Crashing*star
This section will consist of various artwork and projects I have done over the years, for classes or personal enjoyment. Most of it is computer based, but there are a few pieces done in more "traditonal" media that I have to put up, once I get the photos of them back.
Here are a few for now:
Autobiography: A Brief History of Technology
This project is just what the title implies, it is part autobiography and part retelling the history of computing through the 80s, 90s, and current decade.
Explores the relationship between tangible locations, virtual representations of locations, and the grey matter in between. This can also be looked at as a personal photojournal of some of my travels.
This project revolves around the idea of identity on the internet. I worked with a group of people, each of us assuming different personas that we had stolen from people (or in one of my cases, a bot). After finding and assuming each of our identites from unsuspecting people on the internet, we met in person and acted out a "chatroom" in a real space, keeping in character with our identities. We dressed up like how our characters would be thought of or portrayed through the way they type, and we restricted ourselves to writing on a sheet of paper only; no talking. In this way we were able to explore the way typing can convey personality traits (true or not) about a person, and we were able to explore the different stereotypes found out on the net. The link above to the project only includes my introductory work; the group photos and documentation rest only with a fellow group member and the archives of the visual art/icam department.
A Life Composed of Everyday Occurences
The idea behind this project was originally inspired by a chapter in a book, Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman. The majority of the book deals with theories of time and with exploring the way time is percieved in the world. The chapter I was inspired by focused on the idea of a world with no time, but only images, such as a string of memories or a string of images that might have representations of time hidden within them. From this, I came up with the idea of doing a project where I would explore the representation of time through everday objects or occurences that are usually just accepted as given outcomes or as part of life.
This project revolves around the idea of transferring a physical space into a navigational space in the virtual world. Unfortunately there was a fire at my parents’ house, so parts of my old room burned down, and much of the house was smoke damaged. Following the incident, every possession in the house had to be itemized, so everything was cleaned out and boxed up. Over Thanksgiving weekend I went back and took photos of the damage and of the eerie armies of boxes that filled the rooms. From these photographs I created an interactive representation of the space online. The user is transported first to a map of my old house. After choosing which room to begin in, they are taken to a first person view of the interior of the house. The user is left to explore the remnants of the house, depending on where the mouse is clicked in each image. Most of the project is focused on exploration and user behavior in an unfamiliar space. There are only three ways out (back to the map) once the user enters the house, and no help is given, so the user must continue to explore and find their way around the house through trial and error. This project also serves as a virtual storage space for memories, for the house is to be completely renovated, and it will be hard to remember what it was like seeing it barren and walking down a hallway black with smoke and soot.