Twenty six of my thirty one years have, in some way, involved performance: from community musicals where I performed along side my mother, to gravity-defying circus performance for the Christopher Reeves foundation. I have also worked purposefully to provide educational access for populations that have not traditionally been able to engage with the arts. In this respect it was my work for an educational outreach program in rural New Hampshire and Vermont that had a deeply resonant impact on my view of the power of arts in education. Over the course of a five year period working for Keene State College’s Upward Bound Program I was a residential director, teacher, advisor, counselor, college-coach, and facilitator. As I transitioned to another position at Keene State my role changed from supporting potential students to supporting college faculty and staff. In my role as Rich Media Specialist for Keene State’s Center for Engagement, Learning, and Teaching I worked as an instructional designer, blackboard administrator, media maker, researcher, and faculty collaborator. While working full time in higher education, I also continued to develop as a performer through an ongoing circus training regimen. In thinking about graduate school I saw that I had been shaped by those three distinct forces: performance based art, technology, and a passion for teaching. I came to ASU to create a life where those three forces might co-exist in a meaningful and transformative program of study. In fact, that’s what I’ve found at ASU. In my first year I will have participated in, or contributed to (as performer, media creator, or system designer) eleven Phoenix-area productions while also having served as instructor or TA to over 350 students. My introduction to ASU has been, to say it mildly, a whirlwind of exposure to new ideas, methods, and opportunities to collaborate or participate. Especially interesting to me has been the opportunity to engage other artists in a critical dialogue about the impact, consequences, and outcomes of including digital media in live performance.
I sometimes find it difficult to know what I will be doing in the next ten days, let alone ten years. That said, my vision for a professional life after graduating from ASU does include some specific goals. Without a doubt, my work will include some element of physical computing to address the issues of how to integrate real-time data from performers into the experience of seeing a theatrical production. Specifically, I plan to start a circus company with a heavy emphasis on the incorporation of traditional and generative media as elements of the performance. This involves the development of both physical apparatuses capable of capturing and transmitting meaningful data, as well as the development of applications to parse and interpret the data for playback-system integration. Further, I think this kind of work is potentially the most meaningful when partnered with an educational institution where performers, media makers, and technicians can collaborate on this process. Finally, my hope is that ten years after graduation I will be in a position to spearhead the implementation a of an integrated technology and circus program for the development of artists looking to transcend the traditional ideas of physical and mediated performance.
