How I Became An Artist And A Technologist

A number of years ago I lost all of the hearing in one of my ears overnight. At first, it seemed like it could be a minor problem, like a virus or inflammation. Two days later, I was supposed to perform at an event, and I sat waiting for my turn in the dark, washing down a round of steroids from my doctor with orange juice. The hearing didn’t return. Soon after, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The subsequent tests and surgeries left me exhausted and I was spending more time alone; but that left me with a lot more time for art.

I had spent most of my time in college studying art and wishing there was a way to incorporate technology into the work instead of just using computers as a tool. As a girl who had spent most of my childhood drawing, it had simply never occurred to me or anyone else that I could do technical work, much less be an artist AND a technologist. In the 90s, that didn’t even exist. But later, as part of the Design and Technology department at Parsons, I went through a crash course in hardware and software engineering and fell in love with manipulating circuits and code for the purpose of art. It didn’t happen overnight; my first semester I loaded up my schedule thinking, “If I fail out, this isn’t meant to be.” I had to quickly figure out a process for problem solving. I didn’t fail out. It was meant to be.

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