Neoliberal Loops (installation simulator)

 Play 4 videos simultaneously: Videos 1, 2, & 3 + soundtrack

Soundtrack:

https://youtu.be/sFsX02Q-5bM

Video 1:

https://youtu.be/AKi7xP3mr8E

Video 2:

https://youtu.be/MKSFirJKqLo

Video 3:

https://youtu.be/huizJBq28V8

Soundtrack

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Full playlist of Neoliberal Loops.

SCMS 2025

 Presenting at SCMS!

Johnson, E. (2025). "Beauty, Excess, and the Grotesque in the Late-Capitalism Critique of Lauren Greenfield." Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Chicago, Illinois. 3-6 Apr 2025. [Presenter]

Photo by Phoebe B.

Bunny in the yard

My Aesthetics

https://youtu.be/_M534_DeUEU

By Emma C. Johnson

Written: Oct 2019 – Apr 2020

Recorded: Apr 23-25, 2020

LYRICS:

Alone with your aesthetics.

Alone with your aesthetics.

You aren't here but it feels like you're near

in a room with our aesthetics.

in a room with our aesthetics.

Void except for things.

A girl at a piano

purses her lips

cracked by centuries of drying.

Her blue satin sash

catches the light

in a room with my aesthetics.

in a room with my aesthetics.

Ballerinas

grasp bouquets

of perfectly positioned flowers.

The sun is pouring

in through the glass

in a room with my aesthetics.

in a room with my aesthetics.

Ceilings painted

with history.

Gold-leafed trim on white walls.

Crystal chandeliers line the hall.

The mirrors go on forever and ever and ever

in a room with my aesthetics.

in a room with my aesthetics.

Alone with my aesthetics.

Alone with my aesthetics.

Alone with my aesthetics.

Alone with my aesthetics.

You aren't here but it feels like you're near

in a room with my aesthetics.

My aesthetics.

My aesthetics.

My aesthetics.

My aesthetics.

My aesthetics.

My aesthetics.

Images videorecorded for B-roll from: 

The Musée d'Orsay, Barnes & Noble Books
your visit to Versailles, art lys
Degas: A strange new beauty, MoMA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, metmuseum.org

Images include:

0:14 Henri Fantin-Latour, Flowers and Fruit, 1865  

0:18 Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Daughters of Catulle Mendès Huguette (1871-1964), Claudine (1876-1937), 1888  

0:23 Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Two Young Girls at the Piano 1892  

0:27 Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Woman at the Piano, 1875-6  

0:32 Edgar Degas, The Dance Foyer at the Opéra at the rue Le Peletier, 1872  

0:35 Edgar Degas, Fin d'arabesque, c. 1877  

0:39 Edgar Degas, Dance Class, 1873-6  

0:44 Edgar Degas, Ballet Scene, c. 1879 

 0:48 Louis Le Vau, et al./Versailles, The War Drawing-Room  

0:52 Le Vau, et al./Versailles, The Hall of Mirrors 

 0:57 Edgar Degas, The Orchestra of the Opéra, c. 1870s

Poses include: 

0:10 Mary Cassatt, Young Woman in the Garden, c. 1883-6 

5:14 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Source, 1856 

5:15 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Virgin of the Host, 1854 

5:16 Edgar Degas, Little Dancer at Age Fourteen, 1880-1 

5:19 Gustave Courbet, The Spring, 1868 

5:20 Théodore Chassériau, The Tepidarium, 1853 

5:21 Édouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863
 

FRENCH and GERMAN lyrics translation below:

COVID-19

I went for a walk today.

Squirrel film screening in Midland, MI

Thanks to everyone who attended Squirrel: The Movie directed by Thalia Drori!

We had a great discussion about reframing the dialog concerning violence in our society as well as how we've become inured to the over-representation of the male gaze in film. Here I am introducing the movie dressed in character (a.k.a. wearing my own clothes).

Thanks to Creative 360 for hosting, The Delta Collegiate for covering the event, and for everyone who made it a great night!

Picture by René Johnson.

" Midlander acts in film shown Tuesday at Creative 360"

“Midlander acts in film shown Tuesday at Creative 360,” Midland Daily News, 23 Mar 2018: A5. Online. http://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Palestinian-student-visits-Midland-presentation-10424617.php

"Squirrel" playing in Midland!

THE MOVIE

"Squirrel is a 30-minute dark comedy with Mary Vivian Pierce, one of John Waters' Dreamlanders, as the school principal. The story: When 11-year-old Noah witnesses Officer Davis pepper spraying a baby squirrel, his mom, seeing how upset he is, promises to take action. Director Thalia Drori is a writer, producer, and director from Oakland, CA. Our presenter, Emma C. Johnson, is a writer, artist, musician, and actor. Johnson met Drori, a faculty member at Minneapolis College of Art and Design at the time, where Johnson earned her B.F.A. Johnson plays Frances, friend and co-worker of the protagonist. Admission by donation."

THE TRAILER

Squirrel Trailer from Thalia Drori on Vimeo.

MCTV schedule for Palestine/Israel event 1-24-18

The "What I Witnessed in Palestine" presentation I gave at Creative 360 on 1-24-18 will begin airing on MCTV on Saturday, February 10, at 7am. Playback will continue throughout February & March at various dates/times.

MCTV is broadcast in Midland, Michigan, on Charter(Spectrum) channel 191 and AT&T U-verse channel 99. Thank you MCTV and MCTV Volunteers for cinematography, post-production, and airing!

http://www.cityofmidlandmi.gov/457/Whats-On-Now

Current schedule:
2/10/2018 at 7:00 AM
2/10/2018 at 7:00 PM
2/11/2018 at 1:00 AM
2/11/2018 at 7:00 AM
2/11/2018 at 1:00 PM
2/11/2018 at 7:00 PM
2/12/2018 at 1:00 AM
2/12/2018 at 7:00 AM
2/26/2018 at 1:00 PM
2/27/2018 at 8:00 AM
3/2/2018 at 4:00 PM
3/3/2018 at 9:30 AM
3/3/2018 at 9:30 PM
3/4/2018 at 9:30 AM
3/4/2018 at 9:30 PM
3/5/2018 at 9:30 AM
3/5/2018 at 1:00 PM
3/6/2018 at 8:00 AM
3/9/2018 at 4:00 PM
3/9/2018 at 9:30 PM
3/10/2018 at 3:30 AM
3/10/2018 at 3:34 PM
3/12/2018 at 1:13 PM
3/13/2018 at 8:17 AM
3/16/2018 at 4:00 PM
3/19/2018 at 1:00 PM
3/20/2018 at 8:00 AM
3/23/2018 at 4:00 PM
3/26/2018 at 1:00 PM
3/27/2018 at 8:00 AM
3/30/2018 at 4:00 PM
4/2/2018 at 1:00 PM
4/3/2018 at 8:00 AM
4/6/2018 at 4:00 PM
4/9/2018 at 1:00 PM
4/10/2018 at 8:00 AM
4/13/2018 at 4:00 PM
4/16/2018 at 1:00 PM
4/17/2018 at 8:00 AM
4/20/2018 at 4:00 PM
4/21/2018 at 10:30 AM
4/22/2018 at 10:30 AM
4/22/2018 at 10:30 PM
4/23/2018 at 10:30 AM
4/23/2018 at 1:00 PM
4/24/2018 at 8:00 AM
4/27/2018 at 4:00 PM
4/27/2018 at 10:30 PM
4/28/2018 at 4:30 AM
4/28/2018 at 11:00 AM
4/28/2018 at 4:30 PM
4/28/2018 at 11:00 PM
4/29/2018 at 4:30 AM
4/29/2018 at 11:00 AM
4/29/2018 at 4:30 PM
4/29/2018 at 11:00 PM
4/30/2018 at 4:30 AM
4/30/2018 at 11:00 AM
5/1/2018 at 8:00 AM
5/4/2018 at 4:00 PM
5/4/2018 at 11:00 PM
5/5/2018 at 5:00 AM
5/5/2018 at 5:00 PM
5/6/2018 at 5:00 AM
5/6/2018 at 5:00 PM
5/7/2018 at 5:00 AM
5/8/2018 at 8:00 AM
5/11/2018 at 4:00 PM

Interactions and Materials Affecting Environment

Originally published at http://www.ifpb.org/del61/report3.html.

Interactions and Materials Affecting Environment   |  Emma Johnson - Midland, Michigan

Military presence and eclectic reading. In Palestine/Israel, myriad soldiers with machine guns inhabit the public spaces. I wasn't used to the military in the forefront of my environment. With only 1 percent of the U.S. population serving in the military, national service seems abstract, out of sight and out of mind. But in Israel, everyone is required to serve for three years.

Young men and women, who oftentimes stand casually and look bored and ready to be off their shifts, become part of the background. Yet, you always know the military is there. The Israeli government projects a presence, a constant surveillance where you know they're looking and they know you know they're watching.

I saw a variety of magazines at a small shop at the airport in Tel Aviv: Fashion, home decorating, celebrity gossip ... and military equipment as just another magazine among them. Who is this customer? Of course, I want to read about the latest lipstick and then find out about the innovations for the next models of machine guns!

Concrete doesn’t equal permanence. Another visual in the environment is the apartheid wall. The concrete divides Israel from Palestine for miles, and more is planned.
The material of concrete suggests permanence.

At Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank, the Palestinians carry the mentality, and pass this mentality down to their children, that despite their concrete housing, the situation isn’t permanent. (In fact, they lived in tents and held off on living in buildings made of concrete.) In spite of its material, this is temporary housing and they will return home since international law recognizes the Right of Return. An enduring material doesn’t mean the situation will also last forever.

Driving, sometimes the road becomes monotonous. In Palestine/Israel, the tall concrete slabs that comprise the apartheid wall are the same rectangular shape repeated over and over. The wall is an ugly concept, but by repetition I get used to it.

But familiarity shouldn’t equal normalcy.

By-Pass Roads

Originally published at http://www.ifpb.org/del61/report1.html.

By-Pass Roads   |  Emma Johnson - Midland, Michigan

It is serene watching the steady flow of cars,
blurry blue and white squares moving slowly from a distance.
But the by-pass road means the people inside are probably Israeli settlers.
Reading, intellectually I understood this.
Seeing it in real life,
I wonder about the people inside the cars.
Who are they?
Do they think occupation is wrong but inure themselves to the Palestinians' pain?
Or, are they clueless, just going about their day?
Do they tell themselves they just have to do what they can to survive, lines blurred?
I wonder about the people inside the cars.
I wonder what kind of people they are and what their lives are like.

Squirrel

I played Frances in the film Squirrel, directed by Thalia Drori Ramirez. The premiere will be on March 19 in Oakland, CA.

Information from Facebook:

Liberated Lens Film Collective presents a dark night of comedy shorts by Thalia Drori Ramirez and Cineastas de Granada.

An evening of comedy shorts by filmmaker Thalia Drori Ramirez, including a premiere of her latest film, Squirrel, which features Mary Vivian Pearce (Pink Flamingos, Multiple Maniacs, Female Trouble) as the school principal. Drori Ramirez will also present a comedy by the students of Cineastas de Granada, a video production program she founded for teen girls in Granada, Nicaragua. A discussion with the filmmaker will follow the screening.

Squirrel Trailer:
https://vimeo.com/164283185

Admission: Pay what you can. Nobody turned away for lack of funds.

Time: 7:00 p.m.
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.

https://www.facebook.com/events/388076091557924/

https://www.facebook.com/squirrelthemovie/

Squirrel (a film I'm going to be in). Check it out!

https://vimeo.com/120191918

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2059115705/squirrel-a-comedy-short-help-us-finish-shooting?ref=category_newest

Butterflies short version

[Video] Butterflies at Dow Gardens, Mar.-Apr. 2013

Video of Butterflies at Dow Gardens
Short version
Long version

Butterflies at Dow Gardens, Mar.-Apr. 2013

Butterflies!

18 images/videos | Emma C. Johnson

Target Bag
Oil on Canvas, 17.5 x 23.5 in., 2004.
Read story about it.

Water Under the Bridge

5-Color screenprint on Arches paper, 12 x 12 in., 2003.

Eyelash Curlers

1-Color screenprint on Arches paper, 192 x 31 in., 2003.

Garbage Bag in Paris

C-print, 8 x 10 in., 2002.

Untitled (Chelsea, NYC)

Digital C-print, 6 x 4 in., 2007.

Memories and Projections Suggesting the Present

Color digital video (Film Still), 7’10”, 2010.

Abortion/What Would You do if They Attached a Violinist to You?

Oil on canvas, 16.25 x 37.5 in., 2003.

Hmong Village Outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand

Digital print, 6 x 4 in., 2011.

"Elite Smile Dental Clinic" (Thailand)

Digital C-print, 6 x 4 in., 2011.

Redcrosse and Una

Digital image, 4 x 6 in., 2009.

Duessa and Redcrosse

Digital image, 4 x 6 in., 2011.

Plagiarism

Website, dimensions variable, 2008.
Read Artist's Statement.

The Eiffel Tower Drawing Project (relational aesthetics)

Graphite and pen on paper, 143 2 x 2 in. drawings, 2009. Drawings of places by 143 strangers.
Read Artist's Statement.

Made in England/Made in China
Digital C-print, 4 x 6 in., 2011.
Read Artist's Statement.

"Shaving" (film still)

30'0", Video, 2001.
 Read Artist's Statement.



Memories & Projections Suggesting the Present
7'10", Digital Video, 2010.

Read Artist's Statement.

The Snickers-Bar Absurdist from Emma Johnson on Vimeo.

The Snickers-Bar Absurdist
Video, 17'0", 2003.

Parasite Project (relational aesthetics)
Standard office paper, 8.5 x 11 in., 2008.
Read Artist's Statement. 

Oxytocin molecular drawing
Red Sharpie on Strathmore charcoal paper, 11 x 17 in., 2014.

Chemistry! [NaHCO3 + HCl --> NaCl + H2 + CO2]

Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and acid react to form sodium chloride, carbon dioxide and water vapor. The experiment looks like white powder before the reaction and white powder after the reaction.

I like how a change occurs but you can't see it. Our teacher usually says labs are going to be really cool or exciting, but this one he described as "probably the most boring lab ever." Because nothing happens. The only difference is that afterwards if you lit a flame it would catch on fire whereas before the experiment it wouldn't. But I thought it was poetic and existential – it's like a person who had an experience and showed no outward change at a casual glance, but in reality they're completely transformed.

Idiosyncratic Memories & Projections artshow

Documentation of the show:

Emma Johnson: Idiosyncratic Memories & Projections / art opening at Creative 360 / 9-14-12

Pictures from the opening