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Bio

Thaís Alvarenga Medina is a Honduran interactive media artist and narrative designer pursuing her bachelor’s degree at New York University Abu Dhabi. She has taken courses in the Interactive Media Program at NYUAD and the Tisch School of Arts at NYU including the graduate Integrated Telecommunications Program (ITP).

Thaís is interested in storytelling through audio-visual mediums including video games, animation, video editing and VR. Her works touch on themes of mental health, grief, indigenous rights and conflict resolution. She worked as one of the art designers in the 2-player video game Mad Socks, which was nominated for Best Art Design in the 2021 Global Game Jam hosted by the NYU Game Center.

Thaís collaborated on The Road To Acceptance, a VR experience created in Unity that explores the stages of grief. She served as the main narrative and environmental designer, 3D artist and lobby programmer. The Road To Acceptance was exhibited in the 2021 Interactive Media Showcase at NYUAD.

Trained in both Harmony and Storyboard Pro, Thaís creates hand-drawn 2D animations. In 2022, her project Providencia was awarded the Film and New Media Summer Grant from NYUAD. Providencia is a 10-minute animation inspired by the struggle of the Lenca people in Honduras to preserve their sacred rivers. The film will be screened at the 2022 Film and New Media Summer Film Festival at NYUAD. She is currently based between Abu Dhabi and Honduras.

Artist Statement

I grew up listening to stories. Since I was a child I felt like a thousand universes existed in my mind. I come from a community that still believes in folktales and the wisdom passed down through them. I grew up listening to my dad’s voice as he narrated fables such as The Milk Maid, The Eagle and the Fox, and The Boy Who Ate Beans.

As I grew up I started to expand the narratives I listened to. My mom told me Honduran legends about La Sucia, The Elf That Stole Children and El Cadejo. They were darker and more mature compared to my childhood fairy tales, but regardless of what story I was reading, watching or listening, my parents would always ask me what the “moraleja” or teaching of the story was. Moraleja is a word in Spanish that means teaching or moral lesson. It is the philosophy that a story wants to tell the audience; the viewpoint that narrative has of the world. Even to this day, whenever I engage with an experience I ask myself: what was the moraleja? What can I take from the stories around me?

The stories I consume shaped who I am. And nowadays more than ever we have a surplus of stories accessible to us, so what can we learn from those stories? How can we make narratives that are significant to others through the new technologies that are emerging? How can we use them to prompt people to reflect on the human experience? These questions are the ones that have inspired my work throughout the years Technology has allowed me to express storytelling through different mediums that primarily use sound and image to create worlds that mirror our own and question how the individual can cope with the difficulties that living in a society brings. I am inspired by works such as Celeste by Maddy Thorson, Over the Garden Wall by Patrick McHale and artists such as Conrad Roset, Robh Ruppel, Sang-Jin Bae and Satoru Takizawa.

My life and that of people around me have recurrently undergone grief, loss, a fight to live in dignity and the mental struggles that come with all of these themes. I have suffered and I have seen others undergo the same. Those life experiences have taught me things so how can I use that knowledge and teach them to others so that they can reflect on how they approach the world we live in? That is why I tell stories. I use fantasy to create safe spaces that allow people to engage with complex topics. I hope that through my stories others can take away something that will make their life just a bit better.