Museum of Capitalism
a framework for a series of projects using the form of a museum to analyze and historicize capitalism, through a variety of public programming including exhibitions, workshops, and other events.
How It Hurts
a study guide for pain examinations, quoting heavily from actual questionnaires and other tools used in clinical settings to measure pain, published by Publication Studio
STEERTS YTIC
text installed in a storefront window, advertising what's on the outside of the window, in the public life of city streets (installed for Seattle Storefronts)
Collections
A collection of collections. Interesting, unusual, unique, obscure; requiring creative categorization or idiosyncratic taxonomy; highlighting processes and politics of collecting.
Marquee
series of public text installations on a historic theater marquee, referencing advertising, self-help motivational-speak, public signage, and film culture
FICTILIS
art, design, and curatorial studio co-founded with Andrea Steves, with ongoing interests in language, institutions, materialisms and waste flows, monuments and public memory, and political ecology
Vita Brevis
a semi-mock-advocacy group promoting eventual death, complete with obligatory slogans and chants, active in Ann Arbor, MI between 2005-2006
Mongo Deco
an ongoing interior design practice in which everything used to renovate or decorate a space is recycled in some way: reclaimed, salvaged, repurposed, secondhand, etc.
You’re Going to Die
a short film adaptation of my children's story with voiceover by Vito Acconci, created by artist Dennis Palazzolo from original and borrowed source footage
Everyone Does
a text piece listing behavioral traits found in every human culture, loosely based on the work of anthropologist Donald Brown
Songs for Dead Blondes
a 3-hour song cycle, a series of performances (by Detroit band MEPHI), and a collection of photos and texts, about nostalgia in popular music and cultural memory
Graffiti As Technology As History As Graffiti
a giant chalkboard mural for the Media Gateway room at University of Michigan's North Quad, referencing the history of graffiti and the site
Shadow Art Fair
a long-running community art fair in Ypsilanti, MI, featuring local artists, musicians, filmmakers, & other creative practitioners, organized with the Michigan Design Militia
Views of Maharashtra
a series of 12 short videos about the relationship between subject/camera and local/tourist, made while doing documentary work in rural Maharashtra, India, 1998-2001
Great Lakes Shirts
a T-shirt with the outline of the Great Lakes on it. No logos or slogans, cities, states, or other political boundaries, & no promo for your friend's indie band - just the lakes.
10.-22.-38 Astoria II
an ongoing project in which FICTILIS transforms a gallery or other space into a pop-up copy shop pre-stocked with xerographic prints from all over the world
Call Center
an installation inviting people to make phone calls to large corporations while doodling on a giant table-sized paper and broadcasting the muzak of their call
Sappycards
an ongoing series of all-occasion, non-traditonal, brutally honest, highly recycled, limited edition greetings cards, full catalog at sappycards.com
My Dinner With ‘My Dinner With Andre’
a full meal served alongside the longest dinner scene in film history, with menu and decor taken from the film, and timed precisely to coincide with events onscreen
Family Tree
FICTILIS follows the lives of every new plant made from cuttings of a single jade tree, spread out over a random collection of friends & strangers - an extended "family tree"
Alkalai School
an intensive, immersive, experimental music retreat, in a small cabin in the Black Hills, with saxophonist/composer Andrea Steves
Bluish Barn
a temporary venue for microcinema, music, and other events in Ann Arbor, MI, and an experiment in collaborative living exploring the boundaries between public/private space
Opening
an installation/performance for white-walled gallery space, featuring everything that goes along with an art opening - except for the actual ‘art’
Thumb Wars
a live refereed thumb-wrestling event, simulcasted and projected large for spectators, featuring regular, jello, and mud thumb-wrestling, organized by FICTILIS
Prefab Domains
a domain name redistribution service based on lexicographic research on English "prefabrications", or cliche phrases that make good domain names for interesting projects
Colors of Commerce
a research project and exhibition about the colors of shipping containers in port cities; the most information on this niche subject ever assembled in one place
10-22-38 Astoria I
an ongoing project in which FICTILIS transforms a gallery or other space into a pop-up copy shop pre-stocked with a wide selection of ready-to-copy artworks
So little to tell
a short video, or installation for darkened space, featuring audio artist J.Robidoux, and actor Graham Atkin, shot in one take and edited with only in-camera effects
map to my buried treasure
a series of sequential maps leading ultimately to a secret buried treasure, and "an adventure of considerable proportions", auctioned on eBay
Like Spitting Everywhere
a video study of the human mouth, featuring beatboxer artist J.Robidoux going through his usual shower's worth of improvisatory, stream-of-consciousness vocal percussion
Champions
one (of-a-kind) sculpture made from pieces of every trophy I won as a child - a therapeutic reflection on accomplishments and a convenient home storage solution
Artwalking 101
a series of pamphlets and a short clinic on “Artwalking”: a form of human locomotion that incorporates movements not usually associated with the normal human gait...
Jesus of the Sink
a game for kitchen sinks in shared living situations, where dish-users can "confess" their dirty dishes or become "Jesus" by washing away the "sins" of others
Mesmera
a set of instructions for site-specific percussive events using a shared improvisational language of hand signals (and a series of lost audio recordings)
Edge of Sleep
A short video made for the Ann Arbor Film Festival's cinemasports event, with live accompaniment from Edgefest 2008 musicians. Made entirely in bed.
When I Stopped Watching
a short video study of analog television static, featuring footage captured from a TV set in Detroit, 1997
