Ruochen Shen was born in Hangzhou in East China in 1999. She grew up in the picturesque metropolis and later in small but mighty Providence, Rhode Island. Having spent her childhood and adolescence in different boarding schools, she found liberation from modern art, banned books, and musical theatre. These interests led her to get her Bachelor's Degree in Performance Studies at New York University. Ruochen is fascinated by the concept of obsession in both narrative and aesthetic forms. She takes astrology with a grain of salt but argues no soul should suffer from reconciling between a rising Leo and a moon Scorpio.

Title of Capstone Project

A Cyber Nightmare in Distribution: Mapping Reality and Distortion in Alternate Realities

Description of Capstone Project

A thesis is just an outspoken piece of something you have been obsessed with. It need not tie to some college education or a degree because everyone has some form of obsession. I heard that off a podcast and appropriated it into my own words.

My thesis is on the nightmarish effect of digital performances. I wrote about the history of an oeuvre that is now being referred to as metaverse. This is something that has been with us for decades but became huge overnight as the creators figured out a plan to work monetary benefits into a naïve, accessible, and increasingly immersive virtual space. An object like this has its genealogy that prophesizes the future we are heading towards.