If music is sound, is the rumbling of the passing truck music?  If a mirror reflects your image back at you, is artificial intelligence a mirror of ourselves in digital space?

I learn more about myself and others when I ask questions and consider “why.” When I ask “why,” I consider viewpoints I never have and find new perspectives to how I live and interact with objects and others. “Music is about orchestrated sound;” I have heard this statement throughout my career. However, those statements ignore the intricate play of symbols in music notation, the extraneous sound of the audience inhabiting the space, the acoustic properties of the location, and the whisper of the air conditioner attempting to slow the perspiration on the body of the toiling performer.

A tradition is defined by its history, and its history is defined by us; the perceptions of those in power silence those who queer those binary definitions. Can computers perform compositions on acoustic instruments in the traditional sense? My microcontroller violins make choices in real-time based on my composed parameters, thus challenging what it means to be a performer. In Farm to AI-Table, I explore the current views of artificial intelligence by using images of various fruits to generate recursive iterations highlighting our collective user error, the possibilities and limitations of the technology, and the digital black mirror AI manifests.

My practice is oblique; my works, installations, and performances question conventional understanding and facilitate reorientation toward experiences and ideas previously excluded.

• 2024 MFA SUMMER THESIS