I am truly indebted to my committee: Robin Mandel, for his patient guidance and for lending me his Tacita Dean book; to Melinda Novak for taking a chance on an artist, and fostering my embedded practice; and to Jenny Vogel for introducing me to the medium of performance lecture.

To the long-suffering technicians Mikaël Petraccia, Dan Wessman, and Bob Woo for giving me excellent advice, and tolerating question after question. And department chair Alexis Kuhr, for her thoughtful studio visits and gracious support.

Many thanks to the UMass Arts Council for supporting the exhibition, and to the College of Natural Sciences for their generous fellowship.

To my beautiful wife Amanda, but also Mark, Bailey, Coby, Ernie, Emmitt, Fozzy, Friday, Ivan, Kayla, Lil G, Lily, Linus, Nigel, Peanut, Smiley, Taz, Violet, Zoey.

Thank you to my family, both Sams and Steplers. And of course, to Christopher for taking care of me.