On October 5, 2007, I succeeded in legally changing my name from Kristin Sue Lucas to Kristin Sue Lucas. In the Superior Court of California, the presiding judge who granted the request said: "So you have changed your name to exactly what it was before in the spirit of refreshing yourself as though you were a web page."

Transformation and portraiture are the focus of my work. Reversing the popular concept of infusing humanity into machines, I apply strategies of electronic media to my own life. I embody a medium, explore its psychological and corporeal space, in order to perceive and reaffirm the boundaries of self.

I am not Kristin Sue Lucas. A judge got rid of her. And I am most certainly not a personae of Kristin Sue Lucas. I am Kristin Sue Lucas––a living, breathing document resulting from an intervention within the judicial system.

Over the next year I will undergo strategies to better understand the implications, limitations and advantages of being the most current version of Kristin Sue Lucas.

• I will report my findings and my personal observations on versionhood to a public blog, utilizing a variety of media presentation formats: text, image, video, and podcast.

• I will consult experts of copyright law, cognitive science, genetic science, philosophy and media theory; a data archivist, twins, tribute artists, stand-ins, stunt doubles, double agents, the recently born-again, and believers of reincarnation.

• I will record consultations with a variety of old and new recording technologies and formats. Each recording instrument and format I use will be noted on the blog, along with a product performance report.

• I will work with a life coach and a stylist––to learn how best to organize and represent myself.

• At the culmination of this project I will release an open manual (editable by users) on versionhood for those who might be interested in becoming a version of themselves. The manual will consist of a "How-to Refresh Yourself" instruction set, illustrations, advice and troubleshooting tips based on my experiences and consultations with experts.

Notes on project feasibility:
I will pursue contact with experts at area universities: University of California Berkeley and Stanford University. I am an alumnus of Stanford University. Writer and critic Julia Bryan-Wilson has agreed to an––as of yet undefined––involvement in this project. Bryan-Wilson serves on faculty at UC Irvine and recently taught a course on authenticity and fraudulence in the digital era.
Contact with the remainder of experts will be pursued through online advertisement, local educational workshops, and direct communication.

Geoffery Morris, a collaborator on several previous projects, has agreed to assist with documentation of the consultations. I will produce all other aspects of the project independently.

Production Timeline:
Blog design has already begun.
Aug 2008: Begin consultations with experts
Aug 2008-April 2009: Reports, video and podcasts to be added to blog following each consultation
May 2009: Release of online editable "Manual on Versionhood"

Project Budget
Life coach sessions: = $600
Stylist sessions = $600
Transportation (local) for 2 persons = $150
Transportation to Las Vegas for 2 persons = $400 RT airfare or fuel for driving
Transportation to LA for 2 persons = $400
Recording formats = $250
Artist production fee = $1300
Recording Assistant fee = $1300
Hotel in Vegas area: = inkind
Housing in LA = inkind
Recording instruments = inkind
TOTAL BUDGET= $5000
 

Download pdf of c.v.

1. Refresh, 2007, documentation of intervention into Superior Court of California court system, including transcripts

Download transcripts of a philosophical debate between Kristin Sue Lucas and the presiding judge over the perception of change.

Documentation consists of six framed panels: a newspaper clipping announcing petition to change name, two transcripts (from two hearing dates), two courtroom drawings by Joe McKay (pencil on paper), and one signed, stamped and sealed name change form.

Brief description:  Kristin Lucas (previous version) petitioned to the Superior Court of California to change her name from Kristin Sue Lucas to Kristin Sue Lucas. On a form submitted to the court Lucas stated her reason as such: "Refresh." She wanted to experience the effects of a computer refresh on her person. She wanted to let the screen go blank before refilling with the same information. She envisioned the experience to be similar to a clean install of a computer operating system. Her request sparked a philosophical debate between Lucas and the presiding judge over technology and perception of change. Shortly after receiving her refresh, I, the most current version of Lucas, commented that by granting the refresh, "the judge was really just trying to get rid of Kristin Lucas."

2. Before and After, 2007, collaborative project with 24 artists; shown alongside Refresh (2007), Before and After is a collection of "backup" portraits of Kristin Sue Lucas before and after her name change

Demonstration of experience working collaboratively on a large scale project.

Please view documentation of all Before and After works, here.  Click on thumbnail images for detailed information on individual works and authors.

Brief description: Realizing that she did not have time for a comprehensive “backup” record of her existence preceding her name change hearing, Lucas enlisted the help of several artists who agreed to produce portraits of her, before and after her name change hearing and pending "refresh". The collection includes video recordings, computer analysis, ASCII code, photographs, paintings, drawings, printed matter, sound and mixed media approaches.

Participating artists include Jake Borndal and Kate Scherer, Patty Chang, Ali Dadgar, Ala Ebtekar, eteam, Matt Freedman, David Hannah, Sue Havens, Jonn Herschend, Perry Hoberman, Paul Ramierez Jonas, Arnold J. Kemp, Cristobal Lehyt, LoVid, Joe McKay, Geoffrey Morris, Laura Parnes, Will Pappenheimer, Paul Slocum, Jude Tallichet, Anne Walsh.
 

3. Involuntary Reception, 2000, two channel video

An example of an early video that plays upon identity and the condition of having a technologized body.

Please view a 2 minute 40 second clip, here.

Brief description: “Involuntary Reception” is a split screen, diaristic field report from a young woman contaminated with an EPF (electro-magnetic pulse field) that pegs the needle. Lucas's character has a story to tell, though paradoxically the conventional tools she would use to tell that story would be instantaneously canceled by her surging EPF. She is forced to self-broadcast, and fortunately she is so in tune with the medium that she is able to do this without the need for hardware. Downplaying her elusive, mutant heroine status, she reinforces her desire to be normal, and resists engaging in terrorist-activities that she claims to be capable of performing. Though she plays a victim, we are never quite sure we believe her highly contradictory story. She embodies unruliness, oscillating throughout the video between 'being' out of control, being 'out'-side of control, and being 'out of control'. A myriad of visual effects and editing processes amplify the story.

4. Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive, 2007, 17 minute three channel video installation

An example of a project in which I have consulted a hypnotherapist.

Please view a 2.5 minute clip of this video, here.

Brief description: Flaming comets, translated from pinball game graphics into laser-cut forms, pummel a landscape of cast fiberglass rocks, interlacing psychological, physical, and virtual terrains. In the videos, Lucas performs herself differently-abled, set out on an introspective journey in search of self-knowledge, while recovering from the bizarre effects of an inflamed rash, a rash that functions as an antenna for receiving Bingo call numbers. Under the care of licensed hypnotherapist, Dr. Ron Abbott, a collaborator in a lived performance, Lucas considers retiring from her position as Bingo caller (a position that she does not actually hold) at an airport casino (that does not exist).

"Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive" emerged out of a collaboration with the artist collective eteam and residents of a small town in Nevada, as a part of the International Airport Montello project. Music composed by Geoffrey Morris.

5. Between a Rock and a Hard Drive, 1998–present, project for the web, commissioned by Dia Center for the Arts

An example of a project for the web, in which I collaborate with visitors through an amusing FAQ page that in addition to myself as a responder, included guest writers.

"Like the adage her title plays off, Between A Rock and A Hard Drive sympathizes with those stuck with slow equipment, a slow network, or simply little patience. There are two equally unpleasant alternatives when dealing with the internet; waiting what seems like an eternity and then sifting through massive amounts of irrelevant junk, or going without the information required. By creating these 56 scenes, Lucas is offering, as she calls it, "temporary housing for the despondent virtual citizen," a place to bide time while waiting for what is really needed: a waiting room appropriate for the internet. But on another level it celebrates the very indiscriminate, unpredictable and tentative nature of the online experience by making something playful out of one of its most popular components: chat."––Sara Tucker, Dia Center for the Arts