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Christensen, Julia

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Digital access to this material is pending artist's approval. Materials may be viewed onsite at the Goldsen Archive, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Kroch Library, Cornell University.

My work has moved throughout various forms of media extensively during my career, but my tendency to work as a composer informs all my leaps between media. Identifying seemingly disparate elements and tying them together in a larger composition is my general technique, whether I am working in sound, video, installation, or taking on major research projects. Another important characteristic of my work is the goal of exploring new ways in which to use existing technologies, with the belief that the art lies at the intersection of creativity and research. My work has always crossed the bounds of various academic or artistic fields, and throughout these crossovers, the overarching theme is the careful composition that my large pieces require. In the earlier part of my career, my composerly techniques were played out primarily in my sound and video installations, as I would strategize techniques for the light and sound sources to become instruments, creating spatial compositions with the elements. Eventually this evolved into using the internet as an additional form of mediation, allowing my composition to almost act as a "score," which is not fulfilled until it is interacted with, or performed. In recent years, my love for composition and multi-disciplinary exploration has led me to intersect my artwork with socio-cultural research, specifically dealing with land use and travel in the United States. Currently, my compositions are made up of large research works.

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    2007 Rockefeller New Media Foundation Proposal
    Christensen, Julia (2009-03-30T15:01:51Z)
    I propose a New Media Fellowship in order to support the development of an internet-based collaborative authoring project, Open/Stories (Closed/Stores), which will be launched in conjunction with the release of my book Big Box Reuse (MIT Press) in November of 2007. This wiki-base will consist of a searchable, clickable, scrollable map of the world, that will allow users to input nodes representing the reuse of abandoned "big box" stores in their own locales, extending the role of authorship from myself to my audience. Big box abandonment is creating terrible blight in the modern landscape, and the corporations that are creating this blight deflect attention away from their vacancies, causing a severe lack in information about the reuse of these buildings. The socio-cultural big box reuse research works to democratize this information, and with the development of the wiki, Open/Stories(Closed/Stores), the data will finally be democratized to its initially intended extent. Reuse is a powerful tool towards an environmentally sound future in the face of sprawl, and this website will offer information about how to use this tool creatively.