At the core of Caleb’s work is an exploration of the mutually constitutive functions of persons, technologies, and socies. This is premised on an understanding of all persons as cyborgs: a person’s capacities are her tools: her tools must be given credit for her being. The mediums and interfaces with which a person interacts shape and pattern the information she receives. Thus:
The world builds an image of itself in us.
People make images of themselves in us.
Brain injuries and transitioning have dissolved the barrier between the body and the brain—leading to an understanding of ‘selves’ as ‘systems,’ beyond singular subjectivities; experience is only possible because of the intricate systems that aide the brain.
The core of Caleb’s practice is drawing and painting, though he has recently branched into collective filmmaking and graphic design in an afford to expand his collaborative scope. His practice increasingly augments painting and studio play with collaging, printing, scanning, projecting, and transposing digital images to painted objects. In this work, materials are method; tools enframe possible thinking. Not only does the shape of the brush determine the stroke, but the tools one uses in artmaking shape the way one thinks in all future artmaking. Thus, he is very conscious of his materials, adopting technologies through the critical lens of luddism. Experiencing the self reshaped by its tools is the praxis of a networked cyborg, and thus central to his project.
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