Here is sampling of the public events I have taken part in, such as exhibitions, festivals, conferences, artist's talks, workshops, and projects not listed elsewhere on this site. Although exhibitions are not the focus of my practice — which has been largely oriented towards writing, performance, and virtuality — my work has been exhibited internationally in art galleries, museums, and festivals. The most recent events are listed on the home page.
Out of the Archive
2017-18. I had a UCHRI grant to investigate neglected documents in minor archives. Joining me on this adventure were Maya Gurantz as chief collaborator, and Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, Nicole Beer, Kavita Philip, and Audra Eagle Yun as archive fanatics. More on this will be forthcoming as we publish the results of our researchers.
Writing the Future Conference
May 31, 2017. I took part in the Writing the Future Conference at UC Irvine.
Memory & Meaning Conference
April 28, 2017. I spoke at the Memory & Meaning Conference at UC Irvine on my graphic book project with Jonathan Alexander, Burning Time. More about that to come.
Deep Time University
April 2017. I took part in Michael Ano's Deep Time University project with a piece entitled Homage to Bartlett
Wikipedia Meetup
April 7, 2017. I cohosted a Wikipedia meetup at UC Irvine for Women's History Month, and as part of the national Art+Feminism project. New editors are welcome: we'll help you get started. Hope to see you! Humanities Gateway 1341, 1-5 pm.
empyre forum on bioart
February 2017. I took part in an online forum on bioart on empyre organized by Renate Ferro, with Tarsh Bates and Margherita Pevere.
Panel on social media narrative
November 15-21, 2016. I took part in Judy Malloy's Facebook-based panel, "Issues in Creating Contemporary Social Media-Based Narrative," held asynchronously in conjunction with her Rutgers Camden Digital Studies Center online class on social media narrative. Fellow panelists included Deena Larsen, Mark Marino, Rob Wittig, Judith Adele, Chris Rodley, Cathy Marshall, and others.
Symposium on Philip K. Dick
April 28, 2016. I gave a talk on ekphrasis in the work of Philip K. Dick and William Gibson for the "Philip K. Dick in the OC: Virtually Real, Really Virtual" symposium connected with the 2016 Acacia Conference.
Art+Feminism Editathon @ UC Irvine
March 6, 2016. Co-organized an Art+Feminism editathon in honor of Women's History Month at UC Irvine.
The Land Mark Show
Photographic panoramas from my "Western Waters" series were included in the exhibition "The Land Mark Show" at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Oct. 9 through Dec. 27, 2015.
New School Panel on Wikipedia and Feminism
April 1, 2015. Participated in a panel on Wikipedia and feminism at the New School organized by Anne Balsamo. Other panelists included Marcea Decker and Dorothy Howard, with Veronica Paredes as our moderator.
"Safety, Risk, Security"
Feb. 19, 2015. Invited speaker, discussing avatarism in this series at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Irvine, CA.
In a Mere Full of Rime: Finissage
Feb. 15, 2015. Taped conversation with ICI director Lise Patt at the finissage of the Institute of Cultural Inquiry's collaborative installation-laboratory.
Wikipedia editathon
Workshop Leader of editathon at the Institute of Cultural Inquiry, Los Angeles, May 2014.
"The Performance of Authenticity in the Arts"
Wed., Mar. 19, 2014, 12 pm. I took part in a monthlong series of talks arranged by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Orange County on the meaning of the real and the authentic in the arts. I talked about the book I'm writing on fictive art. Other speakers in the series include Edward Cella, Julia Lupton, Ted Wells, and Ian Monroe.
Shulamit Gallery panel
Thurs., Mar. 6, 2014. I took part in a panel discussion of video artist Jonas Becker's exhibition entitled "Zol Zayn / What If" at Shulamit Gallery in Santa Monica. Shown here is a still from Becker's video installation The Pile.
Wikipedia editathon at the ICI
Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014, 12-5 pm. I oversaw a Wikipedia editathon at the Institute of Cultural Inquiry. It was open to all, and especially to those new to editing Wikipedia. It focused on artists, scholars, and other visualists who have contributed to the artist book form.
LASER talk
Feb. 13, 2014. I gave a pechakucha-style brief talk at UCLA on recent and current research projects with a sci-tech angle. It will be in the ARTSCI Presentation Room in the CNSI building at 7 pm. Directions.
L.A. Art Book Fair
Jan. 31–Feb. 2, 2014. I took part in the L.A. Art Book Fair with the Institute of Cultural Inquiry at the Geffen Contemporary in Los Angeles.
"Feminist Infrastructures and Cultures"
April 2013. I gave a talk on the work of Beatriz da Costa, "Less Dismal Science," at this terrific conference organized by FemTechNet at UCSD. Here's the conference program.
Feminist Wikipedia editathon
October 2012. I took part in this editathon organized by FemTechNet and Wikipedia, at Claremont Graduate Colleges. It was both fun and inspiring. Here's a post about the event by Wikipedia editor Adrianne Wadewitz.
"Working on Brecht"
April 27, 2012. I took part in a mini-symposium on Brechtian theater featuring Brecht scholars and theater makers. It's the final event in the "By & About Brecht" mini-festival that started with my Galileo in America and continued with a production of Mother Courage and Her Children.
"Interlife Crisis"
April 5-27, 2012. My 2x12-foot digital print World of World: The Adventures of Malbec and Player was included in this show at the Fictilis Gallery in Seattle that "addresses the divide, if one can be said to exist, between internet and life."
"OSCENE 2010"
Feb. 20-May 16, 2010. I took part in this survey exhibition with a new performance-installation work entitled Hangmen Also Die. On the opening and closing days of the exhibition, there were live performances in conjunction with the installation.
"Professor Dialogues"
Jan. 16-Feb. 27, 2010.
I took part in this exhibition at I-5 Gallery in Los Angeles, curated by Marla Koosed, that was part of a series of shows looking graduate art programs in Southern California. The work I exhibited was part of the "Ghost Galleries" series. Participants in a prior show in the series ("MFA Conversations") were asked to recommend faculty members who had "made a difference in their graduate experience." I'm proud to have been included in this group.
CAA 2010
Feb. 13, 2010. I took part in the College Art Association annual conference, presenting a paper as part of the panel "Autofictions, Avatars, and Alter Egos: Fabricating Artists," organized by Monica Kjellman-Chapin. My paper was entitled: "Social Proxies and Real-World Avatars: Impersonation as a Mode of Capitalist Production."
WOW Forum
September 2009. I took part in an artist's forum at the Beall Center, UC Irvine, about the Laguna Art Museum show "WOW: Emergent Media Phenomenon," moderated by Beall Center Associate Director David Familian.
"090909 UpStage Festival": Salvation
Sept. 9, 2009. I took part as an online performer and graffiti artist in this cyberformance work by Marlena Corcoran that was inspired in part by the emergency landing of a jetliner in the Hudson River in January 2009. This performance was part of the UpStage 090909 festival of online performance; it was viewable both by web broswer and at various venues, including Norsk Telemuseum (Oslo), Eclectic Tech Carnival (Istanbul), Muffatwerk Cafe (Munich); and MAD art center (Eindhoven, Netherlands). It took place on UpStage in the "Salvation" cyberstage.
"WOW: Emergent Media Phenomenon"
June 14-October 4, 2009. An exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum about the popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft. The show included both artists who work for the game's producer, Blizzard Entertainment, and artists who have created work addressing how the game reflects our culture, including Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, Anne-Marie Schleiner, Eddo Stern, and Alexander Galloway. On Sept. 13, I gave an artist's talk at the museum about my project for the show. Many thanks to videographer Lev Anderson for doing such a great job with the video of this talk.
"Space Surface Interface"
May 15, 2009. I took part in a conference sponsored by the UCI Design Alliance on the role of design in shaping the literal and symbolic relationships between spaces, surfaces and interfaces.
Fondazione Querini Stampalia: Salvation
May 20 2009. I took part as an online performer and graffiti artist in this cyberformance work by Marlena Corcoran that was inspired in part by the emergency landing of a jetliner in the Hudson River in January 2009. The performance was sponsored by the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice. It took place on UpStage in the "Salvation" cyberstage.
"Mediated"
Jan. 31-April 4, 2009. An exhibition at the California Museum of Photography in which I showed a video installation based on my Playing the Rapture performance work. For Playing the Rapture: Tiny, I projected edited video onto a miniature version of the original set. Installation photos can be found at the Playing the Rapture website. Opening: Jan. 31, 6-10 pm. Show catalog available as a pdf (print version available through museum).
"Out of School"
Jan. 24-Feb. 27 2009. An exhibition at the Brea Art Gallery, in which I showed "Chronovacuum", a video constructed from found webcam imagery, with an original soundtrack.
"Scalable Relations: Playing the World(s)"
Jan. 23-March 20, 2009. An exhibition at UC San Diego's gallery@CalIT2, in which I showed a video installation based on my Playing the Rapture performance work. Playing the Rapture (Point of View) had video of the two protagonists (and antagonists) appearing in separate video monitors, surrounded by machinima projections. Installation photos can be found at the Playing the Rapture website, and the exhibition catalog can be ordered from lulu.com. Information on the show, curated by Christiane Paul, can be found at the Scalable Relations website. Opening: Jan. 23, 6-9 pm; artist's talk, 5-6 pm. An interview with me and Robert Nideffer on our projects for this show. In February 2009, on the -empyre- mailing list, the show participants discussed the notion of scalable relations.
"Future of Writing" Conference
November 6-7 2008. I presented a talk at this conference about my use of networked communication technologies to help generate and work with text in my original performance projects.
"080808 UpStage Festival": Noxiterra
August 2008. I participated in this festival of online performance, premiering a new project entitled Noxiterra that incorporates a synthetic biome-based world as a performance environment. The piece was improvised live on the web over the course of two days, and one segment was simultaneously projected in the ZKMax Gallery, Munich. You can check out my new Avatarist blog, where I am uploading materials from this project, including the first installment of a graphic novel.
"080808 UpStage Festival": Water Under the Bridge
August 2008. I took part in this piece by Marlena Corcoran as an online performer. It was included in the 080808 UpStage Festival, and projected simultaneously in the ZKMax Gallery, Munich.
How Much Taboo Does Art Need?
May 2008. In May, I and my students participated as contributors to the Wieviel Tabu braucht die Kunst?" project organized by Ursula Endlicher, Ela Kagel, and Anke Zimmermann in Zurich, Switzerland.
"Recent Projects"
April 2008. Invited talk on my multimedia and mixed-reality performance works at UMBC Visual Arts Department for the Visiting Artists Lecture Series, together with my chief collaborator, director Robert Allen.
"Demotic"
2006. Invited talks at Location One Gallery, New York (November) and UCLA as part of the DARNET Information Exchange (March).
"PERFORM.MEDIA"
September 2006. Artist's presentation on "Demotic" at this "transdisciplinary festival and symposium of creativity, research, and technoculture" at the University of Indiana, Bloomington. Co-presentor: Robert Allen.
"Flesh + Chips"
August 2005. Invited talk, with artist Gail Wright, in conjunction with the exhibition "Brides of Frankenstein," San Jose Museum of Art.
"ALT+CTRL: Rethinking Computer Games"
January 2005. Invited lecture at UCLA Design | Media Arts Program in the "Games People Play" lecture series.
"Anthologie der Kunst"
November 2004. Invitational exhibition, Academy of Arts, Berlin, Germany.
Arts Congress L.A.
August 2004. Panelist for "Digital Media and Performing Arts" panel of the Arts Congress of the L.A. County Summer Arts Internship Program.
"Media Commedia"
March 2004. Invited talk at the Center for Art and Technology, Northwestern University, Chicago [March].
SEAMUS and FEMF
March-April2004. I wrote the text for composer Mark Zaki's sound composition "Everything We Say Is Deformed", which was presented at the Society of Electroacoustic Music in the U.S. (SEAMUS) in March and at the Florida Electronic Music Festival (FEMF) in April. (This text was originally written for Reading Frankenstein in 2003.)
CAA
February 2004. Co-chair (with Lise Patt) of the "Fictive Art" panel, College Art Association Conference.
Selling the presidency on eBay
2000. As part of The Roman Forum 2000, I attempted to sell the U.S. presidency on ebay. The presidency was listed on ebay under the category "Collectibles: Political (US): Presidency" and described as a "unique object ... 210 years old and in good condition-- a real collector's item". It eventually sold for a bargain $10 million, which was then the largest amount ebay would accept as a reserve price. After the auction closed, ebay cancelled the sale. This may have been the first attempt to sell the an elective office on ebay as a prank, and it spawned a host of imitators. It was designed to draw attention to the fact that by that point in his campaign for the U.S. presidency, George W. Bush had reportedly raised on the order of $95 million from only around 800 individuals out of the entire nation. If 800 people can own the presidency, why not one?I am an Associate Director of this lab at UC Irvine. The lab sponsored the ALT+CTRL game show and has served as the development site and/or host for a number of unique game-related projects. More on this project.
"Improvisation and Globalization"
Fall 2002. Resident Fellow in this research group at the Humanities Research Institute, UC-Irvine; conveners: George Lewis, Adriene Jenik, and Susan Leigh Foster.
Faculty Show
Oct.-Nov. 2002. University of California, Irvine, Studio Art faculty exhibition at the Beall Center for Art and Technology and the University Gallery.
"Reactions"
2001-02. Group exhibition in response to the destruction of the World Trade Center. Venues: Exit Art (New York, Jan.-Mar. 2001); The Williamson Gallery at Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, CA, August 2001). "Reactions" has been acquired by the Library of Congress for its permanent collection, with selections featured in the LOC exhibition "Witness and Response" (Washington, D.C., Sept.-Oct. 2002). Full poster.
"Out of Context"
2001. Group exhibition, Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum, California State University, San Bernardino.
"Milestones for Peace"
2001. International traveling group show whose venues have included the 2001 Venice Biennale (Italy) as well as sites in Tel Aviv (Israel) and New York City. "Milestones for Peace" is scheduled for permanent exhibition in the future Rabin Peace Center, Tel Aviv (now under construction). All works commissioned for this invitational show were based on a truncated tetrahedron of pink dolomite; my entry, "Paper Scissors Rock," shows how the rock would look if its surface could be unfolded.
"Global Brain—Bonner Wissenchaftsnacht"
June 2000. Festival in Bonn, Germany, for which I directed an Internet performance sponsored by Friedrich Wilhelms Universität.
ISEA
2000. Panelist for session "Don't Tell Me How It Ends", International Society for Electronic Arts Conference, Paris.
CAA
2000. Panelist for session "The WWW and the New Art Marketplace," College Art Association Conference, Los Angeles.
New York Digital Salon
1998. Group exhibition, School of Visual Arts, New York.
New York International Fringe Festival
1998. Performance festival held at various venues on the Lower East Side, New York; include my project "Still Lies Quiet Truth".
Mainz Intermediale
1998. I was an Internet performer in Marlena Corcoran's Gallbladder Sonata for this festival.
documenta X
1997. Invitational exhibition in Kassel, Germany, for which I directed Internet performances ("Orpheus") through Club Media.
Venice Biennale
1997. Invitational exhibition in Venice, Italy, for which I directed Internet performances ("The White Whale") through Club Media.
Video Wall, 55 Broad St.
1997. I was invited to direct an Internet performance ("Silent Orpheus") for the International Day Without Art.
"blast5drama"
1996. Group exhibition at Sandra Gering Gallery, New York.
"Password Ferdydurke"
1996. Group exhibition at Postmasters Gallery, New York.
Art Dirt
1996. New York-based web radio show on which I broadcast a radio play, with follow-up interview.
New York Digital Salon
1995. Group exhibition, School of Visual Arts, New York.
"Energy"
1995. Group exhibition, Visual Arts Gallery, New York.
"Who's Got the Body?"
1995. Web exhibition hosted by the School of Visual Arts, New York.
"Blast 4: Bioinformatica"
1995. Group exhibition, Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, and Xavier Lopez Gallery, London.
"The Senses We Have No Name For"
1995. Group exhibition, SVA West Side Gallery, New York.
European Media Arts Festival
1994. Group exhibition, Germany.