Author

Orion Martins

Date of Award

1-1-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Tabatabaie, Ashkan

Area of Concentration

Music

Abstract

To collaborate is to share meaning together, which is already to collaborate; sharing of meaning defi nes language. This co-emergence of collaboration and language happens through interplay between the known and the unknown—what we expect and what surprises us—held open by trust, which is not a precondition but a leap into uncertainty that allows transformation to emerge. Through three collaborative projects—Palm Bike Court Girl, Unruly Subjects, and Eat My Love—I investigate how this dynamic unfolds in artistic practice, documentary witness, and romantic devotion. Understanding collaboration as the ground of meaning-making matters because learning to hold the tension between known and unknown—to trust the leap—is how we stay present, build just communities, and collaborate across differences in an increasingly complex world.

Share

COinS