me yawn.. All of this to say; scientists still aren't even sure why any of us do it. So I am going to stick to talking about the focus of my project, which ultimately is the contagious nature of the yawn. In thinking about what I could do to interact with this phenomenon, the obvious answer was to make everyone yawn! I decided to record myself yawning, and boy did I. I wanted the video to feel intimate and direct- keeping the camera at the right distance to simulate a conversation and playing with my position and eye contact. I also wanted the sound of the yawn to be as dominant as possible, so I recorded the sounds of my yawns and stitched them into the video, then I added the sounds again- there are 2 layers of yawns. I will say, that creating this video was not easy, in fact, I can't stop yawning- hopefully, I sleep it off. I started by watching videos of people yawning to rev my engine, but once I got going some of the yawns coming out of me were monstrous, they hurt, they made me cry, and at times I was even certain I was going to faint- but this was part of the art, the art is not only the video but also the experience of forcing myself to sit and fall victim to the contagion of yawning for a very extended period, it was fascinatingly torturous.

Yawning is something I do many times a day, as I am sure many of us do, it is so natural that much like breathing or blinking, I don't think about it. In creating this project I turned my attention to yawning when I do it, why I may be doing it, how it feels, and how it sounds- I'm sure soon it will fade back to where it was in my mind before this project, until the next time I become conscious of it. Still, I am grateful to be in touch with this function of my body and this mysterious act of life. I hope my video causes my viewers to think about their own yawns, how they feel, how they sound, what they may be saying, or, at the very least, I hope they yawn.

'The Underdog'
'The Underdog'
'The Underdog'
'The Underdog'
'Champs Funeral'
'Champs Funeral'
'pal'
445241254_17961834407765776_4042027182917246770_n.jpg
444776709_17961834461765776_2343827808912045950_n.jpg
445387077_17961834416765776_6112531766255257262_n.jpg
scrap metal sandals
scrap metal sandals
'Sensory deprivation mask'
'Sensory deprivation mask'
I Yawn, You Yawn, They Yawn, We Yawn
'The Underdog'
'The Underdog'
'Champs Funeral'
'Champs Funeral'
'pal'
scrap metal sandals
scrap metal sandals
'Sensory deprivation mask'
'Sensory deprivation mask'
I Yawn, You Yawn, They Yawn, We Yawn

yawning is particularly thought-provoking, it is extremely social and means a couple of things in the realm of communication. For example, yawning is a symbol of boredom, yawning is also a symbol of tiredness, it can be a subtle cue that ‘it's time to go’, a yawn may communicate that you had a good sleep or that you haven't had enough- a yawn can ‘mean’ many things especially when coupled with other paralinguistic expressions, or mannerisms.

Yawning is social beyond these stereotypical understandings of what you may be saying by a yawn however. One of the most interesting characteristics of the yawn, to me, is that yawning is contagious. Why is yawning so contagious? A Google search will tell you that yawning is contagious “due to natural human empathy”, weird… right? Natural human empathy doesn't make me cry every time i see someone else cry nor does it make me laugh every time i see someone laughing, but for some reason 9 times out of 10, if I'm talking to you and you yawn, I will too. I will now acknowledge the part of my last statement where I said “ if I'm talking to you”, this is an important detail- in my experience, it is fair to say the better I know you, the more I am interacting with you, the more I care, the more likely I am to yawn. While this observation alone points to the contagiousness of yawning being primarily empathetic in nature it is important to note that I said (as reiterated from many websites) this contagiousness is a natural “human” empathy response- however, yawns are contagious across species, not only do almost all vertebrate animals yawn (this includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and even fish) yawns are contagious across many of those species. I find this fact captivating, yawning is something we share with species that live in the ocean, it is a very common experience of the living, as is this contagion.

I could go on and on about all of the elements of the yawn which tantalize my mind, like the fact that we are even yawning in the womb, our heart rates significantly increase when we yawn, yawning cools down our brains yet also appears to be a reflex to make us more alert, or that it synchronizes our behavior, even thinking about yawning makes me yawn.. All of this to say; scientists still aren't even sure why any of us do it. So I am going to stick to talking about the focus of my project, which ultimately is the contagious nature of the yawn. In thinking about what I could do to interact with this phenomenon, the obvious answer was to make everyone yawn! I decided to record myself yawning, and boy did I. I wanted the video to feel intimate and direct- keeping the camera at the right distance to simulate a conversation and playing with my position and eye contact. I also wanted the sound of the yawn to be as dominant as possible, so I recorded the sounds of my yawns and stitched them into the video, then I added the sounds again- there are 2 layers of yawns. I will say, that creating this video was not easy, in fact, I can't stop yawning- hopefully, I sleep it off. I started by watching videos of people yawning to rev my engine, but once I got going some of the yawns coming out of me were monstrous, they hurt, they made me cry, and at times I was even certain I was going to faint- but this was part of the art, the art is not only the video but also the experience of forcing myself to sit and fall victim to the contagion of yawning for a very extended period, it was fascinatingly torturous.

Yawning is something I do many times a day, as I am sure many of us do, it is so natural that much like breathing or blinking, I don't think about it. In creating this project I turned my attention to yawning when I do it, why I may be doing it, how it feels, and how it sounds- I'm sure soon it will fade back to where it was in my mind before this project, until the next time I become conscious of it. Still, I am grateful to be in touch with this function of my body and this mysterious act of life. I hope my video causes my viewers to think about their own yawns, how they feel, how they sound, what they may be saying, or, at the very least, I hope they yawn.

'The Underdog'
'The Underdog'
show thumbnails