This talk explores how photography has historically reinforced systems of authority, ownership, and social power while examining how contemporary artist Sophia Giovannitti challenges these structures through conceptual artworks involving contracts, opacity, and participation. It argues that embracing discomfort can help audiences critically rethink artistic labor, representation, and visual culture.

This oral history research explores silence as a meaningful form of communication rather than an absence of speech. Through documentary interviews with family members, the project examines how silence can express fear, shame, power, and agency, challenging dominant assumptions about listening and revealing how discomfort often prevents deeper understanding and connection.