Assistant Professor Yvette Granata is part of an interdisciplinary team that was awarded an Arts + Curriculum Grant for the project “Co-Creating with Swineryy: Social Critique, Social Media, and Pakistan.” Led by Stamps Professor Rebekah Modrak, this project will bring together courses, students, and faculty from the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design; the School of Information; the Departments of Film, Television, and Media (FTVM), History, and Anthropology; and the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan. The team will work to produce a music video with Pakistan-based comedian Swineryy, who remains anonymous under her artist name 'Swineryy' because she risks her life by critiquing the social norms of her country.
With the grant, the team will use their disciplines to take Swineryy’s commentary to a new level. Students in Modrak’s course, Dressing Up and Down, will create full-body wearable sculptures for each character. The course, Intro to Virtual Reality, taught by Assistant Professor Yvette Granata (FTVM and the Digital Studies Institute) will design virtual sets for the digital environments for the video. School of Information Professor Joyojeet Pal’s students will pose deeper questions about digital culture and Swineryy’s role as a social media influencer. Anthropology students, led by Professor Matthew Hull, will enrich conversations about Pakistani culture.
