I have been working with installation (drawing, sculpture and artificial life programming), video and performance to address the complex interplay between technology, human identity and expectations to address how metaphors affect how people think of technologies. Metaphors are created to help people understand complicated systems by relating them to something more tangible, in doing so, over time the tangible metaphor begins to define how we understand that technology. I am interested in the influence of technology metaphors and social constructs surrounding scientific validity that affects how we form our identity. I am fascinated by the ways technology empowers, intimidates, and enslaves us as we use it to represent ourselves.

My work in video and performance is a parody on the scientific method to experiment and prove ideas while questioning the unseen biases of being human that undertone an objective scientific endeavor. My videos present artificial life machines in the style of naturalist videos of animal life to exaggerate and create metaphors about machines that are beyond their capabilities. These metaphors when published define how the audience can connect to the machines making the videos a social construct. The videos induce a feeling of wonder that creates pride in the abilities of the human race yet subvert themselves as flawed revealing the creator’s inability to master the creation of life. My performances take the shape of lectures where philosophy grounds artificial life breakthroughs that are explained using absurd diagrams on a blackboard to prove the topic thesis. The biases of the presenter are clearly revealed creating a tension between the validity of the ideas and lack of professional façade in the presenter.