Projects involving Social Practice & Social Production. Social engagement & public activity works that empower participants to explore & express identity.
From the structure of Wikipedia to the chaos of 4chan, much of contemporary culture is Crowdsourced or User Generated Content (UGC) or Social Production.
Above the men’s room urinals in the Long Beach State University, Student Union are 2 chalkboards that usually feature some spontaneous opinion, vernacular expression, or drawing. This semester I am photographing these chalkboards after my Monday & Wednesday office hours.
Donald Trump’s Star on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame” is a touchstone. If you stand there for a few minutes you will see one person express deep contempt for our 45th president, and 21 seconds later another will express love. This signifier is as close as most people can get to expressing themselves to the 45th president. In a series of 52 weekly photography visits, I document the state of the star and whatever people happen to be doing there that day.
For my portion of Philosophy in the Bedroom with Sheree Rose, Rhiannon Aarons and Martin O’Brien, I brought 4,000, 1-inch-diameter, orange, cheese balls and performed a monologue about the perils of green food.
With Instagram, perhaps there are no roads less traveled. And if we’re on well-travelled roads, do we really need to take the same pictures over and over?
Runaway University Los Angeles (RULA) is an alternative, unaccredited, international university operated out of my home. RULA has been a laboratory for understanding that a different college experience is possible. A bottom-up college experience where motivated students pursue knowledge, instead of a top-down experience where faculty preach to lethargic supplicants.
Medici University is an alternative university for avatars. We grant (unaccredited) MFA degrees and other certificates. MU’s VR campus includes 100 studio spaces on 6.5 hectares of virtual land. The MU experience allows self-driven learners to pursue projects of their own design.
I produced a new media / mixed reality performance evening Mixed Reality Cabaret at Long Beach State University’s University Theatre. The evening featured new documentary, music, and performance works in the University Theatre and in the virtual world Second Life.
