Road Visions is about the way miles feel and the impact they have on identity. In order to explore this, I have traveled with RVers as they gathered at RV Parks and boondocking (off the grid with no electric or plumbing) encampments throughout the United States from 2015-2018. All the while, I worked to align my everyday with people on the road by learning card games, putting together puzzles, sharing potlucks and circles around the fire. All the while, I explored ways that the collaborative documentation of everyday experiences can yield creative installation concepts that articulate personal truths while inspiring collective questions.
This project channels media from three years of documentary exercises with 104 full time recreational vehicle (RV) dwelling folks into a series of installations intended to engage visitors with new stories about life on the road. This project first opened January 2018 in Austin, Texas at the Visual Art Center.
Of particular importance to Road Visions are ways of seeing and being seen on the road. The anthropologist Tim Ingold explains that “if you merely look at it, there is nothing much to see. You have rather to look with it: to relive the movement.” In the spirit of looking with works, in this documentary project I am striving to cultivate new ways of being with knowledge through immersive installations and ethnographic writing.
I am deeply thankful to the install crew at the Visual Art Center, Shallaco McDonald in the Department of Engineering, my colleague Joseph Russo, and Pete Trachy for helping me pull this show together. Much gratitude to Alejandro Flores Aguilar for photographing the opening.