Recent works by Jason Bulluck, Chris Combs, Michelle Lisa Herman, David Mordini, and Derek Toomes.
Conference reception: Tuesday March 25, 3:30–5:30pm
Closing reception: Saturday March 29, 5:30-7:30pm

Concurrent with GW's Open Source Conference, Public Sauce presents a variety of artworks whose creation is dependent upon open source software. From full-featured standalone apps like Blender, to libraries like React, to the low-level code that controls hardware IO, open source opens up a vast new range of possibilities for artists, both formally and conceptually. Its wide adoption in the creative community provides a counterbalance to the “secret sauce” of ‘moats’ and ‘gatekeepers’ -- the commercialization of both technology and of art -- and celebrates the intellectual commons.

Jason Bulluck is a conceptual artist, writer, and teacher living in Washington, DC, and working in both DC and Chicago. His work explores encounters of critical geography, Buddhism and Black, Feminist, and  Queer liberatory thought and praxis. Recent projects include sculpture and installation that invite audiences to participate in these  discourses through material engagements, digital provocations,  performance, and writing.

Chris Combs is an artist based in Washington, D.C and Mount Rainier, Maryland whose sculptural artworks both incorporate and question technologies. Before becoming an artist, he was a photojournalist, a photo editor for National Geographic, a product manager, and ran a media website. As a kid, he wanted to make robots; many years later, he looped back to this.

Michelle Lisa Herman is a Washington, D.C.-based interdisciplinary artist and Assistant Professor at James Madison University. Herman’s work investigates invisible systems of power and is centered at the intersection of art and technology. She draws on references such as tech culture, feminist and disability theory, comedy, and conceptualism. Herman’s recent projects explore the relationship of the body to architecture.

David Mordini is an artist who lives and works in the Washington Metropolitan Area. He received his BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in 1995. Mordini’s work was originally selected as part of the permanent collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and now is held in the permanent collection at American University. He has served on the boards of The Washington Project for the Arts and the Washington Sculptors Group. In 2015, Mordini co-founded Otis Street Arts Project, and is now its sole proprietor and director.

Derek Toomes is an artist based in Greensboro and Raleigh, NC. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Interior Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Derek is drawn to the iconic imagery of popular culture, as he is equally interested our societal location as a culture inundated by imagery.