Marc Pagan’s video project “Scenes from the Tempest” offers a thoughtful — and beautiful — interpretation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. By limiting himself to visual rather than textual cues, he is able to explore how visual symbols can tell a story effectively. These symbols include the horse mask worn by Caliban: the horse-face retains Shakespeare’s association between Caliban and the natural or bestial world, but by using a mass-produced rubber mask, Pagan shows how this association has been manufactured by humans and obscures his true face. Additionally, a water-logged iPhone becomes a symbol of Caliban’s power to give Miranda access to information, while a set of earbuds symbolizes the language that Miranda gives to Caliban. Read Pagan’s reflection here.

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