2026 Senior Exhibition Artists 2026 Senior Exhibition Artists: Kage Thompson

About Kage Thompson 

Kage Thompson is a graphic designer and illustrator from New Bedford MA. They often spend their time exploring topics relating to connections and complex experiences. These ideas come from their fascination on how human psychology can play a role in how one's mind can interact and affect the world's people around them. Kage has an interest in experimental and industrial designs that reflect the atmosphere of a particular work. This comes across in their work with a consistent and distinctive visual language: bold compositions, high contrast, with loud visual presence. Kage wants the world to pay attention.

Statement

RE//CORD” is a self-directed project that fulfills not only my desire to create an experimental editorial publication but also lets me dive into my passion for Gen Z media culture. What started this project was the visceral reaction I had using my phone. Open it and it's the same loop: AI slop, ads, shallow content, scroll, repeat. Digital fatigue had gotten so bad I finally got angry. Around the same time, something started trending. Different ways to get offline, most of them returning to analog devices, specifically for Gen Z. Your phone camera became a disposable camera, the notes app became a journal, and the number of modded gaming handhelds was booming. I was upset that my generation was being commodified. The trends lost the point, I mean, is it not weird to go online to watch videos about how to stay offline? The core idea of these trends was to expose people to ways to alleviate digital fatigue, but they turned Gen Z media culture into something consumerism could latch onto. Now we have people going out and buying the latest and greatest Gen Z media culture artifacts, and honestly, barely using them.

“Re//cord” At its core is built around one idea of accidental discovery. Finding something without being driven by an algorithm, without content curated to match a single genre. It is that kind of discovery when you stumble onto something unexpected and is vital to how we actually learn what we love, what we hate, and who we are. It's something Gen Z grew up on and quietly lost. The publication blends editorial and art direction and captures to highlight different avenues of nostalgic media culture in the 2000s.

Re//cord will be for the people who truly lived through Generation Z, which was a source of passion and excitement for the future. The ones who lived through the clunky switch from an analog world with an MP3 player with no screen and wacky toys that plugged into your pc.

Email: Kage.Eli.09@gmail.com