ABOUT
I'm a full professor at the College of Design at North Carolina State University. In 2002 I began working with site specific/online audiences in project spaces where broad globalization issues were having particular effects on communities, employing aspects of what would eventually be called social media, along with real-time visualization of data. Projects and exhibitions are often part of a greater program of local and regional engagement that also includes workshops, lectures, and other activities connected to the project space. I've exhibited or created projects in over 80 national and international group and solo exhibitions in the Czech Republic, Greece, Egypt, Cuba, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Japan, Iran, Italy, Serbia, Venezuela, Cuba, China, Singapore, and the United States. Research articles, book chapters and other writings have appeared in Zed, Statements, Design Philosophy Papers, Brujula, Art Papers, Visual Communication, Design and Culture, and Design Issues, Rethinking Marxism, Educational Forum, and The European Sociological Association. I've also presented in international venues as featured presenter alongside John Maeda, Suguru Ishizaki, and Krystof Lenk, and was a Mitchel Lecture presenter at the School of the Art Institute Chicago, and at the Center for 21st Century Studies.
Short CV here
As a student, Allan Sekulla's influence on me led me to project-based work using installation and digital media to visualize social practice and engage audiences for change. In the early 2000's the internet was a new phenomenon where designers and activists were creating digital platforms and networking with like-minded people. My interests and work brought me into contact with an international audience and led to collaborations such as Borderhack, a site-specific series of global interventions, and work in Cuba (even though Cuba was embargoed by the US, the digital work could be downloaded and installed using local equipment,(an example of what Johanna Drucker labeled the "fungibility" of the internet). This influenced me to create similar interventions in galleries and public spaces. For example I presented stories of immigration with real-time visualization of participant answers between two groups in a gentrifying neighborhood. Later, in Imaginary Country, I invited comparisons between the history and experiences of the Berlin Wall and the US Border Wall using three connected installation sites in Berlin, Mexico, and the US. Context and participation are crucial in my work. By 2012, working with online and f2f participation became increasingly problematic, promptingme to work more directly in communities and for longer periods. I also started collaborating with people in the social sciences, working within a framework of qualitative research and participatory design.
In 2013, I began examining issues of hegemony and control of smaller countries in eastern and southern Europe. The EU uses branding strategies to compete with traditional nationalistic symbols. Social Capital is an ongoing project that introduces themes such as history, future, immigration, etc.using animations. Begun in 2013-2014 to build dialogue and research in Eastern European communities. It investigates how people feel about their own history and practices, it touches on larger issues of progressive ideas in competition with a new sense of parochialism. Since 2013, the region has become more unstable. I also began a new effort in China in 2019-2020.