Senior Thesis (Comps) Project

For my Art History Senior Thesis, or so-called “Comps” at Carleton College, I gave a historical comparative analysis of art that has striven in either form or function to provoke illusion in the viewer or cause the psychological phenomenon of immersion. From these works I traced the evolution of illusionistic concepts into the immersive realm of media and, finally, digital media, cinema, and beyond.

I demonstrated a progression of the desire to create illusionistic art and, more importantly, realistic or naturalistic art that ultimately strives to form an artificial reality. This artificial reality is the foundation of naturalistic and illusionistic art throughout history and, again, through comparative analysis with the application of several significant art and media theories I moved to incorporate new media and film theory into my project.

Presentation Slides (QT H.264) Link.
Presentation Notes Link.
Slide Sheet Link.

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Happening: A Video Convention

In the Spring of 2006 I co-developed a happening funded by the Art & Art History Department of Carleton College along with the Carleton Administration. Combining inexpensive and readily available building materials with live video and lighting, we created an indoor video landscape for an estimated 500 participants.

Encouraged to adopt the guise of a fictional character, live wireless video feeds were transmitted within the space, an inflated poly dome roughly 100′ x 200′, and projected out onto the walls, creating space within space and video echo for the guests and amplifying their assumed characters. The project became, through the participants, a living video amoeba and a great success (outside shot seen above).

Exam Anxiety

Nearing the end of my time at Carleton College, I sought to find and document those events – in a confluence of very special conditions – that only occur in such a college environment. The removed, rural setting of the college and intensely academic though thoroughly eccentric student populous produces many of these events and one very special one occurs the Friday before the first exam at the end of the term.

Winter term especially, with its pent up academic frustration and incubated angst, requires a unique outlet through performance and song. This slideshow piece attempts to follow the happenings in the Carleton College Gould Library through the night, from improvisation performances deriding the school across the river, St. Olaf, to the acapella groups the school is famous for.

Presented in Flash. Link.

What Happened to the Miscellany?

This audio piece, recorded and produced with Emily Schwing (NPR News, Carleton College ‘05), examines the history of the Carleton Miscellany through an interview with and poetry reading by Mike Kowaleski of the Carleton College English Department. The teaser:

In its heyday, The Carleton Miscellany was a contemporary, avante-garde and unpretentious compilation of some of the best comtemporary American literature. For exactly 20 years subscribers from all over the country -and world – flocked to its pages, consuming the work by some of the greatest authors to come out of the 20th century.

But what happened? Why did the Miscellany disappear just as abruptly as it started? And where are the back issues today? One of Carleton’s favorite English professors, Mike Kowalewski of the Carleton English department, introduces us to what was once one of the Midwest’s most celebrated and sought-after private publications.

Original Piece

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Piece in KRLX’s Periscope Program

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Radio Best Practices Project

In the Fall of 2005 the staff at KRLX-FM in Northfield, Minnesota began an overhaul of the then skimpy training materials used to educate upcoming on-air staff. Previously training had been primarily ad-hoc and informal, relyintg mostly on the immediate memory of staff at hand.

We decided to change this by writing a comprehensive training reference to be entitled the “KRLX Operator Handbook,” referring to the generic “operator” as opposed to DJ, newscaster, board operator, etc. Covering the basics of audio through the delicate process of selecting music for a themed program, it tackles in a thorough and sometimes entertaining way the basics of working in a top-notch college radio environment.

My work comprising roughly two-thirds of the writing and approximately one quarter of the editing work in this document as well as the vast majority of design and formatting that went into the finished product. Completed in the Fall of 2006, it has since been transferred into Wiki format and will serve as the foundation for future generations of Carleton College radio students.

Operator Handbook in PDF Link.