Whats My Thesis?

Artist @petermaxlawrence and I ban politics from part two of our conversation, and argue about comic books instead.

Artist and brother from another mother @petermaxlawrence and I join forces for the most ambitious crossover event of all time. What's My Thesis and Time Waster Radio duke it out for podcasting supremacy, leaving piles of innocent bystander corpses in their wake, as they suss out the differences between leftists, Neoconservative and Neoliberals.    Also I conflate Cuba and Costa Rica, but you can tell I mean Cuba because I reference sugar cane.

Artist @pameeeela and I discuss the range of Latin American cultural experiences that are often seen as singular and interchangeable. We talk about the racism that exists between countries who's cultural identity was founded on Spanish colonialism, and the problems we have with words like Savage, Civil, and Ally. Also, would Eddie Redmayne be considered attractive if American beauty standards were less Eurocentric?

Artist @pameeeela talks about immigrating to Baltimore, and breaks down cultural nuances as we explore the wide range of practices artists consider research.

Artist @rakeemc and I discuss our love hate relationship with the video game Overwatch, and how it’s the only thing that fills us with unhindered rage, before getting into the lore behind the anime and comic books that inform our world view.

Artist @rakeemc discuses being pigeon holed and politicized, like when his work is described as body positive, but his body is not representative of the people the body positive movement is for. We talk influences, passive aggressive praise, being interviewed in print, toxic fandom, and how many of the intentions of black artists get overshadowed by the art world’s need to make the work exclusively about blackness.

Artist @femmester and I discuss what how our trust in the photograph has changed in our lifetimes. We consider the implications going forward, and ask what happens to the surveillance state when we no longer believe photographs and video footage.

Artist @femmester catches me in a particularly conspiratorial mind frame to discuss photography experienced as a fusion of different religions, cultures, and philosophies.

Artist @zo_broo and I discuss America’s secret police, white female privilege, and civil rights activists who were murdered for speaking out about class struggle (MLK and Fred Hampton). We highlight a recent incident where white citizens had to step in with cameras to protect a black family from police brutality, and Lorenzo changes my perspective on my relationship to racially hostile people and spaces.

Artist @zo_broo and I go deep on structural racism, imperialism and oppression without a white person present to get defensive and make the conversation about them. We call out the police as a protected class and examine some of the symbols in our culture that reveal the true functions of these systems of racial oppression.

Artist and @montevistaprojects member @kellanbarnebeyking and I discover the differences in our similar world views, and share the challenges we have consuming all news sources. We discuss Air America Radio and their coverage of the George W. Bush administration’s push to change NPR’s funding structure in response to critical coverage of the Iraq war. And I stress out Kellan with a Chaos Magic concept about truth.

Artist @kellanbarnebeyking briefly shares art collective @montevistaprojects  mission statement, before taking us on a journey from Pre-Colombian California to the geopolitical conflicts that affect the area today. With land and water rights as a central focus, we talk immigration, gentrification, and I learn why so many names we take for granted in LA, like Mulholland or Stanford, are tied to Southern California’s access to water.

Artist and Art Doctor Dr. Bethanie Irons and I dive deeper into her dissertation "Becoming Within Entangled Spaces of Artistic Practice: An Illustrated Autoethnography" about instagram, breaking down the ways it affects artist's practice: motivation, reflection, place, research, experimentation, networking and promotion, curation and display, connection to other people, and it's complicated: love hate relationship. We consider "felt cute, might delete" as a way of being vulnerable while also trying to control how an image is read, and acknowledge that IG is tough even when you like it, and it serves you.

Artist and recently hooded art doctor @bethanie_irons takes us through the process of defending her dissertation on Instagram. We talk in depth about her research, and how IG thrives as a tool for artists. We contemplate likes as a reward and punishment system, and pick up on the nuances of regional art communities. With a special shout out to South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Artist and high school photography teacher @katiekline and I discuss how the rate at which technological innovation accelerates is responsible for the generation gap between Baby Boomers and Millennials. We talk generational feminism, powerful white men applying an outdated approach to disseminating propaganda, and what it’s like to teach a generation of kids who participate in active shooter drills knowing the world might end because of the way adults have set up their society.

Artist and high school photography teacher @katiekline talks about Instagram related FOMO from the perspective of someone who’s process is rooted in consuming photography. She shares her experience teaching self portraiture to a generation raised on selfies, and describes an emerging archetype of student photographers that don’t take her creative photo class, but are known on campus for using DSLRs to make their classmates look hot on social media.

LA Stories and Poems - Alex Andrew Sanchez - Artist and Poet @alex_andrew_sanchez and I share stories from our quotidian LA experience. We discuss the Illusions that being isolated in a car creates, Los Angels as a political space, and close out with regional poetry from zines, books and loose pages.

Artist and Poet @alex_andrew_sanchez shares his interest in the convergence of painting and writing. Influenced by regional poetry and literature about Los Angeles, Alex is not as interested in stories of murder as he is in "the everyday violence that doesn't kill you, like riding the bus." If it sounds like Charles Bukowski might come up in this episode, it's because he does.