dear [   ] is a visual narrative that connects disparate letters, people and periods to tell a story of the everyday. Eleven letters are audio narrated by
my great grandmother’s kin:

Sandra Hightower

Stacey Pulley

Taylor Hightower Jr.

Taylor Hightower III

Brett Pulley

Lillian Hightower

Blake Pulley

Fairin Moon Hightower

That are then woven together by means of
a website, physical book and publication.

The book features full transcriptions of all eleven letters, with instances in which text
was reinterpreted by myself, are placed within [brackets]. The primary book object is made
of book board, digital prints and arduino
mechanisms. There is only one copy of the
board book that houses the physical computing elements which connects to a website that supplements the project.

Images are provided from a family archive from GranSan (<3) — in which all images are redacted within the book and publications to only appear with use of the accompanying website. This condition grants limited access to a viewer who experiences the book alone and requires the viewer to commit time, effort and labor to experience the entirety of the work. 

The project is intended to be experienced as
a performance, in which an overhead camera visualizes my page turns & interactions, which trigger real-time actions within the browser
via a projection of the website.

The viewer is guided through the narrative with overlapping characters, places and events amongst a backdrop of found videos from the public domain — with the impermanence of the performance itself setting a condition intended to foster obligation for an audience in order to access the entire experience of the piece. 

huge THANK YOU to Sandra Hightower, Stacey Pulley, Taylor Hightower Jr., Taylor Hightower III, Brett Pulley, Lillian Hightower, Blake Pulley & Fairin Moon Hightower. Ed Brown for technical support. Neta Bomani for inspiring
this work. Deb Clemmons & the RISD Museum for supporting this work.