Artist Statement



I create art as an outlet for my obsessive need to build compelling experiences on the computer. I am a geek at heart, a true product of the intersection between pop culture and the Information Age. I see computers as vehicles for thoughts to become alive, and I seek to recreate this feeling in others.

For most of my career as an artist, my interests have been in exploring the artistic potential of interactivity and virtual space. My artwork is heavily influenced by a somewhat contradictory mix of pop culture artifacts (like comics, music, and especially videogames) weaved together with philosophical writings on the nature of thoughts or knowledge. I build simulations that both illustrate and test these ideas by putting them into motion. My work juxtaposes vibrant, electric imagery with thorny intellectual questions, and through this work the computer becomes an extension of my mind.

With regards ideas however I tend to differ from other artists. Most artists in the modern era have the mindset that the idea behind a work is more important than the execution. This is the entire basis for conceptual art, a notion pretty much originated by Marcel Duchamp. I however take a much more craftsman-like attitude toward creative work, centered around the slogan "ideas are easy, implementation is hard." I don't pick a medium to work in because it is objectively the ideal way to realize some pure idea plucked out of the non-corporeal idea realm; I pick it because I love working with that medium. I don't see concept as divorced from the physical form of the artwork; I see the act of artmaking informing my thought processes.

Also distinct from many other artists, I am not terribly concerned with the longevity of my artworks. Often people lament the rapid obsolescence of artworks reliant on digital technology, noting that digital artworks are generally only accessible for the several years lifespan of the computer they rely on. These people compare this short lifespan to the hundreds or even thousands of years that a painting or sculpture can last. I however don't compare my work to paintings, but rather think of them as more like performance art, similar through their interactivity to the Happenings in the 50s and 60s. However I don't see myself as a performer, but rather as a choreographer of the computer's performance.

Among the various tools and techniques involved in producing interactive pieces, programming is most central to my artistic drive. The images and animations I create are always in service to the software I write. After all, computers are defined by their processing ability, and it is through programmed code that one controls the computer's process. The code reflects my mind in a very direct way, so when I program I am putting a piece of my brain into the computer.

Recently my work has also experimented with the physicality of the installation space, and in future work I intend to focus even more in this area.

Member of the cyberartist group:





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