The view from my Swing Space studio on Governor’s Island. Rachel Stevens and I have been granted this space through July by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in support of our Oyster City project.

Filming in the Algodones Dunes, CA, Feb. 23, 2013


I just returned from filming these lovely sand dunes in the Algodones Dunes Wilderness, southeastern California. The footage is for Grisha Coleman’s echo::system project. Photo taken by Vita Berezina-Blackburn, the talented animator on the project, who accompanied me on the trip into the desert.

Terrestrial Transmissions Photos University of Virginia

Collage Terrestrial Transmissions
Photos from Terrestrial Transmissions at the Ruffin Gallery, University of Virginia, Jan. 25 – Feb. 22, which included my short sci-fi video The Double. Top left pictures me with the other artists in the show: Krista Caballero, Ashley Brett Chipman, Stephanie Hough and Julia Oldham. Top right is of curator Lydia Moyer talking in the gallery. I was honored to be included.

Artist Talk and Exhibition at the University of Virginia

Two stills from my low-fi science fiction The Double (still above), a video that will be included in a group exhibition, Terrestrial Transmissions, curated by Lydia Moyer, Ruffin Hall Gallery, University of Virginia from Jan. 25 – Feb. 22. I will be traveling to Charlottesville to give an artist talk in Lydia’s class on Jan. 25. Looking forward to it! Thanks Lydia. Read more here.

Governor’s Island 2013 Residency for Oyster City


The Oyster City team has been granted a 2013 Swing Space residency on Governor’s Island by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Oyster City, an AR walking tour and game, is a project by Rachel Stevens, Phoenix Toews and me. We are excited to have a studio on Governor’s Island since a large part of our project takes place there. In addition to LMCC’s studio spaces, the Island is also home to an oyster hatchery and nursery run by The NY Harbor School, a marine-science based public school focused on the health of the local waterways. The school’s nursery plays a significant role in helping the Oyster Restoration Research Partnership restore the harbor’s oyster population.

Distribution Grant from Free103point9 for Louisiana Re-storied!

Louisiana Re-storied installation shot

I am happy to report that I received a 2012 distribution grant for Louisiana Re-storied through the wonderful Free103point9, as a re-grant from the NY State Council on the Arts. Thank you Free103! Here is the link to their news page:
http://newsroom.free103point9.org/?s=distribution+regrant

Oyster City at ISEA2012 Albuquerque, NM

ISEA2012
The Oyster City team (Meredith Drum, Rachel Stevens, Phoenix Toews) has been invited to present an iteration of our project as an artist talk at ISEA2012 Machine Wilderness in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 21 September 2012. We will also show the version as part of ISEA’s downtown block party on Sunday, Sept. 23rd. Let me know if you will also be at ISEA.

Oyster City at i-Docs Interactive Documentary Symposium 2012

Looking at the Hudson River as a PCB molecule and the GE symbol float down
In late March 2012, Rachel Stevens presented our collaborative project Oyster City at the i-Docs Interactive Documentary Symposium in Bristol, UK at the Watershed Media Center. Thanks to Rachel for traveling with the project. Above is an image of Rachel looking at the Hudson as a virtual PCB molecule and a GE symbol float down the river.

OYSTER CITY at Mobility Shifts, New School in October 2011

My collaborators, Rachel Stevens and Phoenix Toews, and I will be presenting our new project Oyster City at the Mobility Shifts: International Future of Learning conference at the New School in NYC on October 12th. The workshop description is here. The project we are presenting, Oyster City, is an augmented reality walking tour of lower Manhattan focused on the history of humans and oysters in NY Harbor, including information about recent initiatives to restore water qualities by reintroducing oyster reefs to the harbor.

Louisiana Re-storied

I recently completed a documentation video of my interactive installation Louisiana Re-storied. Here it is:


LOUISIANA RE-STORIED is an interactive, documentary installation concerning environmental justice and pollution governance in Southern Louisiana. The work examines a particular geography, the stretch of Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where small, predominantly working class, African American communities are sandwiched uncomfortably between large petrochemical plants and oil refineries. In recent years, community groups, in collaboration with scientist activists, have won seminal legal victories and out-of-court settlements, initiatives to protect their health from toxic emissions. The piece places these current narratives in dialogue with Robert Flaherty’s 1948 Louisiana Story regarding the relationship between the petroleum industry and human and ecosystem wellbeing and considers how a documentary project can contribute to citizen activism demanding stronger pollution regulation. As a hypertext, the participants navigate through 24 narrative threads. The deeper participants venture into the work, the more nuanced their understanding of the region’s controversies. The installation includes a large projection and a touch screen, with an interface made up of images of common products produced by petrochemical feedstocks, referencing the visitor’s potential daily consumption. User interaction is governed by a MAX patch.

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