Exit Strategy is an escapist daydream. Many wish for
fulfillment or an opportunity for a do-over. Try as we might to live with
foresight and wisdom, in our personal lives, our world and our histories will
eventually be erased by a catastrophic ending for our sun. That is, unless, we
find a way to escape our reliance on this particular location in the universe. Exit
Strategy considers whether we will bring our home world with us when we hit
the road.
Statement for Coinflip:
Coinflip is a data point amidst a cloud. Individual
fate is a mix of various likelihoods. We don’t see the mountain of data that describes
our choices and behavior. We don’t know the likelihood that we will have a
child before turning 40, that we will get a melanoma, that we will be promoted
next summer. We aren’t accustomed to seeing where we fit in the pack of
diet-conscious, three hours a week exercising, married individuals that live in
the suburbs. Still, many of us are predictably drifting along towards the same
several fates together.
Curatorial Statement for Quantified Self
Ever
since humanity has reasoned about the world these faculties have also been
turned inward for self-analysis. Understanding the body, the mind, and the self
is a process of accounting driven by intense seeing. The scientific revolution,
the industrial revolution and now the information revolution have each
developed new tools that augment our senses, allowing us to turn inward with
greater depth and ease. The result is a qualitative change in our ability to
see ourselves.
The
quantified self is concerned with works that explore both the process and
meaning of measurement. How do artists collect self-information; how is it
stored and communicated to others? Alternatively, how do artists react to the
collection of personal information by other groups such as commercial or
governmental interests; is this sharing or surveillance? How is this abundance
of abstract information transformed into something sensible and meaningful?
Some examples include: DNA profiles, psychographics, systems for self-monitoring
such as sleep patterns or purchasing activity, bio-feedback, daily
recordkeeping of eating and other behaviors, and obsessive collecting of
self-defining artifacts.
Statement for Surface Images of Sattelite #3
To say whether an object is alive depends on your perspective. Our everyday perspective is full of things that are easy to label as living, but a new perspective offered by steady extension of the range of our senses present far more challenging scenarios where we must discriminate between what is animate and what is merely mechanical.
One of the greatest challenges to our perspective comes from simply adjusting the scale with which we observe the world. Close examination of the human body indicates that we are teeming with life at the micro-scale. An individual is a colony of macrophages, lipocytes, neurons and others. Each cell seems more alive than purely mechanical. After all, a cell swimming around in a lake is enough to be called an organism. Why not the same title for those swimming around your body? Or have they lost part of what makes them alive for the sake of cooperation with other cells?
As the range of our senses steadily expands we may meet new challenges to our definition of life. My piece Surface Images of Satellite #3 intends to raise such questions.
Statement for Explant
The mind is what the brain does. This is perhaps most clear when you consider the subtle and often striking changes in personality and mental ability associated with brain injury or pharmacological manipulation – physical changes to the structure or workings of an organ.
To look at the mind in physical form is an experience which can be disconcerting. It is at once grotesque and beautiful: as foreign as a creature from an ocean trench. We think of our selves as images of the body surface. Minds work with a similar currency trading signals through the shape of the face. A face can smile, laugh and sing and be loved. But faces are merely servants for their fragile masters. We are these creatures.
My project at this show, explant, is my second attempt to create art using tools and techniques from my own research. Design of this sculpture was influenced by the tools and techniques of electrode construction used to record the activity of brain cells.
original artwork, prints for purchase, commission
Original work is priced by size, medium and experience. If you are interested in purchasing an original piece, please send an email with the title of the piece.
Visit here for more information on pricing. (coming soon)
Numbered prints will be available for select pieces, in the near future. Print requests are encouraged.
I am interested in showing original work at local venues in or around Washtenaw county. Please contact me if you are interested in a particular series.
I will also take requests for commissioned work.
Visit here for more information on pricing. (coming soon)
Numbered prints will be available for select pieces, in the near future. Print requests are encouraged.
I am interested in showing original work at local venues in or around Washtenaw county. Please contact me if you are interested in a particular series.
I will also take requests for commissioned work.
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