Sensory overload

Colored fishnets, a supersized fan and the loud whirring of a helicopter come together in the new Centre Gallery exhibition, “HYPERVENTILATE!”

USF graduate student Jordi Williams is leaving her exhibition up for interpretation and wants to see what sort of reactions will come from using one specific medium: noise.

According to gallery’s Web site, ctr.usf.edu/gallery, “The collection is based on social anxiety … experiencing sound and light as physical and the world as trembling.”

To build a sense of anxiety, Williams mixed a variety of colors and sounds.

Williams has pinwheel flowers and fishnets with “celebratory” colors that sway in the fan while the loud helicopter noise fills the room.

There are yellow, orange and pink fishnets strung from the ceiling. Williams said they represent positive feelings. But when paired with the helicopter noise playing in the background and the dark lighting that mutes the bright colors, the feeling she said she hopes to evoke is anxiety.

“There was a lot going into this, but I was trying to get across this feeling of when you go to a party, through the overstimulation,” she said. “All these bright colors and lights become physical and noise. There is this point where this celebration can become a little more anxious rather than celebratory.”

Williams hopes the exhibit gives a variety of emotions and interpretations.

“As artists we are sort of trying to direct what people are thinking about,” she said. “Once people are given answers it closes off everything, so I’m directing you in those places, but I want your own interpretation.”

Two more fall exhibits will be showcased in the gallery this semester.

Williams’ exhibit is on display in the Centre Gallery until Friday. The gallery is in the Marshall Student Center Room 2700 and is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.