Second Sight/Split Second brings together many of my various interests in art, science and the wonders of nature.  Ever since my stint producing science videos at MIT I have been amazed by Doc Edgerton’s high-speed photographs and films.  Recently, I had a the good fortune to borrow one of their high speed cameras for this installation.


I am interested in exploring human gesture to look at what we think we understand from a different perspective.  I’m also interested in challenging notions and perceptions of time and that relationship and tension between stillness and motion.  I decided to film ordinary and sometimes banal 1 second actions or gestures.  These are recorded using the specialized camera and when played back take 3 minutes to see the single second in its entirety.  There is an uncanniness to the images, an attraction/repulsion that can be hypnotic.  I present the work as a series on 14” flat screens, mimicking the traditional size and proportions of classical photography exhibition.

Second Sight/Split Second Installation Project

Chilangolandia: The Big Onion

(16mm Film in Post-Production)

I have been a frequent traveler to Mexico City since 1997.  I have fallen in love with city and feel a deep connection to the multitudinous chaos that makes it so unique.  When I am in D.F. (Mexico City) it seems to consume me physically, emotionally and psychologically in ways that I don’t experience elsewhere.


Through time-lapse photography, slow-motion and other impressionistic camera work, Chilangolandia explores the cultural layers, performativity and rhythms of my lived experience in the city, affectionately named Chilangolandia.  C:BO loosely explores the sixteen districts of the city through an expressive documentary camera style that visually destabilizes and critiques its very own tourist gaze and its relationship to the spectacles, beauty, and violence that it encounters.

Films & Installations in Development

For the Price of Freedom: A Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue

(21 min work-in-progress cut)

When the war in Kosovo ended in the summer of 1999 Ivan and Ivana hoped that the United Nations and NATO could ease ethnic tensions and bring some sense of harmony back to their lives in Prisitina.  Those dreams were quickly shattered when an unimpeded Albanian backlash against minorities swept through Kosovo.  After countless verbal and physical threats they realized that if they didn’t leave Kosovo soon they would probably not survive the year.


They decided to abandon their home, their friends, family, and all of their belongings to begin a new chapter in their lives in a country far from the violence and horror of the Balkans.  They wanted to go to someplace warm and calm to recover and to rebuild their lives.


Ivan and Ivana arrived in San Diego, California a year later as refuges from Kosovo with hopes of finding their own American dream.  After many years of hard work learning English, finding jobs, and making friends they began to find success and to put the past as far behind them as possible.


Yet, the seduction of material culture and consumption in the U.S. was more complicated than they expected and Ivan and Ivana quickly found themselves in trouble again. Six years since their arrival in the U.S. I reunited with Ivan and Ivana at their home in San Diego.  It soon became clear that things were not as perfect as they had seemed.  With a few bad financial decisions in the real estate market and the unfortunate downturn in the housing market they soon found themselves in over a million dollars of debt, once again facing a crisis where they may lose everything they worked so hard to achieve for a second time.