sean chamberlain is a queer artist currently living in Portland, OR. Their practice largely focuses on identity production, the ethics of the second self, and the construction of our IRL/URL worlds. This work predominantly manifests through video, installation, publication, and performance, as well as being engaged through curatorial work, event production, and writing. chamberlain has exhibited at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, b10, Composition, GAK Space, First Brick, One Grand Gallery, and has performed in various nightclubs, both above and below ground. the democratization of celebrity is a mutable installation. Formally, the democratization of ​ ​ celebrity is comprised of three performances, a clothing rack, wiring, red lighting, a power tower, ​ and a fog machine. All of these objects operate together and autonomously, even as they lend their energy and support to the performance works, setting the stage for the performances to continue on a loop of production. This form of production is via the avatar, a vessel of transcendence and transference. Using the avatar as a means of creating a boundary between a central body and audience through that of the simulated or malleable. The artificial space releasing the confines of my central body, facilitating the ability to chameleonize, shift, edit, and morph. A new body, a new mind, an update, a reboot. The body, simulated or not, being used as material from which a varied matrix may emerge. The objects, as a collection, illustrate a sketch of locale, in varying forms of completion and detection. A nightclub, a stage, a retail environment, playing the characters of each of these spaces loosely and with ease. Through their continued mimicry, a performance of space, character, identity, and time move as one unit. A matrix of my own making, attempting to exist on the rim of worlds. Conceptually, the democratization of celebrity is investigating the production of a second ​ ​ self/avatar and the performative nature of the queer experience, sans Judith Butler. Sifitng through the vast archieve of mostly white, cis academics and coming up confused/empty handed. Seeking solace in the transhumanist fields, creating parallels between the biohacking of CRISPR kids and estrogen/testosterone shots of the girls and boys, women and men, and all those in between. Examining the newly emergent trans-humanist field of exploring gender as a construct through which gender can be augmented via the digital and the cerebral, not requiring mechanisms of the trans-medical industrial complex. Framing the term avatar as a means of performing identity through a subsidiary of the central self. The prosthetic, an agent of believability used to propagate and aide the succeeding of the performance. The history of performance is varied, chipped, and ephemeral. In an attempt to circumvent a less tangible field of practice, this work opts to capitalized on the slipperiness of the tongue. Words as a prosthetic to carve out space for the goo to fall and maintain it’s grounding. Building out a new matrix to house intention and rewiring to view material as a fluid entity that may ebb and flow into different formal arenas. Introduction: Hello, my name is Sean Chamberlain and welcome to my thesis defense, the democratization of ​ celebrity. If you know me, you know I am strangely obsessed with the cinematic both ​ ​ aesthetically and dramatically. A large part of this work was formed through the queerness I live in this iteration of my body, as well as the queerness I apply to the things I consume not through selection but conceptually making them queer and engaging with them solely through that lens. My consumption of popular culture, fashion, film, and theory has lead to the sculpturesque object behind me. Yes, I view it as both one singular object as well as many separate ones. Formally, the democratization of celebrity functions as a multimedia installation investigating the ​ ​ production of a second self/avatar (two terms I will use interchangeably) through performance and post performance object/ephemera. The avatar is the simulated second, third, fourth bodies. An armour, a vessel granting access where the central body might limit you. This is my central body (for now) The contextual space exists in the internet, a stage, a nightclub, and a retail environment. That is not to say it is or is not a fraction, whole, or none of those spaces. A protean object, operating ​ ​ in a similar framework to that of the avatar. Everything is considered but nothing matters as it currently stands because it could change or alter in some way at any moment. The theoretical space is situated within the fields of queer theory, transhumanism, and performance theory. It ebbs and flows, pulls and gives, much like the works physical counterparts. Before I start I want to thank a moment to thank Lisa Radon, for your beautiful brain and wonderful patience, my mother, Sharita Towne for making sure I stayed in my lane, DA Carter, Shawna Lipton, Tino Valez and Kahn Norris for helping shoot tea room, Stormy for the fog ​ ​ machine, Fran and Nick Bittakis/SP Team for the FREE filming space (support queer artists in anyway you can), and Gio Gionnii for the beautiful score. I would also like to thank the cultural producers for their output on the subjects and material I used to form this body of work. I would like to lead with a quote on identifying as Personal, if you need clarification read the damn book. The quote is obviously by Juliana Huxtable and is from Gender Talents with Andreas Angelidakis (ANGEL_I_DA_KISS) and Kimberly Drew published by Facadomy under Riley Hooker. Quote “an act of self canonization. a loop chain of signification strengthened—amino acids build the structures of the death drive. i am i.” Formal Descriptions power tower, metal cart, ethernet cable, red light, dimensions variable ​ The heart of the exhibition and the mechanism tying together somewhat disparate elements. Simultaneously referencing the moving of mass amounts of data, and a security device. Using the associations of piles of internet cables as a conduit for expansions on the interconnectivity of the internet the metal object is adorned with large amounts of ethernet cable to solidify said visual connection. power tower is not only physically tying the works together but is moving ​ ​ metaphorical data from object to object keeping them plugged in and “alive” or at least able to mutate from their current form. Think of these objects as if they are suspended in a different world and this is their mechanized anchor. The aesthetics of power tower are directly influenced ​ ​ by Ava’s containment room in Alex Garland’s 2015 film, Ex Machina. The shine of cold metal ​ ​ both upon her person and in her environment, as well as the red light beaming down upon her during her “power cuts”. One can see a thread of this reference operating throughout the exhibition. Prosthetics, varied media, varied dimensions ​ Firstly, the prosthetics directly reference Uri McMillans inaugural book Embodied Avatars: ​ Genealogies of Black Feminist Art and Performance, which focuses on the production of ​ ​ performance art. McMillan outlines how the success of the avatar is dependant on the prosthetic, which they describe as an agent of believability. The prosthetics I have created are purposefully aesthetic. The decision to make something aesthetically or materially driven was ​ ​ used to depict a physical object as a prosthetic, rather than rendering it,less tangibly, as a conceptual idea. The physicality punctuates the notion of the prosthetic as a mechanism of support. These are the skins of the avatars, their suits, part of their most mutable form, as well as a system of aesthetic defense. The prosthetics are mounted on a steel clothing rack that references the backstage of a theatre production, a retail environment, and a green room/coat check of a club. The rack is plugged into power tower, remaining in limbo. The choice to display ​ ​ what would formally be called post performance objects is to maintain the active nature of the installation, setting ground for the performance works. sleeping girl, video, 5 min. ​ sleeping girl is the beginning of the narrative present in the 3 performances. The work begins ​ with the character waking up in their body, slowly coming to life, simply exploring. The motions are soft, gentle, and infantile to convey the act of entering a foreign space in a foreign vessel. The body is connected to power tower through a red light face mask, mirroring the emissions of ​ ​ the towers light, and tons of ethernet cables plugged into the skin and mouth. The cables are used to signal transference of data and life from machine to human. The use of a three camera setup is employed to convey the clinical, research, and/or laboratory surveillance present in the space. Ending with an empty chair, previously occupied by the character, and the red light mask set upon it. sleeping girl aesthetically is pulling from the Wachowski Sisters 1999 film, The ​ ​ ​ Matrix, more directly Neo’s birth scene into their IRL from their URL world. Utilizing a similar ​ conceptual framework to that of the film in depicting the matrix/machine as a space/object. tea room, video, 2 min ​ tea room is the central piece of the narrative performance. Beginning with a theatrical light fade, ​ a signifier that a work is about to begin on a stage, into an empty room. Through the use of aesthetic markers of a nightclub, red lighting, large speakers, and a house/techno based score the viewer is able to quickly render the environment. Suddenly there are six bodies occupying different portions of the screen, all of which on their own identical stage. From there a one and a half minute performance begins.