Most artists have what they call an “artist statement” but my work is so vast and collaborative I am going to frame it this way:
My art investigates many themes, ideas and methods. A lot of my work, especially anything research or application oriented, is collaborative and participatory, however I also work on solo pieces. Whether working on a community project or my own individual work, I often use collage, juxtaposition, metaphor, and text to create compositions that reveal serendipitous events about language’s systematic relationships. I also enjoy exploring the notions of telepresence, collective intelligence and participation on micro and macro scales. I work mostly with digital media spanning video, web-art, animation, sound, digital imaging, and interaction design. I try very hard to make art that is both fun and informative for the viewer/audience/participant. Art must have an audience, because I do believe that art can teach something, create bridges between communities, and bring joy.
I have taught art, story-telling, web design, game design, drama, documentary production, and English to students in the United States and in Hong Kong. My most recent challenges as a teacher have been focused around the research I do on the SMALLab. Since 2006, I have been working on multimedia projects with students of all ages and most recently high school students. These students have learned how to utilize a mixed-reality space for creative expression. Their movements, drawings, and vocalizations are incorporated into their designs. I believe that students of art today must have a mutlimodal literacy that can be applied to their designs and compositions.
Art students are problem solvers. Having the knowledge of electricity, science, visual design, form, sound, and mechanics empowers students to create art that pushes the boundaries of how technological systems are used. Working across media and disciplines results in new forms of performance, fashion, costumes, writings, visual poetry, serendipitous interactions, joy, pleasure, kinetics, collaboration and discourse. Prolific writers of media and culture such as Henry Jenkins and Jim Gee argue the importance of participatory, interdisciplinary creative praxis. Art students have the power to be the leaders of this culture, and that is why teaching across the boundaries of art, games, interaction and technology is so exciting to me.
Design… You think I am that foolish to say I can do three things? Ha. I am still learning this one. Design has been an important part of my research because so much of my work is interactive and focuses on a particular audience: high school students of language and literature. Playtesting, especially when creating games or anything interactive, is an important part of design. Learning how to motivate and communicate to a user of an interactive scenario or game is challenging. There must be feedback, both sonic and visual, and the interactions must communicate what to do next. The designer(s)’ connection with the audience is paramount and this connection won’t happen without playtesting. The design work I have done in SMALLab has been mostly collaborative with curriculum specialists and teachers from the local high school that houses the lab. Working together in this participatory process is especially rewarding and effective. I love working in teams and seeing through the beginning and ends of a project and then reflecting back on the process. Participatory Design is in fact an entire field and method of work. But what about art? Can art be tested? Does art have users? These are all questions I continue to explore when disciplines cross boundaries and test their purpose.