Wind, paper, projection, data, fabric, time, temperature, knobs, cameras, networks, antennae, plastic (too much plastic), circuits, sensors, noise, waves, and pixels are the source materials of my work. Through these, I create time-based, electronic art with an emphasis on the integration of sound and visuals. Affected by synesthesia as a child, I have always been fascinated by the interplay of touch, light, and sound. Much of my early film and video work was an attempt to recapture these experiences from childhood. My work continues to evolve and includes examples of Live Cinema, projection mapping, interactive video installation, animation, and data-visualized generative art.
The new-ness of New Media Art is of less interest to me than exploiting technology to shape symbolic representations and experiences. Stories underly much of my work, though rarely in the form of a traditional linear narrative. I work to instigate a dialogue with my audience - to reveal these underlying narratives and allow the audience to create their own interpretations, furthering conversations, ideas, and experience.
A formal training in the visual arts provides the underpinning of my approach to sonic composition, remapping Kandinsky's studies back onto sound. Using computer programming, physical control, and sensor information I create generative, iterative, and interactive components to produce the sonic material through which the conceptual nature of my artwork is served. Sound becomes the articulator of my visual ideas - a synesthesia. Similarly, a majority of my visual work is created to support these music compositions - the goal being to create a symbiotic relationship between the aural and visual elements of a piece.
This audiovisual work culminates into the development of custom software capable of live, real-time performances of audio and video synthesis. When compiled into a narrative format this work is often enveloped by an ironic overtone, resulting from an investigation of sociological peculiarities, and derived from my personal philosophies. Examples of this work, termed Live Cinema, have explored topics of Internet dating services, pharmaceutical commercials, NASCAR, and brand/product placement - often producing vignettes of satire, realism, and narrative.
Another aspect of my work investigates the relationship between environmental issues and new technology - specifically, the cultural integration of new technology and the increasing desire for technology to solve the culminating problems of overpopulation, pollution, and climate change. This artwork attempts to reveal contemporary ecological philosophy, instigate conversations about energy use, and create new eco-technological mythologies. Through hacking solar powered LED lawn lamps, authoring data visualization software, and dreaming of ways to carbon neutrally power my plethora of electronic gadgets, I am developing a fluency of ecological technologies. These issues challenge and inform my work - a work to decipher and relate environmental data, to question the uses of new technologies, and to inspire the use of alternative, green energy sources.
Masters of Fine Art Thesis 2007