Always something
I usually have a side project or two going on. Each one is a chance to learn something new.
How We Ate
Pandemic passion project. How We Ate is a series of photo books, sold at the Whitney Museum and online, chronicling outdoor dining shelters of New York City. Four volumes have been published so far, and I continue to document them. These shelters are a kind of street art/street architecture that snuck in while regulations were lax. They’re also, as Aaron Timms wrote, “an urban reality birthed from the very qualities that New Yorkers always fancied themselves to possess—resourcefulness, adaptability, cunning”. And of course, you can see more on instagram
Riviera Gallery
Art gallery in Williamsburg. For six years, four friends and I ran the Riviera Gallery in Williamsburg. We had over 100 exhibitions and showed more than 250 artists. Everything from painting and sculpture to interactive media. Our openings were notorious events, shows became known as places to discover new artists. Each of the partners took turns curating and each one of us showed our own art at one time or another. I remember thinking at the time, “My share of the rent is about the same as a car payment, and this is way more fun than a car.”
Some artists who graced the space: Jeff Soto, Maya Hayuk, Madsaki, Peter Beste, Ted McGrath, Theodore Watson and Emily Gobeille, Travis Millard, Hyemi Cho, AJ Fosik, Gina Triplett and Matt Curtius, Greg Wilson
You Were Here
A noisy, dirty, beautiful doc. Death By Audio was a beloved Brooklyn DIY music space that closed in 2014. When they first started live music shows, in 2007, we were there, and documented that first raucous year. Inspired by films like Sympathy for the Devil and Last Days, we tried to create a film that makes you feel what it was like to be there. youwereheremovie.com
Platinum Empire Cove
Fake condo art project. This art project, Platinum Empire Cove, a “7-star” luxury capsule-hotel style condo, is a parody of ridiculous real estate developments in New York City. With help from architect Adrian Barrios, I designed the building, created a brochure and a scale model. It was the centerpiece of a fake real estate office, a finalist in the Art Ate New York competition, and even garnered mention in New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix. This collaboration was so much fun Adrian and I entered a few architecture competitions. One of them, a proposal for redeveloping the South Street Seaport, was awarded a Jury Selection Prize from the American Institute of Architects.
SUPER SHORT VIDEO
Super short video show. In February of 2010, before Tik Tok, before Reels, I had an idea that 5 seconds would be an interesting length to tell a story. So I invited diverse group of 28 artists, directors and creatives to each make a 5 second long video, And showed the results in a gallery exhibition. These experiments stretched time and twisted narratives in ways I hadn't experienced before. Below are a few of my favorites.
John Hobbs
Guido Cruz
Anthony Marinelli
Paul Eng & Marina Truskova
NYU ITP
Teaching. I’ve taught at a few institutions, SVA, Pratt, Tama Art University in Tokyo. However, my longest and most inspiring experience was at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), where, for twelve years, I was a guest critic for thesis projects and for a class called New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). In the NIME class, students use digital technology to create new musical instruments, and perform at an end of semester concert at a local music venue. Discussing new ideas with these very clever students was inspiring and also really, really fun.
Some memorable projects: Using food coloring dissolving in water as a musical instrument | | Haptic technology that remotely (and delightfully) connects newborns and parents | | A mesmerizing automated subtractive sculpture as a metaphor for China’s one child policy | | Combining sounds created through Google Translate to create a kind of music