Performed computer music for the Groundhog Day Bash at the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum on 2/2/2024.

Performed computer music and found percussion for Spring Fling at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse on 4/27 and 4/27/2024.

While augmented reality (AR) allows us to play games like Pokémon Go or change our appearances on social media apps, it is also a powerful tool that can allow us to merge audio and visual art, present or uncover the layers of historical sites, and reimagine spaces and places. As an artist and researcher, I am interested in using AR to create interdisciplinary experiences that bring together sound, photography, and history to create memorable, immersive experiences.

During a one-week residence at Peters Valley School of Craft, I will be developing at least two augmented reality experiences using Adobe Aero that combine photography-based 3D models, background information and research, and field-recorded soundscapes to create interactive experiences of different sites for visitors to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DWGNRA). The buildings and sites at the DWGNRA are artifacts of the complex history of this space and I believe that AR could allow users on and off-site to explore the current condition of the park and the history of buildings and sites through nondestructive multimedia experiences.

This exploratory research grant seeks to bring together the physical nature of archival materials with archival content through a proof-of-concept tape loop-based audiovisual performance of archival materials. For this performance, I will focus on archival materials from DuPont and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) that are relevant to the history of magnetic tape recording. Tape loops will be created by directly recording archival materials or through recording readings of archival material. During the performance, tape loops will play simultaneously and a selection of these loops will be exposed to elements that represent common challenges to preserving archival material in order to create unique sounds and textures. This performance will be recorded and will lead to the creation of a Creative Commons document about creating tape loop performances in an archival setting.

I will be delivering the festival’s keynote lecture, “Synthesizing the Sound of Space.” This lecture chronicles my digital humanities project of the same name (more info below). The project explores how the development of the silicon transistor has shaped the ways in which the sounds of space are recorded and created. Initial work during the pilot year of this project has focused on archival and online research, creating a beta version of a website, and developing an open-source lesson plan to teach about how to synthesize your own space sounds. This keynote will cover an introduction to this project and deep dive into the sound creation activity, including addressing accessibility concerns, sound samples, and a tools/platforms comparison.

I am also the guest artist for the festival. My performance, “Layers,"“ at the end of the Bleep/Blorp 2022 will feature patches created using VCVRack, sound samples, and tape loops.

Link to the festival:

https://www.stonehill.edu/events/bleep-blorp-festival-of-synthesizer-music/2022-03-26/

Nature therapy, ecotherapy, and forest baths promote physical, spiritual, and mental health through time spent outdoors, immersed in nature. Unfortunately, climate change and limitations to access already threaten our collective ability to enjoy these experiences and to learn about nature in an immersive fashion. Immersive Forest asks if there are ways in which design interventions can preserve or enhance nature-based therapies and education and if the design and built world can create the same types of experiences and healings as our natural one?

This installation featured a series of rooms which combined plants native to Michigan, augmented reality, soundscapes, projections, scents, and ceramic sculpture. Participants visited a series of four vignettes asked them to consider design-based approaches across a variety of built spaces (indoor forest as entrance, classroom, bathroom, museum) and how questions of access and time play out in these spaces.  Participants viewed different vignettes for some spaces that compared levels of affluence and access. The entrance was set in our current time, the first vignette was set in the near future, the next vignette was set in 2030 (when some resources start to become scarce), and the final vignette was set in 2040 (when many resources are only available to the affluent). 

Architectural Digest: Tocks Island, was set to debut in the Summer of 2020 but is on hold until indefinitely due to COVID-19. This piece involves a series of ceramic sculptures paired with an online survey to understand the role of art in public perception of this history of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and the Tocks Island Dam project. Part of the work on this project was done as an Artist-in-Residence at Peters Valley School of Craft (Layton, NJ) in March 2020.

This sculpture represents the rock cores taken to test the viability of the Tocks Island dam, as well as the topology, trails, and features of the surrounding area where the cores currently lie in Worthington State Forest and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

A Moveable Garden is a mixed-media piece featuring blacksmithed and handbuilt ceramic flower petals. The flowers are mounted onto a moveable and mountable surface and each flower can be moved around the surface and petals can be rearranged.

More information about this exhibit can be found at: https://accessibleart.cal.msu.edu/