This spring the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art held their “State of Being” fundraiser. Our team of multimedia developers, led by Matthew Henderson, were contacted to host an installation using virtual reality technology. Our concept, Forgotten Portland, was to bring to life locations from across Portland that were lost to time. Over the following four weeks we digitally recreated each of the most iconic Portland establishments in Unity game engine. With some additional lines of code and several late nights, the team was linked together in virtual reality. Simply putting on a headset allowed anyone to hop on the MAX and travel back in time to places like Roxys, Saucebox, Grilled Cheese Grill, or S1.

S1 was a gallery, education hub, and experimental performance space built by a community now known as the Synth Library of Portland. I had the pleasure of meeting with the former curator, Felicia Ledesma, who gave me access to their archive of extraordinary event documentation. I was also introduced to Emily Jones, the artist behind Orange House Action Clinic. OHAC was installed in 2016 at the S1 gallery, which included live performances and poetry recital. This thorough documentation gave me everything I needed to recreate the space despite never once setting foot in the space physically, although now it feels like I may know the space better than most who had.

Forgotten Portland is a project that is currently in its second phase of development. Future in-person activations is at the front of my mind since so many people have yet to experience it. Join my mailing list on the “contact me” page to sign up for notifications of upcoming events.