InCenDiaRies The word “incendiary” tends to have a negative connotation. According to Google, “incendiary” means “tending to stir up conflict,” meaning something—or someone— is seen as controversial or provocative. However, the word “incendiary” can extend far beyond those negative labels. An “incendiary” can be exciting. They possess a unique energy captivating and inspiring those around them. Young creatives Jason Johnson ( JJ) and Alexander Hoefer (AH) both exhibit “incendiary”- like qualities as they pursue their creative and career passions. Sitting down with both University of Georgia students, we talked about self-expression, inspiration, and how they are (or will be) “incendiaries” in those pursuits. SW: What’s your major and classification? JJ: I’m a 3rd year with a Cognitive Science major. AH: I’m a Senior, double majoring in Entertainment & Media Studies and English. SW: Are you involved in any other creative pursuits besides modeling? JJ: Fine (creative) arts allows many of us—me included—to express ourselves in a way unlike any other. I dabble in other creative arts for the same sake and maybe the added benefit of “just cus.” (creating for the sake of creating) This ranges from creative direction, poetry, graphic design, and dance. These double as my outlets and positions I hold through the various organizations on campus. AH: My filmmaking aspirations extend beyond the fashionable and commercial. My first love has always been action movies — big and bombastic, like true Hollywood fanfare, or more subtle and artful, like espionage films. My true love, however, has to be Asian action cinema: martial arts films, like those out of Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea. It certainly has to do with my own identity as (1) a martial artist and (2) a sort of de facto immigrant, though I have always been legally American. I moved to the States at age eleven from Southeast Asia — my mother is Sabahan Malaysian, so I was born in Singapore and had lived in a couple other cities in the region — and my need to consume Asian martial arts films probably kicked in (pun intended) as a kind of longing for my other half. SW: What are your life aspirations? JJ: I aspire to serve as a model and inspiration to both those around me and those who watch/look up to me. Of course, I have my occupational, financial, and relationship (both platonic and intimate) dreams as much as the next person, but
platonic and intimate) dreams as much as the next person, but I aspire to aid others on their journeys of breaking bonds and freeing themselves from whatever box society has placed them in. Growing up, I didn’t see very many people who looked like me, nor had I witnessed many others who modeled any idealized version of myself I could formulate. It wasn’t until I started to question teachings that I started to find just breadcrumbs of who I am and could develop to be. AH: I have plenty of common aspirations — a wife, kids, for us all to be happy — and those are just as important to me as the professional/artistic. I suppose I could sum up the latter in a single statement: I want to be great. I’ll be damned if I don’t try, though I think it’ll only seem more impossible to distinguish an individual voice in today’s media cacophony. I want to put martial arts stories on the screen in ways that are often hard-hitting, and other times subtle. I want to be able to do Crouching TIger, Hidden Dragon, and then I want to do it way different. My magnum opus would be something like John Wick, if it was adapted from a Borges short story, directed by Wong Kar Wai, styled by Tom Ford, with dance/ fight choreography from Yuen Woo Ping: it would be a balletic martial arts film with pronounced romantic themes, multicultural/multilingual aesthetics, and a tilt toward the cerebral and fashionable. It would also have Michelle Yeoh in it.
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