I had the good fortune of attending OCAD University, being surrounded by other artists and designers, and earning an MFA in 2018. A major part of any MFA program is the thesis, a representation of one’s “research” and the outcome of this effort.

My own thesis was a synthesis of technical and creative exploration, combined with the critical theory courses and seminars I participated in. At the heart of my contribution was a simple idea. I put forth a soft challenge to the iconic idea that ‘aura is lost with mechanical reproduction’ made famous by theorist Walter Benjamin, in the context of Virtual Reality and other 3Dimensional media. His concept itself is nuanced and can be interpreted in a number of ways, so while I may be barking up a tree that doesn’t necessarily exist, it was a great catalyst for my thinking and brought some philosophical thought to the technical processes. If you’re interested in taking a look at the document it can be found on the OCADU repository. (click on the right tab - documents for pdf).

The actual artwork of the thesis consisted of two lion sculptures (inspired by my time in Venice), artist multiples sold from a gachapon (vending) machine and a virtual reality experience. Shout out to my Digital Futures cohort, for an essential two years and final group exhibition.