ARTIST STATEMENTMy work assumes human beings no longer exist. Bots and other forms of artificial intelligence are leveraged as collaborators. Images and language from Google Patents are also incorporated. My work investigates how the human face has become a contested territory of hyper-capitalism. More than the serialism of Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe pieces, my work seeks to locate the monetization and surveillance dynamics present in source documents, as well as glitches that reveal the source code of our surveillance economy. If successful, my work functions as a digital cousin of Nancy Spero’s Torture of Women (1976) and Marcel Broodthaer’s Musée d'Art Moderne, Départment des Aigles (1968). It also investigates the possibilities of 21st-century forms like PowerPoint documents, 3-D digital objects, newsfeeds, and AI-generated junk text. My day job in the technology industry influences everything I do. So does my origins in the lower-working-class of the 20th century urban United States. Despite the materials I use, I am not a “futurist” or “experimental writer.” I consider myself a 21st-Century Realist who makes art out of contemporary things, not forms left over from the Middle Ages. Being current is primary. But most important is showing people I’m risking my ass.
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