XP Lab

James was the co-founder of the XP Lab club at CalArts, a member of the Themed Entertainment Association club network. His motto: “If the audience of your practice has agency, level up your experiences with a like-minded co-hort.” With his co-pres, Shannon Siegel, they brought artists together from very different skillsets across the institute to support collaborations that couldn’t happen in their individual metiers. At the end of the first year, James designed and built (with lots of club help) the Expo Dome as a venue to play 360 films, immersive soundcapes, and musical performances by members of the club as a showcase of their projects that first year.

One example of an XP Lab collab was James’ installation XP-TV. A three-camera sit-com kitchen was set up as well as a green screen in a studio space while a writing and editing room was set up across the hall and a viewing party was set up outside. Thrown as a club party to attract new members, guests could hang out while watching a live broadcast of the XP TV station’s programming or wander inside to make it. Both the green screen and sit-com set were facing teleprompter monitors that were connected to a laptop in the other room. The laptop had an AI prompt set-up so anyone could pitch an idea for a show or a commercial and a short script for a scene from that show’s pilot with two characters would be generated and run on the teleprompter on set. Actors would have no idea what their show was about until the words were in front of them. The shows were then broken up with ad breaks for bizarre products that were dreamed up by a prompt (or hallucinated). Next to the writing station was an edit bay with a live camera switcher. Whoever was sitting there could swap between any of the cameras in the studio. There was also a place to draw graphics and record live VO so that the shows could have their own title cards and intros from the creators before the scenes started. As the night got on, the AI was encouraged to include product placement of the fake commercials in the shows or to do crossover episodes or spin-offs. The chat was pushed into unhinged places that made for a hilarious broadcast outside, and was a ton of fun for the actors and editors to discover in the moment as well.

Willing to do anything to support the club, no matter how embarrassing, James also acted a few times. He performed as a Campbellian story structure obsessed critic for the performance art piece Homework Club, directed by . After many other artists shared their work, James jumped onto a car to yell about how none of it made any sense because of it’s lack of a hero’s journey before being carted off by the avant-garde creatives.