IN MOTION

Currently my interest revolves around finding ways we can destabilize our constructions of our self-identity. Which qualities and ideas about ourselves do we rely on as the basis for our daily actions and decisions and future planning? How does the definition of our self concept help us and how does it limit us/cause anxiety or other problems? What happens when elements of our self construct are changed, manipulated, eliminated?

What is the relationship between how we think about our own identities, how others think about us, and the systems of interactions and expectations we have created and operate within? Can we exploit, stretch, subtly rearrange these systems as a way of revealing places where needless rigidity in our own self concepts prevents greater freedom and well-being? Essentially I’m interested in finding processes of bootstrapping or subverting our lives and self-identities to discover a much more expansive and free experience as ourselves.

At this moment in time, there is an opportunity to use technology to create some interesting manipulations that were not previously possible. Our pervasive and instantaneous access to each other, to information, and to representations of our own data sets up something of an infinitely reflecting set of distorted mirrors. The accuracy and accessibility of feedback technologies allows for new forms of experimentation and rapid iteration. New forums for connection and communication both reinforce and exaggerate existing expectations while offering potential for developing new systems of relating to each other.

I see this work existing in a space between art, design, technology, and self/life experimentation. Rather than going in with a specific positioning or point of view to express (as in the case of ‘critical design’ for example), projects would be more like experiments. The hypothesis being that technologically introducing manipulations into our daily life could potentially unlock previously unexperienced perspectives of our selves. While many of these may fail, they could point to directions for further investigation.

As my questions involve people, I am interested in situations where I can work with others – whether as collaborators, students, teachers, co-performers, fellow test subjects. By experimenting on our selves, we give up the comfortable boundary between work/theorizing and life/experiencing and maybe create possibilities for more unexpected discoveries.