Statement of Work

•

A key organizing principle of my research agenda is the dichotomy between signal and noise. In an act of communication, the signal is the intended message and noise is everything else that can get in the way of a clear reading of that message. Some issues associated with this concept include the fact that technology mediates communication, technology leaves an imprint on any message, and technology develops toward ever-increasing transparency: acts of communication always tend toward minimizing noise and maximizing signal, making the mechanisms facilitating communication hidden. However, in an increasingly digitally mediated social climate, ignoring the effects of media on the content of a speech act is socially irresponsible.

I am preoccupied with short-circuiting and queering this goal by devising processes for drawing attention to the unique character that communication technologies and social situations impart onto acts of communication. My new media, sound-based, performance work addresses issues of gender, intimacy, and the technologically mediated body. In this work, I struggle to speak as computers and other communication technologies frustrate my desire to communicate. It grapples with the role of the voice in the projection of gender identity into the social world.