Sean Clute, Applicant for the New Media Art Teaching Position

March 11, 2015 | Kadema Hall, Room 145, California State University - Sacramento

I don't think I have been to a lecture where the room was as packed as it was this day - people sitting on the floor and in the aisle - not an empty seat in the place! Granted, the room is a smaller lecture room but it was pretty cool to see how many people turned up to get more information about the potential new Sac State instructor.

Me and artist, Sean Clute

My first impressions of Sean were that he had awesome, wild hair and sort of reminded me of a Pixar movie character. I was very intrigued to hear what he had to say and learn more about his art as I had looked him up online and spent sometime on his website (here). His work was a mix of different things: part performance/theatre art, part musical performance, part technology, part audience/performer collaboration, etc.; there seemed to be a little bit of everything!

Sean's opening slide

He started at the beginning: when and where he was at when he decided to switch from music to develop and explore new forms of expression. He was very specific with the time and place of this eye-opener: Shabla, Bulgaria, August 8, 1999. It was a beautiful story, involving a solar eclipse, a music festival and Sean playing a guitar solo. With this epiphany, he came to the conclusion that he wanted a new mode of expressing himself, moving away from the old fashioned or typical avenues and exploring a whole new of doing things. He wanted to invent things, he wanted to adapt to new things or obstacles, he wanted to be playful and he wanted to collaborate with others.

Sean talking about "ADAPT"

He eventually used these four points to move into showing off segments of his work; they were appropriately called “INVENT”, “ADAPT”, “PLAY” and “COLLABORATION”. I won’t go into detail on each of these but, overall, each work of his seemed fun, innovative and really made me think about what I could be doing with my work that’s new and different. The only part that made my head explode a tad was when he got into the software he created; while it was intriguing and the programs he made were pretty cool, my brain does not work in the land of computer code.

Sean's closing slide

Overall, Sean and his work seem very fun and I think he would be a great fit for a teaching position in the Art Department. I can see him using his affinity for collaboration and invention boosting students to a new level that they might not have thought to go.