Specimen is a multimedia installation piece that revolves around the pseudoscience experimentation and analysis of Alissa Neal’s emotional condition. Being born with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder not only affects her social skills and relationships with others but also impacts every aspect of her artistic practice. Frustrated with the methods and medications provided by the mental health care system she sets out to better understand human nature by documenting the seemingly mundane or intentionally ignored parts of life.
Through collecting, analyzing, and documenting Neal explores the symbiotic link between experience and her cognitive state. She utilizes the body as medium in relation to understanding human emotions and visceral disgust. Psychological connections are made within these areas as she meticulously records the everyday. Along with her own body, she is interested in the connections individuals have with one another and how different factors within relationships can influence one’s overall state of being.
Alissa Neal is a 3D extended media artist and currently a Masters in Fine Arts candidate at the University of Arizona. She attended Savannah College of Art and Design where she received her Bachelors in Fine Arts in Graphic Design in 2012, and since has exhibited both nationally and internationally.