UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #932

Research Mentor Information
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Primary Research Mentor Name: Amarachi K.  Odimba
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific?: {Empty}
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): paintergalten@gmail.com
Position Title: Faculty
FSU College (if applicable): Fine Arts
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation: Studio Arts
Headshot (optional): https://cre.fsu.edu/system/files/webform/urop_project_proposal_portal/15286/Odimba_Headshot.jpg

Additional Research Mentor(s)
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Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above): {Empty}
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific?: {Empty}
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): ako23@fsu.edu
Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable): {Empty}
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Honorific?: {Empty}
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): {Empty}

Overall Project Details
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Title of the Project: Contoured Identity
Project Keywords: Identity, contour map, paintings, passport number, print making, migration
Are you currently looking for research assistants?: Yes
Number of Research Assistants Needed : 2
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s):
-Geography
-Printmaking
-Art History
-Painting



Project Location:: On FSU Main Campus
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation?: Yes
Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s):: Partially Remote
Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work?: 5 hours
Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work?: Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Overall Research Project Description:
Contoured Identity
How can we articulate the effects that movement has on our experiences and sense of self? 
My work seeks to depict and thus capture the human experience by portraying it as inherently dynamic, exchangeable, and in a constant state of flux.  
By exploring the boundaries of abstraction, landscape, printmaking, texts, and figuration, my work delves into our lived experiences, investigating how forces like migration and capitalism shape human identity, sense of self, and other possibilities.
My art-based research comprises eight mixed media works which bring together elements of repetition of texts/numerals, figuration and contour maps of specific regions inspired by colonial and political history—weaving past with present.
The repeated passport numbers and juxtaposed contour maps establish the underpainting,  which I employ to respond to themes of longing, belonging and refusal referencing The Black Shoals by Tiffany Lethabo King, which describes that  the shoal functions as a spatial allegory for the moving and shifting space of the human. Rather than a place of safety, the intersections, overlap and disintegration is an unstable ecozone and nervous landscape where boundaries between the concept of self and human identity continually shift.
Describing the components of my work;
-The texts: These are mainly imagined passport numbers and currency  serial  numbers applied as patterns originally conceived from the plaid design of the Ghana-Must-Go tote bag, a bag which gained its name in 1983 following Nigeria’s expulsion of West African migrants, largely Ghanaian citizens, who had entered the country during a period of economic prosperity. Over forty years later, the bag continues to be a powerful symbol of migration worldwide and I employ it as a visual metaphor for migration and capitalism by deconstructing its patterns with text.
- The Imagery: These are drawings and paintings of fellow International students referencing the Balsall Heath photographs in Tina Campt’s Listening to Images, similar to identification photos in function and format that cannot be overseen.
 - Contour maps: These maps are layered or juxtaposed to represent the multiple layers of identity shaped by experiences and environmental influences. The contour maps are selected from specific locations where the painted subjects have lived or traversed. They are generated using the QGIS software application.
 From a personal  and collective perspective, these elements both aesthetically and conceptually embody  the politics of landscape and migration, the hierarchy of passports, landscape and currencies all of which shape our collective experience .


Research Tasks:
- Data collection and generation of random passport numbers and currency serial numbers
_ Printmaking
- Reaching out to International students who are potentially subjects of paintings
-Using Softwares to generate contour maps

Skills that research assistant(s) may need::
- MS Word Office
- QGIS Software application
- Printmaking
-cartography
-drawing
-Literature

-art history
-migration studies
-African history
Indigenous history
African American History
-painting
-photoshop
-writing

Mentoring Philosophy:
As a mentor, my goal is to contribute to the development of the whole person. This involves understanding your current stage of intellectual and professional growth, as well as your aspirations for the future. Each individual I mentor is unique, and different goals demand different skills, but I aim to help you cultivate certain universal abilities—such as recognizing opportunities, asking insightful questions, acknowledging weaknesses, and communicating effectively. I will encourage you to be a supportive team member while also having the courage to step into leadership when it’s needed, regardless of your position within any existing power structure.


Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable):: https://art.fsu.edu/work-by-amarachi-odimba/    This is for a previous and similar projects consisting of only prints
Please add any additional information here (if applicable)::
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Are you interested in participating in the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable?: No
Roundtable times and Zoom links:
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UROP Program Elements
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Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication: Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation: Yes
Materials Grant: Yes
UROP Poster Presentation: Yes

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Year: 2024
update url: https://cre.fsu.edu/urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal?token=aiy_06Wd_IleS63SBjqq8rlHmUU-7U0I0nA9xGM-vSA