archives.networks
archives.networks is an ongoing series studying archival practices, digital and manual documentation, networks and neural networks, how information is shared and stored, and how archiving and documenting shows relationships, the passage of time, and the repetition of history. I find it important to document the many layers of social issues and historic moments.
I strive to create socially relational pieces that viewers can participate in, such as in my piece Archives.1.neural-networks, 2020. This piece used an AI program in tandem with an installation to ask viewers to consider the similarities and differences between the way both neurotypical and neurodiverse humans think, and compare that to the way Artificial Intelligence makes connections.
Archives.2.mask-project, also created in 2020, was a self-portrait as well as a collection of screenshots. It asked viewers to consider the weight of the pandemic on women, blue collar workers, and women in gendered professions, especially the unpaid labor that is expected of women in a crisis. It also expressed anger and frustration on the labor as well as the danger that women and Queer people must hold and experience in societies fraught moments - epecially considering the connections between ACT UP’s work at the height of the AIDS crisis and their work during the COVID pandemic.
Archive.3.no-justice-no-piece is a sound piece created in summer 2020 during the BLM uprisings during early Covid “lockdowns“ in Los Angeles after the death of George Floyd. It layers sound from protests with documentation from protest planning communications to show the tedious work behind movements.
archive.1.neural-networks
this project, archive.1.neuralnetworks, uses layering of train-of-thought brainstorming, mind mapping, memes, sketches, trigger-concepts, and instagram info-sharing printouts along with yarn to map out a physical space, and show how trains of thought can be thought of as neural network sourcing and information processing.
archive.2.maskproject
The COVID19 pandemic has exposed many aspects of society to the greater public. Workers rights have been a topic of conversation, with massive unemployment rates, billionaires growing richer while workers work under unsafe conditions, and unpaid “volunteer“ or “internship“ positions are rampant. My career is a very femme-coded and stereotypically-female one (costume & wardrobe). In theater, these kinds of jobs are systemically underpaid and overworked. Along with many of my peers, I have been fighting for wage equity and respect in my career for years. When the COVID pandemic hit a high point in the US in March 2020, theaters across the world shut down, with thousands of theater and gig workers with no job security or safety nets losing their jobs overnight. At this time the “DIY mask“ hype was EVERYWHERE and fashion and costume worker’s jobs were reduced to this “call to arms“ for volunteer work sewing and donating of our work supplies. Many things about the situation triggered feelings and memories that I needed to archive in some way. The first image is a screenshot in an instagram post, where I am wearing a homemade mask with a printed message which says, “If I die of COVID-19, drop my body on MAR-A-LAGO“, which references the favorite vacation spot of the President of the US during this time. The other images are screen shots of social media posts which reference trigger responses to this issue.
archive.2.no-justice-no-peace.
archive.2.no-justice-no-peace is a sound piece created from protest audio i recorded in LA during the current 2020 uprisings, recordings of myself reading notes from zoom meetings, slack messages from organizer spaces i am a part of, and my own anxieties. it is a multilayered audio piece which i hope reflects the day-to-day realities of active organizing, including the inspiring, the sad, the anxious, the scared and paranoid, the weird and funny, and even the boring and tedious moments. i wanted to share the feelings i felt of both extreme community solidarity and extreme isolation - organizing from behind a screen, behind a mask.