Chelsea Thompto

I am an artist living and working in Madison, WI and graduate student at the University of Wisconsin Madison. I will be finishing an MFA in Art and an MA in Gender and Women's Studies in Spring 2019. My art practice is strongly rooted in my experience as a transwoman and explores the ways in which trans bodies are viewed and politicize in the USA. My work engages a wide variety materials including photo, video, text, coded works, bookbinding, digitally fabricated objects, and more.

Exhibiting

A Transmaterial Body: Envisioning (trans)embodiment beyond the traditional limits of the corporeal

A Transmaterial Body consists of a mobile network created by a small linux machine, broadcasting a wireless signal creating a localized intranet wireless network. This network is battery powered and carried on Chelsea at all times. As such, the network and herself are constantly centered on and overlapping with each other. Users who connect to this network will find their device's web browsers redirecting them to a web page accessible to them only while on the network that contains live streamed biological data, selected texts (including source material for recreating this project), and other media.