Telephone Hills

An ongoing project researching and making work about my great grandfather's work in the oil industry and about the strains and counterstrains of this particular kind of racialized environmental destruction that live on in my family.

The traces and documentations of this work can be found on this page.

Video Zines

Some video zines I've made about different times in my life. Most are embarrasing, but embarrassment has its place.

Watch them on their own super special page **HERE**

Mobile Library

A fun little box to carry around the digital version of the Library of Approximate Location, make it accessible to anyone nearby through a local wifi network, and power it all with a small solar panel. This piece uses Library Box software to power the library.

Now Again

installed at This Will Take Time

Two screens endlessly rotate through the words "Never Again Is Now," calling into question assertions that technology will help dampen United States appetite for genocide.

This piece was inspired by the work of Densho, please consider donating to them.

Military Powerpoint Karaoke

A night of powerpoint karaoke, at the Internet Archive, presented using one of the 57,000 or so powerpoint presentations captured by Internet Archive from .mil domains during the end-of-term webcrawl. Co-presented with the inimitable Liat Berdugo.

Hanksite Candles

A set of 100% beeswax candles molded from Hanksite (Na22K(SO4)9(CO3)2Cl) crystals dug from the mud of Searles Lake during the annual Gem-O-Rama, which closes out the #notableholes tour every year.

Some California Watering Places

presentation at San Francisco Art Book Fair

A presentation tracing the water supplies of the Bay Area as they erode through the layers of shame in the history of California and trickle past my own family's history in the state.

Mountain, Ocean, Desert -or- Institutes of Place and other Approximate Locations

presentation at Place Talks

A presentation covering the history of the library at the Foresta Institute for Ocean and Mountain studies in Washoe Valley, Nevada, and following its unlikely path as it made its way down to the Bay Area along a route mirroring the travels of my own family between California and Nevada.

Reporting Back

presentation at Libraries + Archives in the Anthropocene colloquium

A presentation reporting back on several of the most recent installations of the Library of Approximate Location and speculating about what foundation might be constructed for sustainable resource futures in the Western United States using libraries and archives as a model, or conversely, what deficiencies in the library and archives sustainability model might be mapped out by seemingly futile exercises such as installing digital libraries in the middle of the desert.

a Postcard

for the anniversary celebration of Wolfman Books

A postcard featuring a photo of my family in Utah and an inquisition from Ursula Le Guin into the nature of information preservation in regards to different cultural methods of knowing. (why do we keep so much stuff?)

Brief History of Bravo 20

presentation at Living Room Light Exchange

A personal re-examination of the history of the Bravo 20 bombing range in Churchill County, Nevada, with the intention of introducing attendees to the odd situation of the location and making some inquiries into the possibility of land acquisition, under the mining laws of 1852, for the extraction of cultural resources.

Two Previously-Unknown Nevada Hot Springs

publication

An official Library of Approximate Location publication looking into the specific characteristics of two hot springs in Nevada which were previously unknown to Library personnel.

Inventory of Rights of Way

publication

An official Library of Approximate Location (pre name change) publication documenting the characteristics of five different railroad rights of way across Nevada, California, and Oregon. Partially printed with receipt printers, which I thought was pretty clever.

No Services (75 Miles)

publication

A publication featuring photos taken across several road trips through Utah, Oregon, Nevada, California, Washington, and British Columbia.

Making Space

presentation at Common Field Convening, 2017, as Place Talks (with Nicole Lavelle) alongside Living Room Light Exchange (Liat Berdugo and Elia Vargas) and Heavy Breathing (Sophia Wang and Lisa Rybovich Crallé).

Presentation outlining the place filled by the library in the larger context of Place Talks as an art project hoping to imagine a commonly-practiced cultural heritage.

Green River Magazine

a print-representation of the Library of Approximate Location.

A print installation of some selected materials from the Library of Approx. Location, chosen to contextualize the town of Green River, Utah. Magazine was a project of Nicole Lavelle and Sarah Baugh.

Truck, in Retrospect

presentation at People and Place at the Thing.

An exploration of the bed of a pickup truck as a site of creative imagining for the both the Library of Approximate Location and as an origin myth for the larger state of Nevada.

Hoarders

A ripping punk band I had the privilege of playing drums in. With Georgia Staples, Hartwick Hanson, and Josh Freydkis.

Four by Four

in a group show at Rufus Ruckus gallery

Four images, each 4" square (I didn't even have an instagram account yet), categorize paths taken across California and Nevada.

Rites of Way

in a group show at Rufus Ruckus gallery

Two hand-stitched (digitally) vertical panoramas document the intricate nature of railroad infrastructure and its ties to popular culture (each location photographed is featured in a scene from a film).

South Portland Railroad Circumambulation Project

A guided walk where participants were led out of Portland, Ore. southern border and back in, all along railroad tracks that paralleled the Willamette River. Completed with Nick Makanna.

Snake Plissken

Another pretty ripping thrash metal band that I had the pleasure of being a part of. Featuring, at various times, Nick Makanna, Charlie Ertola, Jordan Stern, and Chloe Bardacke.