i.
I am passionate about music, a discipline considered performing art. I practice the art as a way to raise questions, resist oppression, and a method of research.
ii.
In an oligopoly where corporations have major power to steer the system, profit-making is commonly taught as a virtue. Competing for work and wage to survive is a commonplace. Meritocracy and economic growth in most case are thought be good. But what good is the growth, if hunger and homelessness cannot be eradicated, even though presumably it can with the use of available technology?
iii.
Art gives visibility to the unseen and voice to the unheard. Art can become a method of research, as the laboratory becomes the galleries, museums, nightclubs, studios, classrooms, lecture halls, institutions, virtual platforms, concert stages, and theaters, and other spaces that have the potential to become a conduit for healthy discourses.
iv.
I work at the intersection of art and technology to create forms of entertainment, captivate the audience, and maximize opportunities that raise awareness of various systemic problems.
My research entails interactive, inter-media performative art and entertainment forms for storytelling because stories help people understand complex problems and make emotional connections with them. As we find ourselves in a world surrounded by the social media that is incentivized to stoke the fires of rage, I believe it is important to combat hate more than ever. Storytelling creates participatory, immersive experience that can reveal the differences and commonalties of cultures around the world, and enable us to empathize with the unfamiliar other.
For me, creating art is essentially activism, even when it's an act of healing. I make art to resist oppression, raise questions, and also view it as a method of research to tackle complex problems. How does structural violence affect human beings? How differently does it affect people of color? Why should anybody care? In terms of global economics, our society is ruled by a corporatocracy. Chances are, if you are reading this website or have access to an internet, you live in that society. A corporatocracy is a type of oligopoly where the system or government is governed or controlled by corporations. In such a system, profit making is a virtue and pitting humans against humans for survival is a commonplace; to cooperate or collaborate is somewhat valuable and gets taught in classrooms but it's more theory than practiced. This is by design; it is the manifestation of a society which dogmatically praises competition as the essential ingredient to growth and meritocracy.
Through the ways of art practice, my aim is to learn how to better harness technology and produce critical work that bring visibility to structural violence which affects us all. I believe it is integral to work with space to bring visibility to it, whether the setting be a gallery, night club, lecture hall, virtual platform, or performance stage.
