Sophia Alexa Ochoa
BFA | Visual Communication Design
DESIGNER BIO
Hi, there! My name is Sophia Alexa Ochoa, I am a BFA candidate in Design with a concentration in Visual Communication Design. At my core, I am a creative who likes to ignite the imagination within myself and others. My practice stems from my belief that design is the expression of how individuals interact with the world and the wonderful ways that it could be. As an avid consumer of stories, I always strive to lay lived experiences and collective history as the foundation of my work. As an international student, it is essential for me to make the most of the opportunities I have now, while remembering my roots and the efforts outside of myself that brought me here. If you don’t find me glued to my computer, you can most likely find me reading, playing tennis or wall climbing, or simply existing with my mug filled with tea.
PROJECT STATEMENT
Among its many roles, design has the power to hold memory. So what narrative of history does it tell now?
“Awitin Mo Na, Sinta Ko” (Sing It Now, My Dear) is a designed music campaign to highlight twelve prominent protest songs from the Martial Law period. In the midst of historical rewriting, AMNSK hopes to resurface once again a narrative of human resilience and the fight for democracy. It spans from the growing tension before the declaration of Martial Law to the EDSA Revolution of 1986. Each of these songs derives from varying musicians, genres, and lyric themes to illustrate the Filipinos’ true sentiments. From cassette recordings to Instagram reels, the campaign recontextualizes resistance in this contemporary landscape. It is an opening for people to learn more about the unwavering Filipino resilience, and an invitation to remember the necessity of art for social change. The campaign materializes itself into two main forms: the physical and the digital media presence.
The physical is an interactive exhibition that showcases the music as individual vinyl record sleeves along with media players for audiences to have an intimate listening experience with each song. Each of the twelve songs is positioned into a timeline to express the overarching narrative of Filipino resistance. The timeline of protest music leads to a karaoke setup with Tagalog and English lyric videos of the trifecta of songs that emerged from the EDSA Revolution of 1986: Bayan Ko (My Country), Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo (The Gift of the Filipinos to the World), and Magkaisa (Unite). The digital media presence is an Instagram page that contains the sound bites of each protest song along with an animated graphic and information in the caption.
