The above ink on paper image entitled HUMAN can be thought of as a gateway to my new Peacemaker series made up of over seventy images and growing, each one a story unit. The series casts the viewer as a mediator, adjudicator, broker - a peacemaker who must make sense of the unfolding narrative depending on how the images are displayed. Peacemaker is meant to encourage shared dialogue, a similar activity to peacemaking. The resulting story-making is presented as an antidote to Narrative Collapse identified by American media theorist Douglas Rushkoff.


Rushkoff defined aspects of Narrative Collapse as: a loss of linear time, the disintegration of dominant or grand narratives, the rise of fragmented information, general uncertainty and disorientation, and a relentless focus on the present; all fuelled by the speed of digital technology, societal disconnect, and the lack of a shared long term vision.  He identified that traditional storytelling structures have shifted away from linear narratives with clear beginnings, middles and ends, and towards a continuous and often overwhelming present characterized by disconnected incidents and a lack of overarching purpose.

Story-making and peacemaking both build a shared story. I believe making stories is an act of freedom and rebellion, especially when we don’t agree with the ones being told in the broader social discourse. I believe in the importance of getting together to mix different communities and to exchange ideas and interpretations - the power of art.




"Prelude" is part of seventy images that comprise the Peacemaker series.

Peacemaker
As someone who has often been cast as a mediator and peacemaker, my work seeks to understand and celebrate the process of reconciliation of different stories and points of view, by making image-based stories together with the viewer.

Further Research into Narrative Construction and Peacemaking
The Superimage

My Research will continue from the inception of a story to understanding the limits of our capacity for narrative complexity by studying the interactions between images in a grid format - what I call a Superimage.

When more than one image is presented in close proximity, a Superimage emerges because the two images cross pollinate and cause connections, to create meaning that neither had, perhaps the origin point of a new story.  Peacemaker combines several images in an effort to expand the narrative that I have started with each image. When the images are combined, story-making expands exponentially.

The Superimage relies on a grid format; a perfectly democratic organizing form composed of equivalent units that extend to infinity along its two axes. The grid format is a vessel of cohesion, stability and control. Once a single grid square is populated with an image, relational energy is ignited between it and the surrounding squares. As more squares are populated connections and coalescences inevitably form. The new coalescent forms are then described, and the description or story becomes a meaning unit that may be agreed upon between multiple observing parties. Once agreed upon and repeated, meaning is assumed to be present by virtue of repetition, and a community can be built.

The Superimage is a story engine that demands ceaseless exploration, requiring energy and faith. It is a discovery tool used to find the patterns and coalescences that lead to important story creation. The individual images suggest a decisive moment, a part of a larger story - something that has or might happen, held in tension by the viewer.

The difficult energy of holding and interpreting a Superimage is the same as holding disparate points of view, the essence of peacekeeping. By holding different interpretations without resolution, we experience a type of faith, opening the door for communication, community and spiritual expansion. Peacekeeping is an energetic, generous, and radical creative act.



The Superimage