all that remains

A large, painting-like rectangular structure extends 5 feet high by 12 feet across on the wall. It is created using several hundred snapshot format photos (4"X6") of what appears to be images of stars set against the black of the night sky. The images are in fact generated by a computer script: randomly placed, randomly sized dots with a little bit of blur on black background. The photos are attached to the wall using hundreds of dressmakers pins, at once complementing the overall image and calling attention to its artificial construction.

click to play

requiem?requiem

MySpace is notorious for its users' runaway designs. I want to blame everything that is wrong with my world on the over-sexualized, over-saturated, syrupy, preachy, cheesy, vulgar, loud, stupid clutter that I am looking at! Yet, I can not dismiss the sheer energy of what is in front of me. I am in awe of the vitality of the whole enterprise, amazed my its richness of possibilities!

"requiem?requiem" is a meditation on this visual space. It is generated from browser window captures from a variety of MySpace pages and strung together by custom software. Flickering by the viewer at speeds almost too fast for the human eye, they are set to a soundtrack which is a mixture of an ominous, slowed-down horn section and banal takes on hip hop and rock tracks.

Impressionism

Three identical books on Impressionism make up the work. The process of cutting into the books becomes a reductive collage that operates within the branded space of Impressionist painting.

click to play

zero

"zero" is based exclusively on the footage appropriated from a WWII pilot training film "Recognition of the Japanese Zero Fighter", which was originally created by US Airforce to help pilots to identify American P-40 from the Japanese Zero planes. This work is a remix of the source material that highlights and questions the visual organization of the oppositional states presented in the film.

click to play

...as if a forest

The work is "packaged" in a 10 step set of nonsensical directions generated by a fictional company. The directions explain how to create a sound experience of a forest. I begin the work with a performance in front of an audience on the first day of the show (approximately 15 min.) I read each step and perform the sounds associated with it. The vocals are recorded using a custom software sampler designed for simultaneous multi-channel playback. All the samples are looped, so audio from each step builds on the previous ones until a full forest soundscape emerges. The sounds are played back through ten speakers distributed throughout the gallery space. The speakers are attached to the hardware setup by a series of vine-like chords that complete the forest reference.

After the performance is over, the sounds continue looping for the duration of the exhibition. Video of the performance is added to complete the viewer experience of the work.

For full (17min) documentation of the performance please follow this external link

Note: This piece is often presented in performance-only mode, mixed for 2 and 4 channel sound systems.

click to play

36 views

Katsushika Hokusai's series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" is very much a part of the global art canon. The fact that there are actually 46 prints in the series is often forgotten.

"36 views" is a piece of custom software that picks a random work from a 6 by 6 matrix on the screen and swaps it out with one of the 10 "invisible" works. This process is looped. It represents an attempt to fit all 46 pieces into the 36 places allowed for them in the art world.

click to play

Departure

"Departure" is an exploration of a curious intersection of airplane passengers' and movie audience members' experiences. Both promise a journey to a viewer/passenger: a journey of the mind that involves immobilization of the body. We fasten our seat-belts waiting for the departure from the everyday.

This work is based on pre-flight videos recorded on an intercontinental commercial flight.

click to play

Surface.Tension.

The digital landscapes in "Surface.Tension." series are attemps to explore conventions of representation. Specifically, they deal with the idea of "sublime" and its relation to the landscape, which quickly developed into a formalized way of composing a canvas and a formalized way of reading a composition. I choose to view the overwhelming amount of data flowing through various digital networks (pointed to in this context by commercial advertisements) constitutes a new type of "sublime" experience. It is a dimension that is entirely human-made and it is pushing against a shell of any metaphor that we try encapsulate it in.

click to play

Top 10 Asian Brands

This performance piece explores the common perceptions of "East" and "West". I chant top 10 asian brands (as listed by www.brandingasia.com) using extended vocal techniques reminiscent of both Tibetan Buddhist practices and Tuvan throat singing. I view this performance as a chance to possibly question the binary opposition, which all too often defines our worldview.

click to play

(In)Security Camera

The (In)Security Camera is a robotic surveillance camera with advanced computer-vision software that can track, zoom, and follow subjects walking through its field of view. Deploying sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms in use today by the U.S. military and Homeland Security forces, it can assess threat levels in real time and respond accordingly.

However, the camera is, in fact, a little insecure. Easily startled by sudden movements, it is shy around strangers and tends to avoid direct eye contact. This reversal of the relationship between the surveillance system and its subjects gives the machine an element of human personality and fallibility that is by turns endearing, tragic, and slightly disturbing.