New communicative and artistic media pose as many challenges to contemporary societies as they do opportunities. It is in the tension between the promise and perils of new media that I situate my work. New technologies (re)connect aesthetics to social justice and art to the corporeal realities of contemporary life, while simultaneously forging pathways into the hyperreal. The ease of use and availability of some new media democratize the production and dissemination of art; other media privilege highly specialized and skilled users. The genre of “new media” suggests a homogenous artistic category, but is often a celebration of the diversity of artistic mediums. My work as an artist, activist, teacher, and citizen begins in these paradoxical spaces of new media.
Themes of social justice and environmental responsibility are apparent in my work as a new media artist. A video installation, Memories of Cardamom explores issues of identity, sexuality, and nationality through the narrative of a child orphaned in India and raised in Wisconsin. I collaborated with the subject of the piece, Reji Kinn, to give voice to this compelling and socially relevant story. In this way, I use new media as avenues for intercultural communication and community building. However, artistry and aesthetics are equal considerations in these projects. Transforming Space, an experimental documentary on the demolition of an industrial plant in Denver, speaks with layered video and ethnographic interviews to the relationship between transformations of physical and cultural spaces. This video was debuted as an accompaniment to an experimental jazz ensemble, the Recess project.
Music is omnipresent in my life and my art. As a photographer and a musician, new technologies allow me to align my visual and audio interests into one exciting practice. In addition to several live audio/visual performances, I recently collaborated with the University of Denver’s Lamont Wind ensemble to create a visual narrative for Roger Cichy’s musical homage to the Galilean moons of Jupiter. A live cinema performance, (re)Turning incorporated ethnographic story telling with interactive video and live and pre-recorded music to create a sensual account of the Tango.
My current work centers on the Tango, its political, cultural, and artistic roots in Argentina and its global diffusion. This work uses ethnographic and documentary methods—including audio, photographic, and video techniques—to address my primary conceptual interests in people and places in transition. While working as a resident artist in Rosario, Argentina, I created a multi-media exhibit on the local and national significance of the Tango. As part of my MFA thesis, I am expanding this project. I am using elements of live cinema, music, dancing, and animation in concert with stories of Argentine nationals and ex-nationals to understand the transformation of the Tango and its meanings in a globalized world.
The art of new media is one that encourages aesthetic innovation, attention to social, political, and cultural contexts, and community collaboration. These directives of new media guide the ways I think about, teach, and create art.