Exploration 03: Process Research

Whiteboard “curiosity syllabus”

Maintainable curiosity syllabus

My curiosity syllabus lives across several notebooks and sketchbooks, each tied to a different kind of making. I have a drag journal for performance-based work—lyric notes, costume sketches, show day checklists—and a sketchbook for physical projects like paintings, sculptures, and even hand-painted beehives. Once something’s completed, it gets archived on my hard drives—though those folders are just as messy as my handwritten notes. It’s not organized, but it’s alive, and that’s what matters to me.

Ever since I started blogging for IMA, it’s kickstarted a habit I’ve wanted for a while—keeping a process journal on my website. It’s now a space for reflections, fragments, and behind-the-scenes moments, whether or not a project is ever finished. I’ve started uploading notebook scans and plan to keep this going well beyond NYU.

Here are a few photos of my notebook pages:

Projects I Resonated With

1. E. Jane – Lavendra/Recovery Project

• R&B diva as cosmic caregiver → loved this framing

• Greenscreen + VHS + drag = anti-institutional intimacy

• MHYSA = soft power, glitch femme

• Archival, but speculative / dreamy

• Felt like slow healing through music + persona

• Resisting legibility / refusing to be easily consumed

• Not polished → purposeful

• Diva energy as world-building

2. E.T. Chong – Slaysian Dynasty

• Queer Asian narratives at the center

• Drag, media layering, archival tension

• Tattooing as ritual/performance

• Humor + critique + pop iconography

• Felt raw and curated at the same time

• Made me think about my own drag lineage

• Camp and ceremony can co-exist

• Staged + spiritual + sarcastic

3. Sasha Velour – “Deceptacon” Performance

• Projection-mapped clones = drag multiplied

• Lip-sync as intellectual tool

• Choreo = timing, control, glitch-as-method

• Felt like theory in motion

• Precision + explosion + drama

• Queer process made visible

• Drag isn’t “entertainment” here—it’s research

• Want this kind of work in Recess / museums

Reflection

This research reminded me that I’m most drawn to work that blends performance, identity, and process in unapologetically personal ways. I found myself gravitating toward artists who use drag, sound, ritual, and speculative storytelling as both form and content. What surprised me was how much drag continues to be excluded from spaces like Recess—even though it’s inherently process-based, iterative, and experimental. That realization pushed me to see my own drag practice not just as performance, but as a method of research and world-building.

I want drag to be seen for what it already is: experimental, political, and rooted in craft, culture, and critique.

My curiosity syllabus now feels less like a to-do list and more like a living map. I want to keep it messy, nonlinear, and responsive—something I can return to, write over, ignore, or expand depending on what’s stirring. It’s not about staying organized—it’s about staying engaged.

This also impacted how I see my own work. I don’t want to sanitize the messiness of my process. I don’t want to define drag to have a bigger meaning than just to entertain and I don't want to reframe drag or queer performance as “fine art” to make it institutionally legible. I want to help build space where these practices are understood on their own terms.