May 26, 2020
In
In an homage to the early web, Bullets and Bars gathers structural elements from the homepage era. When the web was dominated by user-generated content and form, the bullets, bars, dividers, buttons and arrows did not merely structure, but also styled. As the bricks of a good homepage, these web elements contributed to the themes and ideas of every site. Unlike the thin gray lines and muted tones of the contemporary web which users populate with their content, the web elements highlighted by Bullets and Bars are equally about form and content. Bullets and Bars is randomly composed of more than 4,500 elements and changes every time it is reloaded.
Click here to launch.
This work was originally commissioned by arebyte on screen.
July 2, 2018
In
Wire Bath, a video and GIF triptych, is a fetishistic performance in which I enact my fantasy of being in a bathtub full of ethernet cords. The cords entwine my body and peek out of the water like tentacles from the ocean. As more and more of our technologies are ‘wireless’ and we continue to use the cloud as the dominant metaphor for understanding the internet, I re-connect with the physical cables used to transfer data. The tub becomes a miniature model of cyberspace and repositions the cloud underwater, where much of the physical infrastructure of the internet does in fact exist. I embed myself in this cybertub and the cables and I wash and relax together.
January 15, 2017
In
TechnoMakeup is a YouTube channel consisting of makeup tutorial videos for devices, apps, and websites. The series reflects on the intimate relationship we have with our technology—using it morning and night, updating its software, checking its notifications, and stroking its screen. In the tutorials, I apply moisturizer and makeup to devices like phones, tablets, and computer monitors; thus the care and maintenance that we enact on our bodies, particularly feminine bodies, is remapped onto technology. This allows for a customization and an aesthetic that is reminiscent of the early web: colorful, glittery, and user-generated.
December 26, 2016
In
Body Devices addresses both the sexualization and bodily maintenance aspects of our most personal devices. Each GIF is of a different device displaying zoomed-in, abstracted swatches of skin appropriated from pornography. The devices are then activated by disembodied hands and objects—fingers zooming, scrolling, caressing; also makeup brushes applying powder, ambiguous droplets appearing on the screen, etc. Just as the body is a site for multiple uses, so are our technologies. We share our lives with our laptop, cell phone, and/or tablet; they provide us with pleasure and in exchange we offer care.
August 12, 2015
In
Analog Internet is a video that reveals a pyramid of three-dimensional rendered CRT televisions, each with a different cat video appropriated from YouTube playing. Analog Internet IRL re-imagines having the same relationship to cat videos in physical, not digital, space; it is a sculptural re-imagining of the video version. Cat videos are displayed on physical screens, pyramidally towered. Analog Internet IRL was installed as part of Porn to Pizza curated by Tina Sauerlaender at DAM Gallery in Berlin.
February 25, 2015
In
Matrice is an Ethernet cord sculpture that recreates an image from the cyberporn Sexual Matrix which also serves as the background image to VVVVVV. The sculpture acts as a model of the internet and makes reference to computer technology’s intertwined history with the feminine act of weaving.
February 20, 2015
In
It Needs You is an installation featuring 120 wires in 60 ethernet ports installed into pink sheets of plexiglass. The wires are smothered in lube and when encountering the piece, sometimes you are too. It Needs You and maybe you need it, too.
January 2, 2014
In
#ff35bc binary is an exploration of obscure and obvious semiotic codes. The websites currently consists of five pages, each with a different message coded either in binary or hexadecimal language. While the #ff35bc pink is easily interpreted by the viewer as referencing femininity, the text requires machine assistance to decipher. The pages in binary read, “forget Yves Klein,” “the semiotic power of pink,” “inside the binary,” and the hexadecimal page reads, “outside the binary.” Launch the website here.
September 30, 2013
In
Chelsea Manning Fan Art was made as a response to a prompt Carla Gannis and Justin Petropoulos for their exhibition <legend></legend> at Transfer Gallery. For their exhibition, they asked two sets of visual artists and writers to pair up and collaborate like they do. I was paired with writer Sara Jane Stoner. This work was made shortly after Chelsea Manning had been sentenced and she publicly announced that she wanted to transition to a woman. The sentencing was devastating and then a public debate that ensued after her announcement—which news source would use what pronoun, what would happen to the Wikipedia article, etc. These GIFs are based on that research as well as heavily relying on the Adrian Lamo chat log, from which I quote heavily.
September 20, 2013
In
#SaveChelseaManning was made as a response to a prompt Carla Gannis and Justin Petropoulos for their exhibition <legend></legend> at Transfer Gallery. Alongside the Chelsea Manning Fan Art gifs, these flyers and crayons, markers, and pens are placed in the gallery for viewers to fill write and draw for Chelsea. I archive these flyers and then mail them to Chelsea in prison. (Please note: some drawings are by children.)
*UPDATED 4/4/19*
You can download a high res, printable flyer here and mail her:
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning
William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center
2001 Mill Road
Alexandria, VA 22314
You can also donate to her legal defense fund
*ARCHIVE*
CHELSEA E. MANNING 89289
1300 NORTH WAREHOUSE ROAD
FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS 66027-2304
More details can be found at Free Chelsea Manning.
