memory.unshift( )

The four artists represented in memory.unshift() exhibit their contemplations, memories, thoughts and meditations on the shifting and tenuous relationship between electronic technology and human consciousness.

The work they bring to this show explores the tentative connections between the often random and erratic thought processes of human beings multiplexing with the deterministic and “programmed” logic of the machine. How can a machine that relies upon “logic” represent the human condition, that is often associated with such un-machine-like qualities as hope, fear, dread, loneliness, humor, boredom, and other human traits? What is the relationship between our expanding electronic metaverse and our emotional, accidental, non-linear human lives? Alexa Ann Bonomo, Glenda Drew, Jesse Drew and William Mead bring together a collection of work that includes textiles and fabrics, video monitors, computers, software programming, three-dimensional dioramas, and augmented reality that try to contemplate the tenuous relationship between memory and consciousness,  linearity and non-linearity, intentionality and randomness.

Alexa Ann Bonomo is an interactive artist and designer, and lecturer at the University of California, Davis. She has presented her work at various exhibitions and conferences including the Exploratorium, Gray Area Foundation of the Arts, The Manetti Shrem Museum, and International Symposium for Electronic Arts. Her design practice consists of interdisciplinary processes within new media, computation, and psychology. She observes the creation of countless avatars that represent a self  digitally and on the internet. Alexa turns marks, pixels, and computer memory left behind and uses them as an artistic medium to reveal substance and personal meaning that is normally left unrevealed and forgotten.

Glenda Drew’s research is based at the intersections of visual culture and social change, with a particular emphasis on the working class. Her subjects include country musicians, waitresses, feminists and precarious workers. Her practice is multifaceted in form and includes film/video, motion graphics, photography, graphics, interactivity and audience participation. Drew was an active member of Paper Tiger Television in San Francisco for several years, a defining experience that continues to anchor and shape her work, from the DIY aesthetic and approach aimed at unpacking media technologies, to creating accessible work that asks critical questions. Drew exhibits her work nationally and internationally. Her work has been featured in Leonardo, Bitch! and The Washington Post. She is currently a Professor of Design specializing in digital media at UC Davis.

Jesse Drew’s research and practice centers on alternative and community media and their impact on democratic societies, with a particular emphasis on the global working class. An active audio-visual artist, his interactive, video, photography and installation work has been featured at festivals and in galleries internationally. His writings have appeared in numerous publications, journals and anthologies, including Resisting the Virtual Life (City Lights Press), At a Distance (MIT Press), Collectivism After Modernism (University of Minnesota), and West of Eden (PM Press). His book, A Social History of Contemporary Democratic Media is published by Routledge. He is currently professor of Cinema and Digital Media at UC Davis, where he teaches media archaeology, radio production, documentary studies, electronics for artists, and community media. Before coming to UC Davis he headed the Center for Digital Media and was Associate Dean at the San Francisco Art Institute.

William Mead earned his BFA at Parsons School of Design in 1989. He completed a lifetime certification in secondary art education at Massachusetts College of Art in 1992. In 1999 he completed a Master’s degree in Education (MEd) At Lesley University.

While at Parsons, Mead majored in fine arts and focused on sculpture, but continued to work in other traditional media, including painting, drawing and printmaking. Much of his work at that time was constructed from wood and metal, and made use of found objects, playing materials off each other in ways that were surprising, while working to achieve a kind of balance and harmony that felt natural and calming.

With the advent of the personal computer revolution, Mead became obsessed with digital image making, design, typography, user interfaces, user experience and programming.

Today, Mead’s work employs a variety of media and techniques and is driven by conceptual themes, while remaining personal and expressive.