forage

The jackrabbit often travels alone through the desert searching for food. The jackrabbit survives off of Mesquite, Cacti, Small trees, Roots, Twigs, and other plant life. There is an abundance of food in the desert, not just for animals but for humans as well. Food that was used by those who came before us. Such as the mesquite tree. It produces mesquite beans which are full of nutrients and were once a vital source of food for indigenous peoples of Mexico and the Southwest. The seeds were crushed to a powder and used to make flour or meal to make bread and other items. There are plants to avoid in the desert as well, plants that can be poisonous. The Sacred Datura is toxic to animals, however, this plant can be used for medicinal purposes and was also used for ceremonial purposes by ancient peoples. The Datura can help clear iron and arsenic from the soil through phytoremediation which is the use of plants to clean up contaminated environments. Through colonization, these food resources have been forgotten or lost because they did not view the desert as a terrain that could sustain them. They did not utilize the plants as our ancestors did and therefore erased them from the list of edible food. Through food, we can reclaim our history, and connect with each other and the land.

Falling Seeds

sd

Shown at the Denver Art Museum

Voices of the Desert

The desert contains voices that have a story to tell. Stories of trauma. Stories of healing. Stories of surviving.

Prints

Augmented Reality

Bloom

Emerging Patterns

Anythink Libraries

Anything serves the residents of Adams County, Colo., with seven branches in Bennett, Brighton, Commerce City, Thornton, and the Perl Mack neighborhood of Denver. The library also offers outreach services through Anythink in Motion, the district’s bookmobile which visits neighborhoods and communities throughout the county. With a focus on innovation, Anythink’s award-winning approach to library service is recognized by industry leaders and organizations across the globe. 

Huron

The project relies heavily on community input and participation. Members of the community will be asked to create a symbol that represents themselves and then will be asked to write a sentence describing how the symbol represents them. The symbols will be installed as a collage on one of the walls in the library, creating a mosaic of icons. When the collage is scanned a singular AR object will appear that represents the community as a whole. Each symbol can be scanned and will have its own AR element.

Bennett

The project consists of two components, an interactive topographic map of Bennett and an exploratory game that imitates its landscape that will include landmarks of the town and stories from community members. The interactive topographic map will be made of recycled fabric, conductive material, and an interface. The community will help construct the interactive map and contribute to the game design.

Workshop Huron

Workshop Bennett

Inspired by events that happened in my hometown.

In 1998 the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Consent Act was passed which allows the state of Vermont to dump radioactive nuclear waste within the Chihuanhaun desert of Texas. From August 6th to August 9th, 1998, 500 people participated in a 76-mile march from Ciudad Juarez/El Paso to Sierra Blanca, after a 14-day hunger strike they stopped the nuclear waste dump from being built, of course, the waste was moved elsewhere within the desert.

Rio Verde

Throughout the game, the player is instructed to collect objects representing a collection of sacred items to eventually combine in the final ceremony at the end of the cleansing. Each of these objects has been placed in the world, with the intention that the area will be cleansed of radiation. The items must be collected to be purified at the end, in order to continue the work of cleansing the land of contamination. There is an egg, medicinal plants, smoke, and a crystal, all materials that are used in the ceremony. However, each object contains mechanical apparatuses that have been adapted in order to apply the science of reducing half-life and neutralizing nuclear decay. The player collects the three eggs leaving behind a blue hue that symbolizes the cleansing of the land, performing a limpia.

Say Something

This piece is a voice interactive piece, when the viewer speaks into the microphone then the hate speech is disrupted and moved from the landscape. This piece was made in MaxMSP.

club q

For the past few days, I have been trying to think of something to say about the tragedy that took place at Club Q, but I can't think of anything. All I can do is feel this immense sadness for the victims and their families. For the members of the queer community that were taken from us and for the safe space that was infiltrated by hate.

To my queer community, I love you. We will heal. We will rebuild. We are strong. We will grieve. We will honor those who were lost. We will continue to dance and love.

Rest in Power

Kelly Loving
Daniel Aston
Derrick Rump
Ashley Paugh
Raymond Green Vance

Espacios

The first space is based on a traditional set up and altar. It is called Ahora. The items on the altar are for cleansing, such as oils, and eggs for limpias. A limpia can be performed with various objects such as a candle, a palm, an egg, plants, fire, smoke, feathers, Agua de Florida, perfumes, flowers, aromatic oils, healing stones, shakers, and chants. The second is the speculative space, inspired by the traditional. It is called Venir.  Some of the objects remain the same and some of the objects have transformed. Other objects are a little more scientific, such as the egg, radiation dirt detector, and the crystal that is used for water purification. It is not the magic or the science of Curanderismo that I am theorizing about, although that does play a big part in my research, but the intention. The intention that is placed on an object in order to remind us that we have set goals to better ourselves or to cleanse our homes in order to have control over our lives and bodies. The intention that the baggage has been removed and we can move on, unbound by the past.

DIOSAS

I created Idols, that are based on the vector icons, and are placed in two of the levels in my game. The icons are placed behind the idols as reference in order to solidify the comparison, existing in 2D and 3D spaces. I wanted to steer away from catholic imagery. Even though it is a part of my history, it is the colonization of the land that historically discouraged the ceremonial practices of my ancestors and almost exterminated the culture. So, I wanted to disconnect the two, religion and spiritualism, and create idols that were designed from ancient manuscripts, contemporary practices, and the future

Other Work

Roses soft

Roses Soft is about memory. It is about having a companion to guide you through each frame of a forgotten event. The animation is based on a memory of an imaginary garden where a woman sat and planted roses. The garden was massive and full of red petals and green leaves. It was a mirage of a faceless figure that I have held onto. Shrouded in light the garden replaces a dark and ominous period of loneliness and helplessness. The animation is black and white to represent how we perceive memories as whole truths, but they are only pieces of a story. 

Photography

Video

Video Games

Between Both

Between Both is a interactive game like experience that facilitates the digital world and the physical world through a ritualistic experience. The player goes through three different segments of the world in order to connect with the land once again.

Palo Verde

 Palo Verde is based on the event when river water was contaminated and spread from Colorado to New Mexico. This river served as the main source of drinking water for the Navajo nation. The pollution was caused by Colorado’s Gold King Mine spill and spread toxic waste down the river. As mentioned before, in the article, “Navajo Blame EPA Inaction for Suicides [64],” the spike in suicides that occurred after the incident because of the EPA’s inactions. Russel Begaye commented on the EPA saying, “One of the things that they seemingly do is that they wait you out,” he told The Daily Beast. “I mean, they—they’ll say all the nice things, all the right things. They’ll put the proposals on the table, but you know that there’s no real action, there’s no real meat behind what they say.” The disintegration of the character in the game is symbolic of mental deterioration from pollution that affects the mind, spirit, body, and ultimately the community.

Slot of the Odds

Slot of the Odds is a game where the player is confronted with the desert and walls that block their journey. Once the player approaches the wall a slot machine can be played. The slot machine displays materials that are used in order to survive the desert. Once the player lifts the wall by playing the slot machine, the player is confronted by words that are meant to be comforting but quickly become over whelming. At the end of their journey the player sees a deity that they cannot access. The video has been sped up to show a time over lapse of the game.

Hey, Barrel.

 The first game is called Hey, Barrel.  it is a third person game where the player controls the movement of the barrel.  The goal is to make it to the river across the desert terrain. At the end of the game, once you make it to the river, you will see other barrels in the water, signifying pollution.  This game was inspired by Train, by Brenda Romero, the player doesn’t know why the barrel is rolling in the desert, it just is. The player is following the instructions given to them unknowingly causing harm to the earth until the very end.

Isotope

The second game is called Isotope, the player controls a radioactive ball of atoms. The goal is to make it to the surface from the salt beds in New Mexico, bypassing obstacles such as cement and sand. Once you make it to the surface you unknowingly infect the earth and its occupants with radiation, eventually dissipating into the air.

Half Life

The third game is called Half-Life. The decay and half-life of radiation is 24,000 years, which means it remains radioactive for generations. The game symbolizes the travel of the radiation. The player collects other atoms ultimately infecting plants, and the life around it.  When the player has infected 5 plants an animation will play to demonstrate the silent glow that is radiation. As in the case of Chernobyl, once there is a nuclear disaster, the people, the plants, and the wildlife become radioactive and remain as such until they do not exist.

What Would Have Been

What Would Have Been is the first exploratory game experience that I made. It is a metaphorical experiential mind map of how my mental illness affects me. I made a soundtrack to accompany the game and guided the audience through the levels. Each level represents a different emotion, experience, and memory.

The wearable controller is used to control the game, using your body movements and placing your hands on the 3D printed material to operate the player, I used this in order to perform the story for the viewer rather than the viewer playing the game themselves.

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