I am working towards my Master of Fine Arts at Hunter College in New York where I have been awarded the Graduate Academic Fellowship for the duration of the program. I joined this program in 2009 after completing my bachelors of fine arts in Digital Art at the University of Oregon in 2007. I also am an adjunct professor for the Film and Media department teaching new media theory. In addition, I work Dartmouth-based social values game lab, Tiltfactor. I use a wide variety of mediums and techniques in my projects, including, computing and programming, performance, animation and illustration. My work has recently been screened at Pace University in New York, Art Basel Miami, The University of Southern California, and Tractor Gallery in Portland, Oregon

As an artist, a researcher, and an educator, I make a conscious effort to balance a practical understanding of forms of new media with a broader attempt to understand the social and individual change that occurs as we become increasingly connected to and through technology. As a researcher, I focus on examining the effects of quantification and networked spaces on our self-perception and ways of thinking. As an artist, I try to leverage my experience in digital and interactive technologies in a way that pulls from my public-interventionist background. My goal is to produces work that highlights the relationships between the individual and new technology and challenges the disproportionate control of these forms of interaction. As an educator, my goal is to inform my students of emerging and significant aspects of new media culture and provide them with the tools and confidence to engage these spaces as active creators rather than as passive consumers. I make an effort to engage the public through digital technology in a way that not only encourages participation, but relays ideas that facilitate active and informed use of new media and new technology. I live and work in Brooklyn. I used to be online all the time, but I’m spending more time on my bike these days.

Intent

Moderation is in decline, and as it diminishes, our desires are manipulated. These desires are intimately linked to people who do not physically exist beyond the surface of their pictures. Within these pictures, they transcend their humanity and permanently install themselves in our minds. They are the new gods. Our streets, screens and pages are their altars. My goal is to analyze this new mythology and evaluate the images that support it. I am entertained and disturbed by our addiction to these surfaces and the relevance we continually find within them. The stories that emerge from the portrayal of these synthetic individuals fuel my work and allow me to question the synthesis of my own identity. I don’t reject the validity of popular culture, but I am not resigned to passive acceptance. I keep watching to see what happens next, waiting for opportunities to respond to, transform, and re-transmit the messages we are receiving.