couchprojects

Workstation collage for standee
8′ x 4′ x 2′

• description: These free-standing cutouts represent my studio. The collages are a combination of images from my wok area and photos collected online from computer enthusiasts showing off their gear.

screen capture

• description: Social networking web site

  Myfrienemies is a social networking site where anonymous users are connected to others who share dislikes of the same or similar types of people. Rather than create profile pages, visitors to the site can create anonymous lists of personal friend-enemies (frienemies) through detailed descriptions (testimonials) and labels (ex: cheaters, drunks, liars). Other people on the site can offer advice and commiserate with the anonymous testimonioals. If people dislike the same person, they can send personal messages to each other. To avoid inflammatory behavior, the site is programmed so that proper names are never revealed and bullying is disouraged. Myfrienemies aims to foster new friendships that are more similar to the bonds we make in a closed setting such as the office or academic environment; places where groups of disparate people find a common bond in their shared annoyance with a particular colleague.

  www.myfrienemies.com

video still

• description: Installation: HDV video projection, stereo sound
  Running time: 45 minutes

  Infinite Depot is a unique document of a space that exists in some form all over the globe. The video’s format is a 45-minute single shot HD video that takes the viewer through a Home Depot store in a fluid dream-like epic, a cinematic technique directly inspired by Aleksandr Sokurov’s “Russian Ark.” The two main characters meander through the cavernous aisles of a Home Depot store in Secaucus, New Jersey, transcending the mundane big-box environment as they slowly investigate and interact with everything but each other. In the background, shoppers zoom by at relative lightning speed, and the store displays become readymade sets. The soundtrack is a composition of recordings sampled from the store mixed to reflect the store’s multi-faceted spaces: the hugeness of some aisles and the intimacy of the showroom displays. The minimal plot culminates in an improvised dance performance by the main character. The dancer’s overstated movements fill the lighting aisles, yet go unnoticed by the Sunday morning shoppers.