Projects | I like to work across and between media. Each body of work is expressed through different forms: book, web, performance, video, projection, and print. So, this section houses several bodies of work that I have pursued since 2000. My work embraces a broad range of ideas and concerns: the role of technology in the lives of women; the controlling interests behind technology development; the interests of particular users; the built in conflict of the two previous items; and the social forces underlying gender identity.
Pattie Belle Hastings
Artists’ Books | Holding a book is a tactile, personal experience, which creates a “one-on-one” relationship with the viewer. The codex is my ideal container for content, story, narrative, and image. I have been conducting a long-lasting experiment in the limitless possible combinations of text and picture, and how these combinations create new meaning. The ubiquitous nature of the book allows it to be approached in ways that are different than other art forms – it looks like something to which the viewer is accustomed. But then...
Performance | Live performance is a way to bridge the gap between technology and the audience. Some ideas are more accessable, or tangible, or visceral when delivered in the flesh. I still prefer flesh presence. The sound of a voice. Eye contact. The electromagnetic field of a human body... I develop a costumed performance persona for each body of work. These characters attempt to embody hybridity, parody, and capitulation. There is nothing quite like the feedback loop of performer and audience.
Video | Most of these movies are miniature experiments in documenting the everyday. Robot with baby bottle. Robot with baby. You know, the usual. OK. Maybe not. These are small and not so small projects involving the moving image. Many were created for larger multifacited projects and some are simply an example of creative exploration. These represent continuing investigations in yet another form of time-based narrative. You'll need Quicktime to view the works in this section.
Interactive | You find various attempts at creating interactive narrative experiences in this section. The usual – websites, CDs, DVDs – and the not so usual – interactive PDFs. I always start with the content creation: research, writing, and image making. Then I decide what form it might take. This is an area that I think about and research constantly, while wishing I had more time to make things. This is also an area of investigation that is constantly humbling in the technological skillsets that must be accumulated.
Teaching | I have been teaching digital art and design courses at the college level since 1990. I have also taught a variety of workshops from book and printmaking methods to time management for creative types. While making art is intensely gratifying, there is something about working with people and sharing the spark for a passion that I have not been able to replicate except in a classroom or workshop. I love it – with all its complications and sacrifices. I miss it desperately when I am away from it.