Booth (2005 - 2012)
"In 2005 I started an avatar on an expedition that traces a surface, or skin appropriated from John Wilkes Booth. The avatar is automated according to a fictional journey that weaves through historical sites, online networks, and electromechanical sculptures. The evolving project borrows from history and popular culture to create mythological fictions that interlace inside an expanding narrative. The tracking of Booth’s path is documented in 200 page guidebook that describes artworks, tells stories and functions as a guide for participatory interaction.
"The intent is to steal Booth’s image from history and treat it as the skin of an automaton; an automaton animated according to nodes attached to an evolving fiction. This fictional Booth abstractly occupies these nodes, which are equated to the cogs and mechanisms moving beneath the surface of an automaton. Below, you'll see examples of the Booth narrative and corresponding objects."
Press: Coop - 'Peter Froslie'; Nashville Scene - 'Fall Guide 2011'; Reno News and Review - 'Fluctuation'
Above: Booth in Virginia City (2007) Video captured in the Virginia City, Nevada, cemetery.
Above: Excerpt from Booth Guidebook (2008) Bound Book
The Booth Guidebook is modeled after video game manuals that accompanied games in the 1990's, such as Sim City. The narratives are written with fan fictions in mind and serve to assist a role-player in developing a Booth avatar.
Above: Booth Game Pieces (2008) Custom Painted plaster figures
Booth toys that represent various narrative elements - they accompany the Booth guidebook and function as game pieces for a role-plying text within it.
Above: Weeping Armor (2008) Custom Electronics, Video Game
'Weeping Armor' is a cosplay wearable. It is automated with kinetic actions that are linked to a video game. When players interact with the game the suit responds. In the ‘Booth’ fiction, soldiers are trained to control weeping by wearing the armor. It forces them into a slumped position and then proceeds to comfort them by massaging their backs with air.
Above: Igloo White (2008) Custom Electronics, Glass, Plastic, Chicken Bones, 5 Hour Energy, Motor Oil, Theatrical Blood
'Igloo White' is a kinetic sculpture activated by pressing a large red arcade button located at its base. When pressed, the object plays through a narrative via moving parts, sound elements and a small computer controlled monitor.
Above: Phantom Pain in Pink (2008) Enamel Paint on Board
Above: Journey To the Center of the Earth (2008) Custom Electronics, Stickers, AstroTurf, Chicken Bone, molded plastic
Interactive audio diorama telling the story of Booth's quest to a cave that will lead him on a journey to the center of the earth.
Interactive audio diorama telling the story of Booth's quest to a cave that will lead him on a journey to the center of the earth.
Above: Battle Prosthetic (2008) Custom Electronics, Wood, Plastic, Paint
A wooden map that explains a fictional battle, The Battle Prosthetic, that involved Booth. Moving a figure around the map reveals each audio element... the corresponding page from the Booth Guidebook is also shown here.
Above: Booth (2009) Smiley Stickers, Enamel Paint on Board
Portrait of John Wilkes Booth.
Portrait of John Wilkes Booth.
Above: Booth's Nightmare (2009) Smiley Stickers, Plastic, Custom Electronics, Enamel Paint, Vacuum
A peephole diorama that displays a model of a scene from the Booth narrative.
A peephole diorama that displays a model of a scene from the Booth narrative.
Above: Truncated, Octahedral, Nevadan, Siamese, Cathouse Experience (2012) Pen and Ink on paper
Graphic novel that was included in "Lust to Dust, a comic-style collection of stories by artists (most of them Vegas-based) with legal prostitution in Nevada as the common theme. The tales are raw, gruesome, vulgar, funny, sad and bizarre, but not every plot is built solely around sex for money (or payment of any kind). " Lust to Dust, a comic-style collection of stories by artists (most of them Vegas-based) with legal prostitution in Nevada as the common theme. The tales are raw, gruesome, vulgar, funny, sad and bizarre, but not every plot is built solely around sex for money (or payment of any kind)." - Las Vegas Weekly
Above: Penny Press (2011)
Souvenir' is a souvenir penny press that imprints crushed pennies with images of John Wilkes Booth, effectively transforming Abraham Lincoln into his assassin.
Souvenir' is a souvenir penny press that imprints crushed pennies with images of John Wilkes Booth, effectively transforming Abraham Lincoln into his assassin.
"After moving to Oklahoma in 2010, I learned of a myth involving the escape of John Wilkes Booth. The penny press is currently being moved to Enid, Oklahoma, where the story takes place. According to this conspiracy theory, Booth escaped and lived out his life in an Enid boarding house using the alias David E. George. The penny-press will provide souvenirs in the original room Booth [George] would have occupied [currently hidden in the storage attic of a furniture store]."
Our American Cousin (2013) Custom Software
"This piece is a software adaptation of the stage play Our American Cousin. It theatrically mixes historical and procedural narratives with viewer interaction and synthesized sound. The work borrows its narrative from the stage play ‘Our American Cousin’ as well as related histories surrounding Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Electronic voices, performed via computer text-to-speech output, complement active geometric forms produced by the software. A computer that performs the piece continuously offers viewers the potential to disrupt the virtual theater by simply moving in front of a webcam. When disrupted, the text-to-speech ‘actors’ pause performance, while pixel versions of John Wilkes Booth and Abraham Lincoln spew from the geometries. After being interrupted for a period of time the computer begins to glitch. When movement in front of the webcam ceases, the software resumes the play from where it left off."