my story — (in progress)

My interest in interactive design started with a nerve condition I developed as a software engineer. Gradually, over the course of four months, I slowly lost the ability to use my arms and hands. In an effort to stay employed and reclaim my life, I did many things - I created a handful of foot-controlled, voice-controlled and hands-free computer mice. At one point I gutted a few guitar pedals and had them control different parts of my keyboard. After seeing countless doctors, surgeons and physical therapists to no avail, I stumbled across the solution to my nerve condition in a medical textbook. It took me 6 months to fully recover, but I’ll never forget the experience of struggling with an ‘invisible disability.‘ I went on to update my company’s software library to meet accessibility standards, and have since created many hands-free interactive devices and art pieces.

After leaving software engineering behind and focusing on art full-time, I started looking for ways to use the skills I had gained in the world of tech-art. I’d always been interested in projection mapping (and had been making visuals for bands for a decade at this point). Fortunately, the opportunity arose in 2023 to map the Merritt Mansion for Nashville’s biggest art festival, ARTVILLE. Still interested in the medium of mapping, I explored many different types of projection fabrics in a handful of installations, music videos and stage designs.

After ARTVILLE, a close friend and I started talking about doing an installation with vintage televisions. By October in 2023, we’d collected 70+ televisions (two storage units full, currently). For a Halloween installation, we built a TV wall and had 7 distinct areas with televisions throughout the event. For the art style for this ‘vintage direction’, I recorded feedback from an old 80’s analog video mixer and set it to loop on each of the TVs. For the TV wall, I picked up a video router from the 80s, once used in old newsrooms, and wrote software to control it via its serial port. We’ve since used the TVs in multiple stage designs, and have also added two giant 6-foot TV models that I projection map.

After using the projection mapping and TVs in a handful of stage designs and installations (including mapping the entirity of Jack White’s Blue Room and it’s resident taxidermy elephant head for the Lockeland Strings), a great friend of mine, Emily Otnes, was in need of a stage design for their world tour. As an opening act, the design needed to have the ability to be set up and torn down almost instantly. Since their setup would be on stage while concert-goers filed into the venue, I also wanted the design to to be a bit of a mystery and peak the crowd’s interest before the performers even came out on stage. The ultimate solution I came up with was Door. A talented carpenter friend of mine helped me build the art-Deco functioning door with bamboo mesh lining. Door would sit on stage, and wait until halfway through the first song before the 80 meters of LED tape I’d installed by hand would become active and reveal the video art inside. The design would be incorporated into the set, with the performers opening the door and then closing it to conclude the set. In seven countries and thirty shows, I ran Door, along with Ableton backing tracks while playing guitar. Currently Door 2 is 99% finished and awaiting its debut.

Up next for 2024 - I’m fortunate enough to be a highlighted artist for 2024’s ARTVILLE. I’ll also have an interactive installation at Kinda Spoopy Festival, an immersive installation at The Madnest gallery and a stage design for Rosemary’s Halloween event. And maybe a couple others, to be announced.