About
Artist Statement
I am an interdisciplinary artist exploring questions of embodiment, cognition, and identity through installation, performance, and interactive artwork. My approach is to identify key social structures, cultural narratives, and material realities as sites of engagement, developing them into projects that value experiential complexity over pointed, didactic statement. Past efforts have taken the form of an interactive simulation of a grandmother with Alzheimer’s disease, a suite of works exploring the fantasy of an imaginary daughter, and a bonding performance with a rifle.
In my current work, I seek to understand how our sense of self is changing with the rapid evolution of computing and media technologies. I explore the application of computer vision, language processing, and data-mining techniques to these questions—considering information processing as an approach to self-knowledge and data visualization as a mode of self-representation. Given the numerous and varied material traces we accrue in a digital world, what opportunities do new technologies afford us to understand our social connectedness, cognitive processes, and personal narratives?
As an engineer and former neuroimaging researcher, I am intimately familiar with scientific and engineering methodologies but I approach interdisciplinary work from the critical perspective of an artist—interested in particular technologies’ impact on our evolving culture, and in how technologies can be used to create new forms of expression, communication, or meaning. Ultimately, the questions of who we are and how we see ourselves are best addressed through work that integrates traditional and new forms of expression—what we call art and what we call engineering—in projects that are technically innovative while critically engaged with material and cultural traditions.
I hold an MFA from the University of California, San Diego, and a BS from Yale University with majors in Biomedical Engineering (medical imaging concentration) and Art (painting concentration). I have shown work at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts, and the Oceanside Museum of Art, and recently presented my paper “Not Me: Collaboration and Co-production with Language Processing Systems” at the Digital Arts and Culture Conference (DAC 2009) in Irvine, California. Currently I am an adjunct professor in the Visual Arts Department at UCSD, and a researcher with the Experimental Game Lab and Center for Research in Computing and the Arts.
EDUCATION
2007 Master of Fine Arts, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
2001 Bachelor of Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT. Majors in Art and Biomedical Engineering.
EXHIBITIONS
2010 (tba) Compact Space, Los Angeles, CA.
2009 Social Climbing, Luis De Jesus Seminal Projects, San Diego, CA.
2009 Heavy Weight, The Body Firm, Pasadena, CA.
2009 Natural Language, Four Walls Gallery, San Diego, CA.
2009 World Picture Machine, Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA.
2008 Natural Love, Sixteen:One Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
2008 Inside the Wave: Six San Diego / Tijuana Artists Construct Social Art (w. Particle Group), San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA.
2008 COCKED! The Possessed Male: Object of Desire, Luis De Jesus Seminal Projects, San Diego, CA.
2007 Seven Segment Display, MFA Thesis Show, Gallery@CalIT2 (California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technologies), La Jolla, CA. (catalog)
2007 Compass 2007: New Art from the University of California’s MFA Programs, Sweeney Art Gallery and California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA. (catalog)
2007 MFA07 @ The Egyptian, University Art Gallery, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA. (catalogue)
2007 Smash and Tickle, Sixteen:One Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
2007 Origin is the Goal, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA.
2006 Where, Sun Down Salon, Los Angeles, CA.
2006 Father-Daughter Art Show, Marcuse Gallery, San Diego, CA.
2006 How Stuff Is Made (w. xDesign Lab), International Society of Electronic Arts 2006, San Jose, CA.
2005 Community Built Display module for SpecFlic 1.0, CalIT2, La Jolla, CA.
2005 Fresh, New Art from the University of California, Sa Diego, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA.
2005 AxS: At the Intersection of Art and Technology (w. xDesign Lab), Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA. (dvd catalog, interview)
2005 Que Traes, Estacion Tijuana, Tijuana, BC, Mexico.
2005 Feral Robotic Dogs (w. XDesign Labs) at O’Reilly E-Tech Conference, San Diego, CA. 2005 Outer Space, Sixth College, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
2001 Senior Show, Yale School of Art Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
1999 Art Class, Salon Q, Tucson, AZ.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2010 Jennifer Li, “A Show of Their Own”, venuszine.com, February 17, 2010.
2007 Stephen Hepworth, “MFA07 @ The Egyptian”, Exhibition Catalog.
2007 Tyler Stallings and Ciara Ennis, “Compass 2007”, Exhibition Catalog.
2005 “AxS: At the Intersection of Art and Science”, DVD Catalog. (artist interview)
1999 “Art Class”, Tucson Weekly, June 24, 1999.
RESEARCH POSITIONS
2007-2009 Center for Research in Computing and the Arts, Experimental Game Lab, under Sheldon Brown.
2004-2006 Experimental Design Lab, New York, NY under Natalie Jermeijenko.
2002-2004 Center for the Study of Learning, Georgetown University, Washington, DC under Guinevere Eden.
TALKS & PAPERS
2009 “Not Me: Collaboration and Co-production with Language Processing Systems”, Digital Arts and Culture (DAC) conference, 2009, Irvine, CA. (pending)
2007 “Procedural Subjectivity”, invited talk, TreeHouse New Media Lounge, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
AWARDS, GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
2007 Humanities Center Grant, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
2006 Russel Grant, Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
2005 First Year Artist Prize, awarded by Osvaldo Sanchez (curator of inSite 2005), Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
2004 Artist Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT.
2001 Artist Residency, Chautauqua Institute, Chautauqua, NY.
1999 Grant Recipient, Sudler Fund for the Creative and Performing Arts, Yale University, New Haven, CT.