Bio
Agnes Zeng was born in Tianjin, China. She studied for her bachelor’s degree in New Media and Studio Arts at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She started her art path by taking portraits of her Chinese friends sharing their stories as international students in Canada and documenting their awkward moments when they arrived to Canada. Her current work explores the storytelling of the Chinese-Canadian community through photography and videography practices. She continues to work on her project that explores the transformation of Chinatowns in Toronto. She is planning to go to Seneca college to study Documentary and Non-fiction media.
Questionaire
Why did you get involved in this project?
It was a very interesting new project that I've never seen before. Also because of the quarantine, it gave me something fun to do while I stayed home.
Did the one week turn-around for the work help or hinder your creativity?
The one week deadline gave me the motivation to create the work and finish it all very quickly. But there were a few times I felt that I was missing something. I felt like the time limit made the project unique and interesting.
How did you feel about working on a project where you didn’t know who you were collaborating with?
Working with people I didn’t know challenged me to make all my work as clear as possible. As a group I learned how to collaborate with each other, with concise ideas, clear content and enjoyable clips.
Has being involved in the project changed your thoughts on creativity?
Yes, also I have learnt a lot from the group members.
If you worked on several videos, what kept you coming back for more and how many did you do?
I worked on 5 videos. I felt it was exciting and I always wanted to know what the new set of words or images were. It also made my life more fun while I just stayed at home and did nothing.