SOCORRO
Exploring a transdisciplinary space of visual art forms, action research, and experimental publishing.
A timeline of investigative placed-based art.
From 2014 to 2019 I took several thousand photographs during my weekly walks in the city of Portland, Oregon. The practice of quietly observing movement and stillness around me became a meditative ritual. I found myself returning to many of the same locations to capture seasonal changes and the effect this had on human interactions. Attempting to push the boundaries of my work, I began journaling the Intersections photo collection. Addresses, dates, and actions were noted in a digital map of ‘space and place’ using open-source applications.
I fell in love with the dark and light contrast of shapes within these images and explored deconstructing them as vector illustrations. Over time I allowed the recognizable elements to devolve into abstract forms. This was the birth of Distal 2020, an experiment in transforming traditional imagery into virtual art objects. Letting go of what grounded my previous work seemed appropriate given the state of the world.
In 2021 I was still searching for ways to expand on this idea. I refer to this process as reflexive experiential modeling; taking a photograph and then mirroring it in various conceptual and physical formats. To inspire a social exchange of ideas, I used objects from Distal to develop a series of digital cloning tools. The Autonomous Replication Creativity Catalog (ARCC) is a library of virtual objects that can be borrowed by any artist for use in their own work.
My ongoing interest in observing the interplay of action/response was the basis for a 2022 graduate thesis project, Art Interaction Mapping. This creative modeling framework provides a conceptual sandbox for visual artists to conduct experiments in the use of technology as a medium. Published as an open education resource tool, AIM is yet another iterative form of place-based inquiry, providing remote students with a virtual space to collaborate on studio work.
Weaving together these varied threads of creative inquiry has led to new opportunities in public placemaking.