Laurel Beckman
Day Tripper

"Day Tripper" is a multiple city project that maps out accessible sources of mind-altering experiences found in the everyday environment. The project identifies alternative social spaces and their potential for cultural resonance. As of this writing I have completed installments for two areas, Hollywood and the "Gold Coast" of California — Ventura to Santa Barbara. Future cities include Oakland, CA and New York City. There are seven main panels and one intro panel for each city.

Project Description:
"Day Tripper" concerns ordinary (human-made and naturally occurring) sites in cities that inadvertently produce the effect of altering the observer's brain waves towards a meditative or hyper-alert state. The effect is achieved through photic (light) stimulation. Light is calculated in cycles per second, referred to as hertz. Observed photic stimulation creates a sympathetic response on the part of the observer- the brain's own hertz frequency responds in synchronization, down or up, towards levels associated, respectively, with rest or anxiety.

"Day Tripper" is a digital project; at its core a series of images designed in a contemporary digital vernacular. The images function as celebration/observation/site directions. The project aims to produce a type of alternative destination campaign and mapping strategy. The visual language utilized in the images, while being exploratory in nature, optimizes the intent of the travel poster. In its quotation of the travel poster, the project provides a metaphor for and between literal travel (new experiences outside of yourself), and the transcendence associated with the art experience. The creation of a new affinity amongst observers is implied and desired by the project.

"Day Tripper" fuses the everyday and the spectacular. The project means to be generous of spirit in addition to being an exploration of locale and communication. "Day Tripper" encompasses multiple cities with site-specific research that responds to the energy of the city itself, its population and visual communication strategies. Each city is chosen, researched, and treated to a suite of images that point towards accessible experiences that move the observer's brain waves to a level not normally associated with its demographic. "Day Tripper" is a project equally at home in the gallery and on the streets. Upon exhibition, cross-over gestures will include a map, and may include a public campaign in the form of postings or tours.

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bio:
Laurel Beckman is an artist working primarily in digital media, including public postings and publishing-specific projects. Employing a wide range of media and distribution strategies, Beckman seeks to contribute meaningfully to the evolving role of images within our culture. Beckman is an Assistant Professor of Art, Integrated 2D Digital Media, in the Department of Art Studio at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Beckman's work examines intentionality through visual form and language. The intersections of consciousness + social conditions, and metaphysics + science form the thematic impulse behind her sanctioned and unsanctioned works. A driving interest in visual and verbal language and relative value threads through her practice. Her long engagement with the plasticity of language has led to research in image and text functionality and the role of will in narrative.

Beckman's research centers on non-sanctioned public art, image/text theory, signage and visual communication, artists' print and electronic publishing. Continuing a career long practice of exhibiting in alternative venues and journals across the country- including Southern Exposure in San Francisco, Hallwalls in Buffalo, New York, LA's Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions; Xtra, Visible Language, and Framework journals, Beckman's work has recently been published in the New Zealand artists' magazine, Log Illustrated, and Half-Wit, a publication of the Knust group in the Netherlands. Her work can also be seen on-line at CleanSurface.com, and ubu.com. Current projects include "I Want to Love You", a video billboard (part of the LA Freewaves 8th Biannual Experimental Media Festival), and the multiple city alternative mapping project, "Day Tripper".

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