Brief Artist Statement
The issues that I confront through my work stem from personal experiences and observations; since an early age I was aware of my parent's difficulties as immigrants struggling with a new language and culture. Growing up I spent my summers in Nicaragua and the school year in San Francisco. These two very different environments created considerable confusion in so far as my understanding of where I belong in the world and of human interaction in general -- a sensibility that has extended into my artistic practice -- that investigates the divisive nature of capitalism and the social tools used to establish hegemony. My work seeks to invert common tools of social control to create dialogue, exchange critical perspectives, generate questions and ideally inspire subjective action.

In practice, the principle behind my work is twofold: to approach communication as a creative process and to investigate how economic realities formulate not only the world we live in, but more importantly the lives we lead.

Really long Artist Statement
Over the last several years, I have been combining computer-generated art with sculptural vehicles to transcend the monitor and achieve powerful social metaphors that investigate issues of globalization. Cargo Load (1999) is a hand built wooden cart with a short-wave radio hidden within the structure of the cart and speakers at each corner of the bed of the cart. The short-wave radio?s station memory, programmed to stations from all around the world, is linked to a motion sensor that is installed at the back of the cart. The viewers of the sculpture trigger the radio's memory to shuffle from one station to another. Cargo Load is activated by public performance to personify the concept that in an information society, the modern individual bears the heavy load of global awareness. Wearing a business suit, I pull the cart along in a public environment; surprised pedestrians are then drawn to the odd tableau, which leads to a dialogue between interested spectators and myself - the cart becomes a public forum.

Cargo Load led to the ideation that aesthetic objects designed for public interaction might be used to create temporary public commons. I did, however, want to establish greater interactivity with the addition of narrative and moving images. The New Polis (2000), A Virtual Landscape (2001) and audiophile (2001) were experiments in this direction. The New Polis is an immersive installation in which viewers play with physical building blocks to trigger projected video vignettes that investigate theories of urban development in western civilization. A Virtual Landscape pushes the capabilities of a web browser to unfold a narrative about two lovers separated by physical distance due to employment. And audiophile, presents audio investigations of the urban space on a web site for people to download onto their computers and use as the sounds of their operating system. Each of these projects enhanced my programming capabilities and understanding of user interaction; a learning process that has lead to Vagamundo: A Migrant's Tale (2002), NEXUM ATM (2003), exhibited at the Bronx Museum, and The Public Broadcast Cart (2003).

In Vagamundo, I employ the video game format in order to construct social commentary. Based on interviews as well as the experience of my parents, the video game Vagamundo depicts the plight of new immigrants from Latin America to the United States. The game, that is a computer, monitor and joystick are placed within a hand built cart, resembling a small ice cream cart. The use of the hand built ice cream cart establishes a concrete association with the thousands of paleteros found in major U.S. cities pushing their carts and selling various flavors of crushed ice for a dollar. Through the mobile cart presented on street corners, pedestrians are invited to play the video game. The game is composed of three levels:

1. El Borracho, representing a "Culture of Poverty"
2. The Green Grocer Bagger representing a "Culture of Assimilation"
3. The Head Waiter represents a "Culture of Prosperity"
4. Once the player has beat the game, s/he is offered the choice to discriminate against new immigrants or two help new immigrants.

Vagamundo places the player in the role of a new immigrant to New York City, an experience that may cause one to consider what life is like for others.

NEXUM ATM (2003) employs the standard ATM interaction to tell a history of U.S. imperialism throughout the last two centuries. The shell of the ATM is a hand constructed furniture piece ATM, the sculpture consists of computer and monitor, numerical keypad, receipt printer, speakers, interactive video application, and a web site: http://www.nexumatm.us/.

When the viewer/user approaches the ATM, the following interaction occurs:
1. The viewer/user approaches the ATM to view a video of a wrestler pacing in a white space. Above the wrestler, the user is greeted by ?WELCOME TO NEXUM ATM? ?nexum? is a term from Roman civil law meaning, an arrangement by which a debtor pledged his liberty as security for debt.
2. Text below the wrestler asks the viewer to "Press Enter to Begin Transaction."
3. Once the viewer presses enter, the wrestler, pauses pacing and takes a few steps back. In front of him appears a semi transparent screen that asks the user to select a currency for her/his transaction. Ten countries with their currencies are presented.
4. Once the user makes a selection that screen disappears and the wrestler comes to the fore-front to do a series of Greco-Roman wrestling moves that portray the US history with the country selected.
5. Once the history is portrayed, the wrestler stops and the user is asked to "Please Wait While Your Receipt Is Printed"
6. The user then receives a receipt that details the history of invasions/attacks by the US into the selected country and the web site is given.

Both of these projects are carefully framed in everyday objects ? the ice cream cart and the ATM, to bring to the forefront the content of the work.

The Public Broadcast Cart, presented September 19th and 20th 2003 at City Hall Park, Manhattan was part of a public art event titled Wireless Park Lab Days. NYCwireless and the Downtown Alliance co-sponsored Wireless Park Lab Days, the two-day event that celebrated the availability of open wireless (Wi-Fi) networks in Lower Manhattan and explores their implications for art, community, and shared space. As part of the event, I presented The Public Broadcast Cart (2003), a shopping cart outfitted with a microphone, speakers, amplifier, personal computer, and miniFM transmitter that enables any pedestrian to become an active producer of an audio broadcast. The cart reverses the usual role of the public as audience of radio broadcasts or online content. The audio stream is available to anyone online and logged onto the thing's net radio station. The audio is also simultaneously transmitted via speakers making the cart a temporary soap box for willing participants. The Public Broadcast Cart has been produced with support from the Franklin Furnace and the Thing.net, two not for profit arts organizations, and audio engineering by Jan McLaughlin.

The issues that I confront through my work stem from personal experiences and observations; since an early age I was aware of my parent's difficulties as immigrants struggling with a new language and culture. Growing up I spent my summers in Nicaragua and the school year in San Francisco. These two very different environments created considerable confusion in so far as my understanding of where I belong in the world and of human interaction in general -- a sensibility that has extended into my artistic practice -- that investigates the divisive nature of capitalism and the social tools used to establish hegemony. My work seeks to invert common tools of social control to create dialogue, critical perspectives and inspire subjective action.

The principle behind my work is twofold: to approach communication as a creative process and to investigate how economic realities formulate not only the world we live in, but more importantly the lives we lead.