Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, curated by Rachel Lin Weaver, produced by Cinema Reset

  032 The Year We Make Contact / video installation / 2014-2018  

  Vimeo album  

The Year We Make Contact is a video projection generated from sound – an audio recording of a psychoanalysis session between the artist and a therapist. Inspiration comes from a debate active in theoretical physics called the Information Loss Paradox, where scientists argue over whether information can truly be lost if it falls into a black hole. The work is part of a larger theme over the last several years called “Speculative Forensics”, which focuses on the discarding of information inherent to translation and transcoding. In this case, the work focuses on the varied losses of information that occur when an individual tries to access the subconscious, when they attempt to communicate to another person, when communication is recorded digitally, when a recording is transcoded into another medium, and when an audiovisual stream is subject to algorithmic decay. The forensics part of the equation asks how much information does a single pixel hold at the end of this chain of processing? Where did it all go?

Formally, the system can be considered as an idiosyncratic tool for drawing. In the custom software environment made by the artist in Max/MSP/Jitter, the audio waveform is used as a mark-making generator, and can be moved around with some degree of control within the video matrix. Once the pixels are laid down, they are then subject to forces of displacement that create subjective patterns of architecture, cosmos and geology. The ever-shifting flow of images are not shot, made or captured; they coalesce and evolve within the invented system.

Dozens of “drawings” can be created very quickly; a 5-minute video takes 5 minutes to create. Thus, the specific video content of the piece changes each time it is exhibited, though the source audio remains the same.

The specific physical configuration of the piece changes each time it is exhibited depending on spatial considerations of the venue, but typically maintains the oblique projection angle that causes the dramatic trapezoid shape. Depending on the projection surface, a “screen” made of 2-inch-thick white gaffers tape is drawn, with a black gaffers tape border around the perimeter. It may be projected on a wall in vertical orientation, or on the floor. During install, the act of playing around with the projector and space to find the right spot is an important part of the piece.


Installation view of solo exhibition "An Infinite Distance Between Two Points" at VisArts, 2016


View of group exhibition "Variable States" at Upfor Gallery, 2016, curated by Heather Lee Birdsong


"TYWMC (Gyre version)" at Creative Tech Week Arts Hub, 2016, Clemente Center


"TYWMC (Gyre version)" at Creative Tech Week Arts Hub, 2016, Clemente Center


Still from "April28_Chlorine.mov"

  Click here for "April28_Chlorine.mov" excerpt  




Still from "July20_Xeno.mov"

  Click here for "July20_Xeno.mov" excerpt  




Still from "July20_Widget.mov"

  Click here for "July20_Widget.mov" excerpt  




"Weird Science" group exhibition at Kunsthalle Galapagos, curated by Julie McKim and Daniel Kingery





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