Making an Impact through Media and Storytelling
Fourth year student Tiffany Huang describes how the UBC Bachelor of Media Studies fostered her academic and professional journey as a “multimedia storyteller” through the program’s unique combination of academic teaching, hands-on experience, and exposure to innovative tools and technologies – giving her the confidence to pursue creative media industries and projects.
BMS Allowed for An Ability to Pursue All Interests
Ever since Tiffany was young, she had a passion for art, film, music, history and storytelling. Among these media, Tiffany frequently found herself writing historical and fantasy stories, and she completed her first novel manuscript in 2016. Nevertheless, she looked for ways to combine all of her distinct interests into a practical skill set.
Tiffany’s first novel manuscript
What the Water Gave Me is a short story that Tiffany wrote in her senior year of high school. As part of the project, Tiffany created a fictional book cover to go along with her writing.
When Tiffany heard about the UBC Bachelor of Media Studies program in high school, she was immediately drawn to its emphasis on multidisciplinary learning. The BMS program was a practical segue to study all her interests, allowing her to study 8 different fields of media in small cohort-based classes and acquire within each of them, theoretical knowledge and practical skills.
Blend of Practice and Scholarly Research
Tiffany enjoyed the courses she took through the Bachelor of Media Studies program, as they introduced her to a wide variety of subjects in the field and provided hands-on learning experiences.
In Introduction to Film and Media Production, Tiffany found the lectures helpful as they were designed to combine theories of film studies with practical skills in lighting, sounds, and video-editing for media production. The course allowed her to work both independently and as a group, an experience which strengthened her teamwork, project management and communication skills.
Tiffany is especially proud to have produced a suspenseful short film called “Sweet Dreams,” which features the story of Caden, a young man who longs for a solution to his challenges with having selective mutism. For the first time, Tiffany had the opportunity to take on the roles of scriptwriter, script supervisor, producer, and actress, as well as deliver a story which is inspired by a combination of her own world view and imagination.
Sweet Dreams (2018) follows the story of Caden, a young man who longs for a solution to his challenges with having selective mutism. What appears to be a temporary coping mechanism, however, turns out to be disastrous for his entire community.
Tiffany also enjoyed taking courses in Art History, which eventually led her to declare a minor in it. In ARTH 480 Visual and Digital Media Theory, she composed a paper that analyzes Cindy Sherman’s fashion photographs in relation to Donna J. Haraway’s concept of the Woman as Cyborg. Specifically, Tiffany argues that the Woman as Cyborg should be used as a theoretical frame of reference when connecting the artist’s self-portraits to feminist politics and to the idea of the simulacrum, a visual representation of a person or an object through a medium.
Tiffany’s Paper from ARTH 480: Tiffany’s paper titled “Analyzing Cindy Sherman’s 1984 Fashion Photographs with Donna J. Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto” Having written extensively on Sherman’s oeuvre throughout her undergraduate degree, this paper largely represents a culmination of all of Tiffany’s research on the artist in the past couple of years.
“Just Go for It, and Try Everything”
In her third year of the BMS program, Tiffany participated in the UBC Go Global Exchange Program and spent a semester at University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Studying abroad, Tiffany enrolled in a wide variety of courses that allowed her to gain a new perspective of media and an ability to think flexibly and creatively. She now also has friends from around the world!
Tiffany inside Linlithgow Palace– one of her favourite places in Scotland!
In addition to studying abroad, Tiffany further broadened her horizons through multiple extracurricular endeavors that complemented her studies.
In 2020, three of her classical piano compositions were featured in the inaugural issue of UBC’s Beacon: Journal of Media Studies. The songs “Out of the Ordinary,” “Flowers and Candles” and “Bouquet of Light” convey her own emotions, experiences, and stories in a series of sophisticated melisma. Music is one of many forms of media that allows Tiffany to express herself and tell a story, and publishing her works through Beacon was a meaningful experience for her as a multimedia storyteller.
Recently, Tiffany also participated in the 17th Annual Art History Symposium, authoring and presenting a paper titled “Shifting Conceptions of Public Spectatorship and 1970s Feminist Politics in Mary Miss’s Perimeters/Pavilions/Decoy.” Her paper will be published in full this month on the website of Undergraduate Journal of Art History and Visual Culture (UJAH).
Album covers to Bouquet of Light, Tiffany’s series of classical piano compositions, as published in Beacon
Tiffany is currently working with the Arts Co-op program as a Marketing and Business Development Assistant. The classroom knowledge she had acquired through courses in Media Studies helped her develop practical and technical skills relevant for her job, such as social media marketing and video editing. The BMS program exposed her to tools and technologies favourable for a creative job and helped her to feel more confident in her current role.
The ability and opportunity to also pursue diverse experiential learning experiences as a BMS student allowed her to gain confidence as well as a growth mindset, which encourages her to continuously pursue endeavours that she is passionate about.
Graduating in May 2021, she feels well-equipped to be involved in artistically creative careers and continuing to tell multimedia stories to make an impact.
“Keep an open mind and don’t be afraid to explore the unfamiliar! The interdisciplinary and experiential learning opportunities that BMS provides has inspired me to pursue my creative goals in ways that I had never considered before, and for that I am so grateful.” – Tiffany Huang
To view more of Tiffany’s work, please visit her website and YouTube channel:
