Zihan Gao

Han is a senior in NYU Tisch. She majoring in Performance Studies, minoring in educational theatre & producing. She participated in the production of <Moment in Peking> and also played a role in it. Also, she played roles in the Chinese theater <Hollow Cross>, <The Insanity>, English short play <Lakeside Lullabye>, <The Thanksgiving Play>, <Choices>, and <Stop Kiss>, etc...

Title of Capstone Project:

Food and Social Media Performance

Description of Project:

It is a project that combines a long term social media practice, an artistic statement, and some academic researches. With the deep study of my personal experience of being a food vlogger and a social media influencer online, I realize that this social media account influence my eating habit, also I perform differently in front of the camera and in my daily life. My weight changed and my mindset changed during this 2.5 years experience of being a food vlogger online, etc... This account reconstruct me, and also it is a good sample case to adapt performance studies theories as well.

What Inspired Your Project?

My social media account (it's a Chinese mainly plarform called Little Red Book)is my biggest inspiration since this record almost the entire journey of how I overcome my eating disorder, and being into another condition, how I shift from eating less to eating a lot and eventually find the balance, etc... All these exposure in front of the camera and the public influence my behaviors, which is really "performance studies".