PEDAGOGICAL STATEMENT
My main objective as an educator is to encourage students, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, to become active, autonomous, and critical contributors to their chosen field of research. Both in my current position and in the past, I have taught a wide body of students ranging in majors and research concentrations. My students range from studio art majors to engineering (mechanical and electrical), as well as creative computation, design (graphic and industrial), performing artists, and beyond. I strive to inspire my students to explore alternative perspectives, consider potential developments beyond popular trend, and to actively question and participate in a free discussion about the aforementioned. I am committed to the exploration and development of experimental art forms while constantly calling to traditional practices production and historical contexts, believing firmly in the importance of conceptual framework regardless of the tool set. In the classroom I encourage an informal environment with open dialogue, hoping to prepare students with the necessary vernacular and self-assurance to speak effectively about their work. Thus aspiring to encourage my students to become active participants not only in the artistic and academic communities, but in their larger local and national communities as well. It is my intention that by using this approach, students will seek to become committed participants in providing a much needed dialogue between artistic disciplines, research fields, and promoting public access to various artistic practices.
Today, students find themselves propelled against serious pressure to focus their studies around an academic tract that will ultimately provide them with a lucrative career following graduation. This pressure can lead them to a path of consuming popular technology and the classes that offer them the opportunity to enhance their resume proficiencies. While it is important to ensure that students graduate with strong technical dexterity, I believe that it is just as important that they develop broader conceptual and methodological skills that will make them even more uniquely valued as young professionals. I equally emphasize artistic technique and approach within my students’ practices. I believe firmly in instilling strong visual literacy, eminence in both verbal and written communication, technical mastery, and assisting and mentoring students who are interested in conveying their ideas and convictions through artistic practice, regardless of their chosen medium.
Theoretically and conceptually, I am interested in offering students a wide range of texts and practice based examples of contemporary and historical philosophers, theorists, artists, collectives, and other creatives to further their understanding of how to conceive of / execute as well as deconstruct progressive conceptual framework strategies. Moreover, it is important to me that students have both a historical and current understanding of the creative climate in relation to postmodernism, post structuralist theory, as well as New Media histories.
Teaching in light of the digital age in which we exist, calls for the insertion of a process of recurring assessment both of my students’ progress and my curricula and practices as an educator due to the shifting nature of computer technology. I strive to continually consider how I can stimulate students to think independently, to be self-motivated, and remain culturally engaged both in their academic and local communities beyond graduation. I pride myself in entering any instructional position with an openness and inquisition towards my students and their ideas as well as towards subject matter being introduced. When designing a curriculum, I always strive to foster an environment that urges students to discuss their work, ask questions, and explore unconventional approaches as often as possible. By practicing these notions in my own work, I hope to inspire students to take risks, trust their instincts, acknowledge failures when they occur, and to examine them as points of departure towards the overall progression of their artistic, academic, and personal callings.
TEACHING APPOINTMENTS
2015- Present: Program Head and Assistant Professor of Sculpture/4D, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach CA
2011-2015: Assistant Professor of Digital/Hybrid Media, Southern Methodist University, Dallas TX
COURSES CREATED AND TAUGHT
DIGITAL FABRICATION LAB
ELECTRONICS / MECHANICS / KINETICS
TECHNOLOGY AND THE BODY
SYSTEMS
CREATIVE CODING
RESPONSIVE ARTS
COMPUTATIONAL SCULPTURE
INTRODUCTION TO GRAPHICAL PROGRAMMING
BIOART SEMINAR: NATURE AS MATERIAL
INTRO AND INTERMEDIATE SCULPTURE
MFA GRADUATE STUDIES
DIGITAL FABRICATION LAB
This course is designed to draw inspiration from contemporary artists and designers who explore ideas and applications of 3D modeling, scanning, and computational sculpting output methods to gain a practical experience with basic modeling of complex objects and environments. Students will engage with 3D printing, CNC milling, and laser cutting to work through studio oriented projects. Students will be able to comprehend how visual information is created and produced in 3D space, apply and create materials for surface and environment appearance, render images and export these designs as physical objects that showcase student creative decisions and concepts. This course is designed as a fun and creative approach to relating traditional sculptural and space aesthetics, form, and material, in a 3D environment, its is not a character animation course. We will have intelligent and informed critiques for every assignment.
ELECTRONICS / MECHANICS / KINETICS
Students use advanced processing tools to experiment and generate interactive pieces, art robots, and works that respond to stimuli. This studio class is designed to introduce students to non-screen based digital art that exists in real space. This course is for students interested in installation, sculpture, performance, robotics, and electronics in art. It is open to students from all Meadows disciplines.
TECHNOLOGY AND THE BODY
Students will be introduced to wearable art and wearable based performance art through survey lectures, video documentation, reading, technical instruction, and off campus research trips. Students will specifically explore the intersection of material, interactivity, technology, the body (both human and non-human), and the conceptual potentials within the context of wearable art. Students will be introduced to introductory level programming through both the Lilypad and Arduino micro controllers as well as basic electronics. Students will will produce their own wearable prototypes both individually and collaboratively working up to one final completed piece.
BIOART SEMINAR: NATURE AS MATERIAL
A combined seminar and studio course introducing artists and collaborative groups working with nature, science, and alternative organic methods as material to produce sculpture, installations, and performance based work. Students explore nature as material and research based art practices that engage in biology, the environment, genetics, technoscience, and the use and collaboration with plants and animals, organic, and synthetically ‘organic’ materials. Activities include visits to various laboratories and exhibitions as well as lectures from visiting guest speakers.
OBSERVATION
Seeing is not as simple as it looks. What people see, how they see, and how and why they chose to represent their experience of the world in a particular form and through a particular medium are fundamental questions for the artist. Students experiment with various media while exploring the history, theory, and application of these resources of representation in visual art; they learn the differences among looking, scanning, and seeing; and they encounter a range of resources, from theories of perspective in drawing and painting through 3-D modeling and digital simulations of reality.
TEACHING OUTSIDE OF UNIVERSITIES
[ ELECTRONICS ARTS CAMP ]
The term “New Media” covers a wide variety of various forms of sculpture, performance, installation, and wearable artworks. In this class, 6th-8th grade students will access electronic art through the medium of basic electronics to make their own responsive new media sound projects, art making devices (drawing machines), and light sculptures. Students will create drawing devices, electronic sculptures, responsive sound objects, and collaborative interactive installations. Students will gain an understanding of artists working in this medium and will produce their own electronically based artworks both individually and working in groups. The goals of this course are to introduce students to basic principals of interactive art and new electronic materials that can be used in art making. No experience with electronics needed and all skill levels are welcome.
[ TECHNOLOGY CAMP LEAD INSTRUCTOR ]
As the lead curriculum developer, series of courses functioned as a 4 month series of individualized camps that were taught at the Adler Planetarium. In coordination with the Senior STEM Educator, these courses entail developing robotic systems using the LEGO NXT system that revolve around Math, Science, Technology, and Engineering in within a curriculum that explores outer space and space technologies.
[ AMERICAN ROBOTICS ACADEMY ]
American Robotics Academy offered K-12 Students after school experience in building robots using the lego NXT robotics platforms.