slapslap
Avant-rock post-funk performance art quartet comprised of two electric bassoonists and two drummers
Sound and Silence
Experiments in Contemplative Music and Contemplative Silence
Eco-Art
As an eco-artist, I align my work with the concept of Biocultural Restoration, as articulated by Indigenous scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer. Acknowledging that ecological restoration alone is insufficient to address the climate crisis, this framework emphasizes the need to restore a reciprocal and respectful relationship with the land on a place-by-place basis. Storytelling is highlighted as a key part of this process - stories that embody ways of knowing that put humans in a non-extractive, collaborative relationship with each other and the Earth are essential to healing our planet and our communities on a broad scale.
My storytelling revolves around explorations of relationships with specific places, plants, and fungi. Through interdisciplinary performance practices, these stories become communal reflections, prayers of healing, and rituals of gratitude—a means of engaging with the climate crisis with joy as opposed to the usual ‘doom and gloom’ narrative.
Sealed in Secret Soil (full page here)
Sealed in Secret Soil is a sonic meditation exploring the performers’ individual and communal relationship to the land that sustains them.
Rooted in the ethos of contemporary visionaries such as Julius Eastman and the liberatory tendencies of the Sun Ra Arkestra, the music offers space for contemplation and reflection via slowly evolving improvisation prompts and spoken word invitations.
Canopy: A Campus Compendium (full page here)
Canopy a Campus Compendium was a 4-part walking performance tour, with each performance taking place at a different tree and exploring it’s cultural and historical relationship to the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor community.
O Great Mullein!
O Great Mullein! is an embodied ritual honoring the life of a Great Mullein Plant (Verbascum thapsus) by means of an interdisciplinary performance involving spoken word, three dancers, and six musicians. The activity and energy levels of the dance and music follow the two year life cycle of Mullein – unfurling in the first spring, resting in the winters, sending up a ten foot flowering stalk in the second spring, and finally standing proud for a full year after death.
To Dave, My Pet Mycelium
This is a collaborative performance piece featuring human performers and Dave, a friendly oyster mushroom mycelium. Utilizing Drums and electronics, vocals, and live projected video feed of a mycelium, Dave and Cameron exchange stories of fond memories, moments of joy, and lessons about existing in right relationship with all people, both above and below ground.
Ecological Stewardship Work
Learned to identify over 150 trees and shrubs in the infamous Woody Plants class at the UofM School for Environment and Sustainability
Interned at Matthaei Botanical Gardens, where I focused on running educational nature-play programming for kids as well as maintaining a large garden and native plant area.
Led a project to establish a permaculture mushroom garden at the U-M Campus farm
Fungi have profound messages of healing our communities! This book and others have inspired me to learn from these michevious beings by directly working with them. Past examples:
Wine Cap (Stropharia rugosoannulata)
I am deeply interested in and have researched:
Permaculture/agro-ecology
Native plant-gardening and restoration
Food Justice
Blue Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus)