For fun, I teach myself new skills and use them to make art. Here in the Bay Area, I work with Majorelle Arts out of the Ardent Heavy Industries shop in East Oakland.

From Magnetism to Resistance (2025)

Many are aware that a Tesla is the unit of magnetic flux density, and that like the car brand, it draws its name from inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla. The unit is abbreviated by a T, and the brand’s stylized T logo was borrowed from the cross-section of an electric motor.

After Tesla’s CEO came out as a pro-apartheid troll and assisted Donald Trump in his attempt to disassemble American democracy, I decided the cars needed a re-brand.

The new brand logo is that of electrical resistance, the Ohm (or Greek capital Omega), with style elements that evoke the original logo. This new branding is known as Resistance Aesthetic. I partnered with a manufacturer in Shenzhen to cast these in zinc and powder coat them, and for a small fee, I free owners of these vehicles from Elon’s now toxic brand.

Resistance Aesthetic

Charismatic Metafauna (2021-22)

Together with my long-term collaborator Amie Hinds, I proposed this project to Majorelle Arts in May of 2021, which in turn proposed it to Burning Man. Charismatic Metafauna received a Burning Man 2022 Honorarium, under the wise direction of Gray Davidson.

“The Charismatic Metafauna is a garden of endangered species. Reacting to nearby participants, the sculptures grow fearful and ‘die’ when disrespected. Drawn in by the garden’s beauty, [participants] must act as stewards of its health to be rewarded with the joy of its flourishing.”

Rather than picking well-known species, we are choosing to emphasize the beauty of some of the lesser known representatives of the animal kingdom that we are very near to losing or have recently lost. A one-way portal suggests the irreversible nature of extinction, with the skull of the Pyrenean ibex beyond; attempts to revive the species through cloning have failed. The living species were ordered along an arc approaching the portal, in order of proximity to extinction.

Each animal was paired with a xylophone, with which participants could engage in respectful communication with the species. Moreover, each sculpture included an independent generative soundscape, with music — composed by Daniel Fennelly — that never repeated and changed according to the health of the animals. The animals would respond to music played by participants by varying the melody.

The project budget was around $30K and the major work was carried out by an all-volunteer team.