RISE San Luis

co-principal investigator (2020 - 2022)

RISE San Luis is a project consisting of artists, educators, community members, and the charitable nonprofit organization History Colorado, all working together to address systemic issues and inequity in the educational experience of K-12 students in San Luis, Colorado.

Artist-educators Kevin Sweet and Sarah McCormick led the development of a digital arts curriculum that locates student learning in critical, creative engagement with the local community and history, and the creation of a media lab housed at Centennial School District R-1. To support the curriculum and lab, teacher resources and professional development workshops were provided over the course of the two-year project. An essential component of the process was establishing San Luis community members as co-authors of the broader project. Public meetings and working groups with community stakeholders and local partners were held from March 2021 - October 2021 to present the project, identify community goals and needs, and then serve as a guiding voice as the project as it moved forward.

This project was funded through a grant awarded by the Colorado Response, Innovation, and Student Equity Fund in December 2020. For more information on the project and curriculum, please see the introduction in the RISE Digital Art Curriculum document below.

Sound Planetarium

co-principal investigator (2017 - 2020)

What can be gained when we move away from our rational models of the planets and the cosmos, to instead use our bodies as a way to understand the universe? In what way can data-driven performative installations serve as a means to both educate, perform research, or more? The Sound Planetarium team (comprised of Tara Knight, Adam Burgasser, Justin Trupiano, and more) is a non-verbal, participatory astrophysics and art collaboration in which these questions are explored through the creation of kinesthetic and participatory experiences.

presented at:

Guestbook Project

director of media (2015 - 2021)

Guestbook Project is an international organization promoting the power of digital storytelling as a means of healing divisions caused by religious and cultural beliefs, by war, acute poverty or injustice. The Guestbook Project team and our partner organizations work to engage young people in a variety of creative peace-building initiatives around the world.

presented at:

  • ACC 2017 at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, DC

JoyceStick

head of creative development (2016 - 2017)

JoyceStick is an open-source, virtual reality adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses, launched on Bloomsday, June 15th, 2017 at the James Joyce Centre in Dublin, Ireland. I had the pleasure of working with Joe Nugent and the brilliant JoyceStick team from Boston College, where its development continues. (Gameplay trailer by Liam Weir, 2017)

presented at:

The Gay Hero Project

co-founder & producer (2013 - present)

The Gay Hero Project is a multimedia organization which aims to celebrate the lives and stories of contemporary lgbtq+ heroes. Media initiatives include Portraits (a series of short docs celebrating artists, musicians, and educators), GHP Presents (creative works submitted by friends and partners of the project), and GHP On The Streets (vox-pop style shorts asking the public for their lgbtq+ hero). We believe that everyone deserves a hero, and every hero deserves to have their story told.

presented at:

  • 8th Pride of the Ocean Film Festival
  • Vermont Performance Lab & Green Mountain Crossroads