Photo documentation by Nabiha Khan
As part of a solo exhibition at the Washington Park Arts Incubator titled "exceptional/respectable", I created a body of work that explored the barrage of the 24 hour news cycle, respectability politics, and the conflict between contemplation and action.
I created two interactive websites that allowed anyone that visits the site wespeak.work to share what it was that they were doing the night of November 24th, 2014.
The main site's background featured a video recording of myself watching the live-stream of the non-indictment of officer Darren Wilson in regards to the shooting death of Michael Brown. Along the bottom of the site featured the responses of participants that were prompted the question, stylized in a news ticker scroll.
The two sites were built interactively using a combination of the programming languages PHP and Javascript.
Full exhibition text:
The internet is the equalizer. Conversations by news sources conflict with bystanders on site with a camera. Online technologies are used to document and honor fallen members of communities.
A widely shared image becomes the memorial. Memories are off-loaded to digital devices. Honor is served with virtual acts of protest. Life is dedicated to pondering the actions and reactions of others. Minds are filled with input; the body desires an output.
In “exceptional/respectable”, conceptual artist James T. Green’s work becomes his visceral output towards the barrage of the 24 hour news cycle, respectability politics, and the conflict between contemplation and action.
This piece has been shown in:
• April 3 - 24th, 2015: exceptional/respectable, Washington Park Arts Incubator, Chicago IL