Chris Todd
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      simupathy / interactive video (augmented reality) / 2009

      Simupathy is the phenomenon
      of people attempting to use
      internet video as a therapeutic
      device for healing
      their psychoses.
      I am fascinated and confused
      by the compulsive act
      of seeking anonymous help via webcam and am
      mystified by the
      impulse to watch it.
      This interactive work presents randomized video samples from obscure "internet therapy" sessions. Moving portraits struggle to establish pathogenic relationships with live video of viewers in the gallery space.

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      Snake Medicine / Interactive Video Installation / 2008

      Viewer proximity to projection screen causes a disjointed remix of psychiatric advice from a hack internet healer.

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      gelding / video installation (custom rotating projection system) / 2007

      Gelding is a sideways galloping/falling horse
      simulation in orbital limbo.
      This work
      proposes a metaphor
      for the impulse that has driven
      expansion here and the
      psychogeographicalessness
      that has resulted.
      The audio is a remix of samples from Ennio Morricone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly record.

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      new omens from an empty house / interactive video installation / 2007

      A collaborative (ASU Arts, Media, and Engineering and Metro Arts High School) interactive video project installed at the Arizona State University Art Museum. This work is a response to Edward Hopper's "House by a Road" (c. 1942) from the Museum's permanent collection. I built a navigable 3D interface based on the house in the painting, and worked with students from Metro Arts to create rooms and sounds based on their own domestic experiences.
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      giant desires / video installation and 15 digital images on sintra / 2007

      I doubt that I would have thought about it as much as I did had it not been for the nauseating pink light that filled my apartment and kept me awake at night. Brightly illuminated and standing 30 feet tall, this colossal pink gorilla had taken up temporary residence atop the sporting goods store across the street. My initial feelings about it, born out of contempt for the absurdity of the marketing tactic, slowly gave way to a kind of obsession with others like it: massive ogres, smiling dragons, mystical wizards. Intrigued by the pervasive use of blow-ups for advertisement, I began to photograph them.

      Giant Desires removes the blow-ups from their natural habitats (car lots, furniture stores, etc.) so that their purpose becomes murky, at best. The large scale images reveal each object's high degree of detail and craftsmanship, a mysterious phenomenon as most blow-ups receive only a glance from people speeding by in their vehicles. Equally puzzling is the embodiment of culturally loaded symbols and tropes, such as nationalism, aggression, fantasy, power, race, and sex, in these generic plastic forms. It is difficult to say whether they are laughable or offensive, but one thing is clear: These monstrosities are here to stay, so we may as well get used to them. Oh wait, we already are.

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      prosthesis for whispering to myself / wearable rapid prototype / 2006

      Corrective appliance for overly dispersed inner monologues.

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      stereoperiscopic optical stimulator / wearable rapid prototype / 2006

      One eye surveils the other and uneasy enlightenment ensues.

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      generic sneakers with olfactory augmentation / wearable rapid prototype / 2006

      To smell the pleroma in the parking lot without burning your nose.

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      carapace / video installation in a uhaul / 2005

      Video based on images taken from sites around downtown Phoenix. Inspired by the voided, transitional, hollowed-out vibe of the cityscape.

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      doublepenetration / video installation / 2004

      Public video projection depicts erotic boredom. The spectacle is compared to an audio feed of a bombing campaign in Fallujah broadcast through a megaphone onto the street.

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      a conversation that I threw down a well / buried video installation / 2004

      Buried video showing footage from a camera being lowered into a well can be viewed through a 5 foot pvc pipe in the ground. Audio mix based on phone conversations is dispersed through underground hoses.

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      grandma's anxious landscape / moving mixed media / 2004

      Motion detector triggers a shivering living room. A reflection on the landscapes of fear emblematized by gated communities. Included in the book "Phoenix: 21st Century City."

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      rhythm of drowning yourself / moving mixed media / 2004

      Rocking chair moves to a wrecking ball metronome mirrored by swaying synthetic seaweed.

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      sampling of automatic drawings.