What’s My Thesis?

Artist @rakeemc and I discuss our love hate relationship with the video game Overwatch, and how it’s the only thing that fills us with unhindered rage, before getting into the lore behind the anime and comic books that inform our world view.

Artist @rakeemc discuses being pigeon holed and politicized, like when his work is described as body positive, but his body is not representative of the people the body positive movement is for. We talk influences, passive aggressive praise, being interviewed in print, toxic fandom, and how many of the intentions of black artists get overshadowed by the art world’s need to make the work exclusively about blackness.

Artist @femmester and I discuss what how our trust in the photograph has changed in our lifetimes. We consider the implications going forward, and ask what happens to the surveillance state when we no longer believe photographs and video footage.

Artist @femmester catches me in a particularly conspiratorial mind frame to discuss photography experienced as a fusion of different religions, cultures, and philosophies.

Artist @zo_broo and I discuss America’s secret police, white female privilege, and civil rights activists who were murdered for speaking out about class struggle (MLK and Fred Hampton). We highlight a recent incident where white citizens had to step in with cameras to protect a black family from police brutality, and Lorenzo changes my perspective on my relationship to racially hostile people and spaces.

Artist @zo_broo and I go deep on structural racism, imperialism and oppression without a white person present to get defensive and make the conversation about them. We call out the police as a protected class and examine some of the symbols in our culture that reveal the true functions of these systems of racial oppression.

Artist and @montevistaprojects member @kellanbarnebeyking and I discover the differences in our similar world views, and share the challenges we have consuming all news sources. We discuss Air America Radio and their coverage of the George W. Bush administration’s push to change NPR’s funding structure in response to critical coverage of the Iraq war. And I stress out Kellan with a Chaos Magic concept about truth.

Artist @kellanbarnebeyking briefly shares art collective @montevistaprojects  mission statement, before taking us on a journey from Pre-Colombian California to the geopolitical conflicts that affect the area today. With land and water rights as a central focus, we talk immigration, gentrification, and I learn why so many names we take for granted in LA, like Mulholland or Stanford, are tied to Southern California’s access to water.

Artist and Art Doctor Dr. Bethanie Irons and I dive deeper into her dissertation "Becoming Within Entangled Spaces of Artistic Practice: An Illustrated Autoethnography" about instagram, breaking down the ways it affects artist's practice: motivation, reflection, place, research, experimentation, networking and promotion, curation and display, connection to other people, and it's complicated: love hate relationship. We consider "felt cute, might delete" as a way of being vulnerable while also trying to control how an image is read, and acknowledge that IG is tough even when you like it, and it serves you.

Artist and recently hooded art doctor @bethanie_irons takes us through the process of defending her dissertation on Instagram. We talk in depth about her research, and how IG thrives as a tool for artists. We contemplate likes as a reward and punishment system, and pick up on the nuances of regional art communities. With a special shout out to South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Artist and high school photography teacher @katiekline and I discuss how the rate at which technological innovation accelerates is responsible for the generation gap between Baby Boomers and Millennials. We talk generational feminism, powerful white men applying an outdated approach to disseminating propaganda, and what it’s like to teach a generation of kids who participate in active shooter drills knowing the world might end because of the way adults have set up their society.

Artist and high school photography teacher @katiekline talks about Instagram related FOMO from the perspective of someone who’s process is rooted in consuming photography. She shares her experience teaching self portraiture to a generation raised on selfies, and describes an emerging archetype of student photographers that don’t take her creative photo class, but are known on campus for using DSLRs to make their classmates look hot on social media.

LA Stories and Poems - Alex Andrew Sanchez - Artist and Poet @alex_andrew_sanchez and I share stories from our quotidian LA experience. We discuss the Illusions that being isolated in a car creates, Los Angels as a political space, and close out with regional poetry from zines, books and loose pages.

Artist and Poet @alex_andrew_sanchez shares his interest in the convergence of painting and writing. Influenced by regional poetry and literature about Los Angeles, Alex is not as interested in stories of murder as he is in "the everyday violence that doesn't kill you, like riding the bus." If it sounds like Charles Bukowski might come up in this episode, it's because he does.

Artist and Licensed Therapist @michellee_chong and I talk art practice and reminisce on the days when rolling around with a SLR film camera strapped around your neck gave you a sense of comfort and responsibility to document your social circle.

Artist and Licensed therapist Michelle Chong talks about her postmodern therapy practice in relation to art making, while I share some of my negative experiences with cognitive behavioral therapy and being turned away by modernist therapists who told me I needed to go to rehab for smoking pot. 

Artist Micah Wood and I talk about a variety of political issues relevant to the 2020 presidential race from a leftist perspective, and Micah has helpful grooming advice for Julian Assange.

Artist Micah Wood shares his research tying Gustave Courbet's L'Origin du Monde to psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, actress Silvia Bataille and intellectual George Bataille, before I pick his brain about contemporary painting.

Artist and Author Laura Hyunjhee Kim takes us on a fun ride sharing ideas from her upcoming speculative theory book “Entering the Blobosphere: A Musing on Blobs” Available June 17, published by @the5accomplices. Support Experimental Non-Fiction, and pre-order a copy today!

Artist Adrian Paules and I take a non-academic approach to demystifying postmodernism.

Artist Adrian Paules talks about a screen crush he developed while researching Anne Carlisle.

Continuing, Jessica Gispert and I talk about growing up Cuban American in Miami, as we bro out in this primer about being a kid in a hispanic culture that was allowed immigrate to the USA and flourish as refugees. 

Artist Jessica Gispert and I talk about growing up around Cuban occultism in Miami. We have fun getting into the origins of Santeria while remaining careful not to upset the saints. Also, animal sacrifice...

 

Continuing, artist Natalja Kent gives me space to talk white privilege, racism on the liberal left, and why NPR listeners are problematic in this intense conversation about cultural wounds. We don’t fix anything, but I feel better after having my frustrations heard and processed by a compassionate white person.

Artist Natalja Kent stops by to share her experience with embodiment practices, and introduces me to practical techniques like body scans and the supper aggressive sounding Feldenkrais method. I say the words Supple Leopard for some reason, and we set the stage for an intense, but constructive conversation about cultural wounds in next weeks show.

Continuing our conversation, Jamie Hamilton and I talk about the geopolitical strategies the US adopted during the Cold War, and the rise of the proxy war, before going on tangents about his last episode on Telematic Space, the pain of voting in the last midterm election, and why I think Donald trump is a Magician.

Returning Guest Jamie Hamilton (Telematic Space) helps me go through some of my remaining notes on the Atomic Age. Not a Sequel, not a reboot, we cover entirely new information from the earlier series of episodes with the same name. So if you Jump in here, you won't be lost. We talk atomic cars, atomic tourism and project plowshare.

Continuing our conversation David Alekhuogie wonders if social media is putting constraints on process by establishing parameters artists have to work well with to be seen on social media. Where is your home base? David offers alternative approaches to networking for those of us that don’t feel our work belongs in that space.