the no no nothing

3. I am a regular American—I am part of Anglo-American culture—but part of my genealogy is Cherokee Indian. I have a unique perspective on how indigenous, supposedly primitive cultures are forced to assimilate. Assimilating to avoid extinction, becoming extinct through assimilation. As an American, I am also obsessed with the appearance of perfection and have always wanted to belong to something that I am not part of. Americans aim for solidarity and within that homogenized ideal, there is comfort that we are all a part of one whole, yet at the same time we are not really part of one thing enough to belong. Americans identify with their ancestral origins. As with America’s suspicion/fascination with exoticism, my curiosity with the artifacts and customs of our own civilization reveals the desire to be someone or something else—even for a moment.

2. As a cultural worker, I am interested in the examination of our civilization—through the heterogeneity of its populations, ideologies, cultural practices, rituals, migrations—and the inevitability of its self-destruction.  My current research is focused on the overlaps or borders of various disciplines that address issues of communications & technology.  Devices employed by everyday technologies to communicate such as, broadcast television, Skype, Facebook, blogging, email, claim to connect us, isolate individuals, contributing to the ever-present void in communication.  Through the use of mimetic mediation, I aim to facilitate interactions with the real by calling attention to the void.  The void is universal, it is operating everywhere at every moment.  We tend to ignore or suppress the void, yet it persists.  My work calls attention to the void as a means of achieving mutual understanding.  The void is communication.

1. The Parasite
I want to be honest with you. I am closer to you than I am to myself.  I watch you. I follow you.  I’m trying to find out as much information about you as possible so that I may construct a more complete picture of your life. I know you.  You are part of me, yet still I don’t trust you.  I am reliant on you, yet I lie to you. I recount narratives to you of other people’s lives as if they were my own.  Stories about the people I saw on TV. I can’t tell you the truth about myself because there is nothing there.  But if I don’t tell you the truth, you might leave because I’ve told you nothing of myself. The truth is that I’ve been wondering what the truth is for as long as I can remember. I am American. I was born on July 27, 1981 in NY, though I’ve lived most of my life in CT. I spent most of my childhood watching television, riding in cars between my parent’s homes, and shopping in corporate chain stores.  I was raised to believe that buying and owning the newest, most highly desired products and gadgets featured on television was essential and probably made one a better person. I would become anxious and depressed about possessing and owning products. When I was 5 years old, a television was installed in one of my bedrooms. By the time I was 12, we had a television in every room of each house except the bathroom. The televisions were always on, even when the rooms were not occupied. The televisions are still always on.