storyQuilt

StoryQuilt is an oral story visualization project. Participants sit at the StoryQuilter (the sewing machine) and tell it a story. Once the participant finishes her story, the StoryQuilter generates a personalized quilt (projected on a quilted screen) based on the participant’s story. The more the participant “gives” the StoryQuilter vocally, the more the StoryQuilter will put into the participant’s quilt.

Story quilts have often supported an oral history tradition within families. The quilts are regarded as narratives, as interpreted and imaged by the quilter. In this case the quilter is a piece of software, which only understands and interprets measurable components of the participant’s oral story. The software then uses that information to choose fabric colors, the level of detail of the quilt, the pattern to be used, and the scale to be used. If the participant tells the same overarching story in different ways, the resulting quilt will reflect these variations.

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storyQuilt Installed during Pixilerations.
storyQuilt
Installed during Pixilerations.
storyQuilt Quilt pattern generated during Made in New York 2012 at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, NY.

consumption device

Unlike cloth bags, plastic shopping bags have a very limited life span and re-use value. Consumption Device is made of machine-stitched plastic bag panels that are stitched into a bag using hand-spun thread made of the same bags. Although this is a highly designed bag, it is very frail and holds no real use value.

consumption device
consumption device

consumption mill

Consumption Mill is a series of hand-stitched windmill blocks back lit with a light box. The windmill pattern references renewable energy sources and each windmill block is made from recycled plastic shopping bags. The piece is embodies the conflict I experience in my concern with the need to conserve and my cultural training to consume.

consumption mill  Detail of individual windmill block.
consumption mill
Detail of individual windmill block.
consumption mill Side view.
consumption mill
Side view.
consumption mill
consumption mill

consumption portraits

Buying and consuming is embedded into the fabric of our every day lives. Each bag is discarded evidence of a shopping trip, ordinary, mundane and insignificant rubbish. Cumulatively the bags document our consumptive behavior.

I started collecting these discarded bags from my own consumption outings and slowly began to ask those around me to contribute as well. Eventually I began to see patterns and relationships between the mounds of bags. I cut out bits and piece of the bags that were interesting to me. With those bits I created little vignettes that grew into each of the Consumption Portraits in the series.

If the portrait was to belong to the series, I decided that they each needed to be assembled with thread. This self-imposed hurdle (plastic bags are not very forgiving to needle punctures) essentially forced me to treat former waste as something precious and of value. In addition each portrait had one additional rule: all elements must be unified with a similar line quality or color palette. The result is a series of quirky dada-esque narratives of consumptive behavior.

CP#1 Contemplation 2009. 10.5" x 13.5"
CP#1 Contemplation
2009. 10.5″ x 13.5″
CP#2 Power 2009. 10.5" x 13.5"
CP#2 Power
2009. 10.5″ x 13.5″
CP#3 Hills & Valleys 2009. 8" x 10"
CP#3 Hills & Valleys
2009. 8″ x 10″
CP#4 Ecosystem 2010. 11" x 14"
CP#4 Ecosystem
2010. 11″ x 14″
CP#5 Dialogue 2010. 5" x 7"
CP#5 Dialogue
2010. 5″ x 7″
CP#7 Dubai to New York 2010. 7" x 7.5"
CP#7 Dubai to New York
2010. 7″ x 7.5″
CP#8 Chute  2010. 5.5" x 7.5"
CP#8 Chute
2010. 5.5″ x 7.5″
CP#9 Constraints 2010. 8" x 10"
CP#9 Constraints
2010. 8″ x 10″
CP#10 Digestion 2010. 8" x 11"
CP#10 Digestion
2010. 8″ x 11″
CP#11 Side Show 2010. 6.5" x 9.5"
CP#11 Side Show
2010. 6.5″ x 9.5″
CP#12 Great Atlantic Garbage Patch 2010. 8.5" x 9.5"
CP#12 Great Atlantic Garbage Patch
2010. 8.5″ x 9.5″
CP#13 Micro-organisms 2011. 16.5" x 16"
CP#13 Micro-organisms
2011. 16.5″ x 16″
CP#14 Escape 2011. 8" x 9"
CP#14 Escape
2011. 8″ x 9″
CP#15 Epic Narrative 2011. 8" x 8"
CP#15 Epic Narrative
2011. 8″ x 8″
CP#16 Lifeline  2011. 7" x 7"
CP#16 Lifeline
2011. 7″ x 7″

borders

Borders is a fabric hallway that existed for a week in the Quad of Syracuse University. The hallway brought attention to ways of seeing, ways of framing, and ways of blinding within our space. The walls blocked our normal physical perspective and viewpoints and drew attention to other ways of physically seeing the world. In five large “windows” were removable patches that provided a semiotic system provoking reflection on our understanding of borders, fields of vision, and mediation on our campus, in our lives and in our society.

borders Installation at Syracuse University.
borders
Installation at Syracuse University.
borders Detail of interaction with fabric wall.
borders
Detail of interaction with fabric wall.
Borders Detail of windows in fabric wall.
Borders
Detail of windows in fabric wall.

feminizing technology

Feminizing Technology is an exploration of the antithetical pairing of technology (labeled masculine) and domesticity (labeled feminine). Sewing, embroidery and needlework are common signifiers in feminist art, as well as signifiers of my own matrilineage. My grandmother sews, knits, embroiders, etc. and has complimented her traditional skills with a digitalized sewing machine that can be programmed and used with a computer. Seeing her interest and dependence on technology and the juxtaposition of old and new has provoked me to discover many similarities quilted and stitched work have with digital, pixel based work. Each step of the way I discover how the traditions of the past continue to influence and interact with the formation of traditions of the present. Immersing myself in both the quilting and programming experiences, I hope to reveal an equilibrium of a “genderless” activity.

Feminizing Technology  Installed for "Rude and Bold Women"
Feminizing Technology
Installed for “Rude and Bold Women”
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