April 2026
TechDays 2026, University of New Mexico
In “Punch-cards to Pixels: Computer Art at UNMAM“, I discussed the origins of computer-based art using objects from the UNM Art Museum’s collection.
I curated a grouping of artworks that spanned over 50 years of computer generated art, examining the niche history of this genre of artwork. The presentation highlighted a series of computer drawings created in 1969 by Frederick Hammersley, and a 1971 drawing created in collaboration between artist Harold Cohen, and AARON, arguably the first artificially intelligent drawing machine.
The presentation concluded by analyzing digital photographs that have been manipulated via software like Photoshop, theorizing whether the definition of a photograph can apply to an image whose pixels have been completely altered, pushed, and in some cases, destroyed through the process of rendering the photograph as a scalable vector graphic (SVG).
This presentation paired with a series of three guest lectures I gave for a course within the UNM Museum Studies Department, “Contemporary Perspectives on the Art Museum”. In these classes, students engaged with computer-generated artworks from the UNMAM collection, toured Ephemeral Acts an exhibition at the Thoma Collection, and were introduced to digital preservation techniques and procedures.
Spring 2026
University of New Mexico Art Museum
As Collections Specialist & Database Administrator at UNMAM, I coordinated and managed a complete database migration from FileMaker Pro to The Museum System (TMS). This migration included over 30,000 object records and more than 12,000 photographs - totaling more than 250GBs of data.
With the onboarding of TMS, I developed foundational digital infrastructures for UNMAM. Overseeing the connection of digital assets and object records within TMS required me to strategically design a new level of accessibility for collection objects across all departments at UNMAM, while advocating for future expansion and user development.
This work included generating new object classifications, standardizing terminology across all fields, improvements to searchability, accuracy and enrichment of metadata, and the amendment of culturally-sensitive categorizations.
Alongside newly introduced digital procedures for UNMAM, I also researched, developed, and implemented a series of protocols and policies, including:
Raymond Jonson Archive
July 2025 - July 2026
University of New Mexico Art Museum
During Collections Year, UNMAM galleries were transformed into active workspaces for collections management activities during the 2025-26 academic year.
Collections Year was conceived of as an opportunity and a need when UNMAM was approached by various donors who offered gifts of approximately 200 artworks. These objects had to be cataloged, accessioned and properly housed, despite the museum’s art storage space being at capacity.
In collaboration with the UNMAM Collections Manager, I designed an online platform that held project goals, deadlines ranging from semester to weekly, templates for object reporting forms, temporary databases specific to active projects and inventories, staff and student schedules, and additional educational and training resources for student workers. This project management software became an integral part of monitoring the progress of our collective work and ensured that Collections Year was kept on schedule.
Throughout Collections Year, I directed a complete inventory and internal relocation of the Raymond Jonson Archive held by UNMAM. The archive consists of 900+ books, 3,000+ file folders, and a mix of materials spanning paper ephemera, diaries, scrapbooks, clothing, and legacy physical media such as reel-to-reel audio, VHS tapes, cassettes, and floppy disks.
I supervised and trained eight student Collection Apprentices across digitization, art handling, object condition reporting, object cataloging, collections care, and archival practices.
In June of 2026, I participated in a panel discussion about Collections Year and the expansion of the UNMAM Student Employment Program at the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG) Annual Conference.
Read more about Collections Year here.