Tabor Academy’s 2015 graduates were a creative group – a fact that is reflected in the variety of this year’s senior projects.

Twenty-six students were part of the optional program that allows seniors to spend much of their final semester on an independent study of their choosing.

In the past, the projects have ranged from building a boat to film scoring. Here are a few of this year’s projects:

Seven deadly sins
For Samantha Chan’s senior project, she combined the seven deadly sins with her fascination for makeup. The results were decided beautiful and disturbing looks at human nature.

“I’m a Christian so I’m always fascinated by the seven deadly sins,”  said Chan, a New Bedford resident.

Each week, Chan started with sketches of the particular sin, then she tried out the makeup on her own face. She then found a friend willing to sit for hours while she recreated the look on video. After editing it, something she learned to do on the fly, Chan uploaded that week’s look to her Youtube page.

“I just really liked the idea of how makeup can transform someone into whoever you want to be,” she said.

Chan said she is known as “the dancer” on campus, but wanted to do a project that would how people a different side of her.

“Nobody is characterized by only one quality,” said Chan.

Dumpster diving for art
Trash was the foundation of Sarah Noyes art installation project.

“I love working with found objects,” she said.

Noyes of Farmington, Connecticut, collected cardboard, cans, empty laundry detergent bottles and other brightly labeled garbage for her exhibit.

“I collected it from dorm recycling, dumpster diving. I kind of poached stuff off of people,” she said. “I’ve always been attracted to labels.”

From these items, elements of nature began to take shape. Aluminum cans became dandelions and cardboard boxes were turned into trees.

“It was more of an evolution than a concrete plan,” Noyes said.

The final design was displayed at the school’s art gallery.

Setting the scene

After learning to use Photoshop and program computers, David Marshall wanted to tackle a new skill with his senior project.

“I feel like I’ve been everywhere in the 2D realm. What’s one thing I couldn’t do?” he asked himself.

Animation was the answer. With only seven weeks to learn and implement the complex animation software, he knew a Pixar-level short wasn’t realistic, but he hoped to make a few short animation clips that could potentially be used as marketing elements for Tabor.

“It’s pretty mind blowing how much goes into a five-second image,” he said.

To create a moving image is one thing. To use the correct shading, shadows and textures is another.

“It was an extremely large task,” said Marshall, who hails from upstate New York. “You learn how to problem solve. The program also taught me where your technical skills meet creativity.”

Tabor Academy Metaball Introduction from David Marshall on Vimeo.

‘Seawolves Travel the World’
Poswat Ratanasiriwilai, a Bangkok native, knows something of world travel. He’s been to more than a dozen countries from here to Russia. So with his senior project, he wanted to create a virtual map and blog to share international experiences from the Tabor community.

To start, he sent a questionnaire to the entire school to find out who had been where, narrowed down the list of countries and then began interviewing people.

“Excel saved my life on this project,” said Ratanasiriwilai.

Ratanasiriwilai plotted each location using Google maps with links to blog posts on each of the 16 locations he selected – places where he, students and/or staff have visited.

As he interviewed people, he asked questions such as “How do you think it’s different from your own country? How do you mange different languages, different cultures?”

For students who came from the countries he chose, Ratanasiriwilai asked about their experiences at Tabor.

In blog posts, he included his interviews as well as his own thoughts and photos on the countries he visited.

Ratanasiriwilai hopes the project will be helpful to prospective students and those with an interest in the world.

“Tabor has given me so much for my time here. I wanted to do something that is really useful to Tabor,” he said. “I think it’s going to be great for admissions.”

Visit Ratanasiriwilai’s blog, “Seawolves Travel the World,” here or use the map below.