Breaking Social Norms - Artist Statement

The idea behind Breaking Social Norms came up one day while at lunch with a group of friends. We started talking about ways society does the same things redundantly. We conversed about how we should create a video on doing those things backwards; however, the idea never took fruit and was pushed aside. It wasn’t until this year when I decided to act on that idea. I knew that I had many good ideas and examples but others had better, so I started asking person after person to think of social norms and ways they could be broken. Even after gathering these good ideas Breaking Social Norms would have never made it off the ground without the help of Stephen Nzishura. He brought new ideas and excitement to the project. He also brought talent for the cameras that I had never used before, and he also took the editing up on his shoulders and made magic out of my shaky camera work.

We shot over seventeen social norms for this video, but only five made the cut. These five we feel are important because society views them as if there is only one way they could be done. Our goal with Breaking Social Norms is to poke fun at society, but more importantly we want to show that there is nothing wrong with being different. God made us unique so why should we let society tell us how to do something?