Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure. Within this scientific study of language, many variants exist to other areas of phonetics, semantics, applied linguistics, and even computational linguistics. Rules, such as grammar and syntax also apply to this area. Many social theories relating to stylistics and structural linguistics intersect with art theories; all this to say that speech and writing have been studied, and continue to be extensively studied. This work focuses on an area of linguistics referred to as "code switching."   

Code switching is typically when a person alternates between two or more languages (or variants of language) in a single conversation. It can also be a more informal mixture of two languages, such as Spanish and English, often referred to as Spanglish. In the movie Sorry to Bother You (2018) characters code switch between African American vernacular and "white voice" in order to connect and sell products and services to predominantly white audiences. Code switching is a common survival tool for African Americans and Blacks in the United States. I am not Black or African American or a person of color. I am white. The way in which I code switch is a different tool for navigating very privileged spaces. I recognize some of the privilege and power I carry in being white. It is impossible to fully understand white privilege, and yet we do not talk about it enough as existing and how to break down negative stereotypes.   

I code switch in my everyday interactions between queer communities and straight communities. My colleagues are mostly straight. My family is straight. My friends are a mix of queer and straight. When I'm with my family in southern, rural Missouri, a weird drawl sometimes slips out of me that matches theirs. It's a way to fit in and it's a way to identify. Identity is one reason for code switching. In my small, rural Missouri hometown, Jennifer is known as "cousin Jenn". This code switch in identity is for our safety. When we check into the local motel, we do not ask for a room with one king bed. Instead, we have to ask for a room with two double beds to hide our identity. My family has finally accepted cousin Jenn as my married partner of 17 years. However, that small rural Missouri town has an active group of the KKK, and they have made it known that blacks and queers are not welcome. I want to be out and proud of my gay identity. It's not safe in my hometown. People that my family know refer to me as a "foreigner" because I have Iowa license plates. My plates were run by the local police when I drove through town because I am not one of them anymore. When Jennifer and I stop at gas stations, we have to hope we will be safe inside. We tend to pick places that have single restrooms, rather than stalls. At one pitstop, we thought a Flying J would be safe for us. I decided to shop for a Diet Coke first before using the restroom. Jennifer walked up to me in a hurry and said a woman was getting her husband to find the guy that was in the women's restroom. I looked over at the woman and her husband that were pointing at us. Not only was I upset that these people wanted to hurt Jennifer for using the restroom, I had to leave behind my Diet Coke.

All of this experience comes through and comes out in this work. I am using computational linguistics to create and express my identity, switch identity, hide identity, and float between different identities. It's an exploration of my own queer identity, mixed with my identity as a person with a disability. My identity doesn't always fit within the broad identity of the institution in which I work, a predominantly straight, white, middle class, male led institution. Hence, my need to protect myself and code switch.

Pieces in the show:

Large billboard printed with 4 QR codes. On the TV is my artist statement, peppered in with bits of code I used to build the video on the iMac that tells a part of my story. The projectors at the bottom of the billboard are scrolling other parts of my story. I am masking other parts by including a series of QR codes that can be decoded if you work hard enough. On the reverse wall, there is a projector looping a video of a scanner. I experiment a lot with scanning, moving things around on the glass to create abstract images, placing those images in code and letting the code run to further mask them so that you can no longer identify the original scan. This work feels very vulnerable and it feels liberating.