Date of Submission

Spring 2013

Academic Program

Photography

Project Advisor 1

John Pilson

Abstract/Artist's Statement

“To intimate is to communicate with the sparest of signs and gestures, and at its root intimacy has the quality of eloquence and brevity. But intimacy also involves an aspiration for a narrative about something shared, a story about both oneself and others that will turn out in a particular way.” –Lauren Berlant

I use the Internet and the people who exist in these environments as a medium to mold and respond to create an understanding or connection where there was not one before. All of the participants in these works are directly responding to my presence either through video chatting or commissioned, crowd-sourced exercises. These scenarios are often a result of a shared cultural alienation and loneliness. We relate to and interact with strangers through mutual participation in common publics although we often have different agendas for being in the same place. Constraining my exploration of intimacy with strangers to the bare bones and boxes of the Internet and people’s bedrooms becomes symbolic of a larger world order.

The two installation spaces investigate private moments in public spheres. In the gallery space, the viewer is an active participant in the work, aware of his or her body as a presence in the pieces. In the fictional studio space, the viewer is a more passive observer left to explore a foreign world of virtual and physical collision that is still familiar. While this is an investigation of a collective consciousness, it is also extremely personal.

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