Student spotlight: Experimental artist Elijah Panzarella explores social media, the fourth dimension in his work

Communication major sophomore Elijah Panzarella creates art like the image pictured above, titled "collective experience." Collective experience or collective memory is a fundamental part of Panzarella's Drip Theory concept. This piece of art and ma…

Communication major sophomore Elijah Panzarella creates art like the image pictured above, titled "collective experience." Collective experience or collective memory is a fundamental part of Panzarella's Drip Theory concept. This piece of art and many more can be found on his project Instagram @misspellingwords. (Courtesy of Elijah Panzarella.)

New living conditions of 2020 have affected nearly all artists’ creativity in one way or another, but communication major sophomore Elijah Panzarella has begun to thrive in isolation. 

Panzarella has always been an artistic person but has never devoted energy into the creation of art. Perhaps it was the isolation that made him focus on social media, the stage upon which he has begun to realize his full potential.

“I ended up surprising myself. I have a really rapid workflow and, with the way the Instagram algorithm works now, [Instagram] rewards content creators who make shit really quickly,” Panzarella said. “I’m like, ‘why not emulate the concept of Instagram influencer but be a normal person while I’m doing it. Show people I’m learning [as I’m] going along.’”

Panzarella’s project, @misspellingwords on Instagram, was inspired by personal identity dynamics that have taken root on Instagram. “Finstas”- fake Instagram accounts - and “Rinstas” - real Instagram accounts - are the focus of Panzarella’s project. His hope is that @misspellingwords blurs the lines between what someone might post on a Finsta, which includes creative or private thought, and what someone might post on a Rinsta, which is often used to portray a person’s professional and socially acceptable image. 

“I think that Finsta culture is super interesting and unexplored in concept,” Panzarella said. “You just have some friends and some random people that you tell everything to [on a Finsta], and you have some people that you present a sterile, okay-for-grandma image to [on a Rinsta]. A big thing is I’m trying to de-extricate people’s whole sense of self from being on their phone. [Because of this project,] I’ve had people checking up on me who haven’t talked to me in four years. Like, I’m just being productive for the first time in my life.”

Panzarella’s creative journey has not been without struggles. Music production helped him find his space and confidence before he felt comfortable creating other forms of art. 

“It’s more about getting creativity in any facet flowing. It’s about nurturing a mindset and nurturing a mental space,” Panzarella said. “I’m a naturally really nervous, kind of paranoid person, but I’ve finally been able to create a space in my dorm where I feel like I can actually be productive and be a little confident in what I’m doing. I love that it seems like people have been liking it.”

Though he enjoys the creation of art for its own sake, Panzarella also strives to benefit others through his work.

“I have a lot of family members with various mental illnesses...it’s something I’ve been surrounded with my whole life,” Panzarella said. “There’s universal colors, shapes and sounds that calm people and make them feel better. I think art therapy and psychotherapy as a field is so woefully behind from what people need right now. I’d love to be the one to help out anyone that I can.”

In this vein, Panzarella has begun attempting to articulate a concept that he has titled “Drip Theory.” Drip Theory stems from Panzarella’s analysis of smartphones and social media. With this theory, Panzarella suggests that the product of our smartphones is a hive-mind consciousness. He attributes a kind of collective memory to this consciousness, which Panzarella identifies as the fourth dimension. He is currently exploring the resonance between light waves and sound waves.

“There’s little textural pockets that get created between sound files, light rays and sound rays,” Panzarella said. “Certain colors make you feel a type of way. Certain colors affect your cornea. Red will draw focus to it. Green is a base color. It lets [the cornea] kind of relax. Yellow draws light in.”

Panzarella asks others to reach out to him if anyone has ideas about Drip Theory or would be interested in conversing with him about it. He would also like to encourage quiet art kids—particularly those who, like him, deal with paranoia and anxiety—to push their boundaries for the sake of creation.

“People will not make fun of you for dressing well and posting it on Instagram. People will not make fun of you for trying to make music,” Panzarella said. “Don’t let any of the university’s formats, like Canvas or UPD rolling around looking at you seven times a day, bug you out. Stay safe. That’s really all I have to say.”