Sean Lockwood Writing Portfolio

I am an artist and writer from the United States. Compiled here are examples of writing that showcase my abilities and range. My educational background is in Fine Art, and since working professionally in this field for years, writing has become an integral aspect of my practice as a creative producer. Much of my experience in writing has thus far served to accompany and facilitate the experience of contemporary art, and has been published in various forms of literature. Because of the nature of contemporary art my writing is able to unfold over a wide range of topics and areas of culture, and has compelled my research ability toward unique insight.

The examples of my writing shown here are included in their full form and can be expanded from titles.

Highlighted topics of exploration: Art, Technology, Culture, Media, Criticism, Theory, Visual Literacy

Thank you for your time and interest,

Sean Lockwood

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Sample Script

On Headphones and YouTube Reviews

On May 30th, 2023, Z Reviews revealed his face on camera for the first time in a video celebrating his 10-year anniversary of publishing videos on YouTube. Over that decade, Zeos Pantera has been posting videos reviewing audio equipment like headphones, speakers, DACs, and amplifiers. He films these popular reviews with a GoPro strapped to his forehead like a first-person video game, thus only identifying himself visibly by his hands' frenetic gestures and abrasive personality to verbally describe his experience of sound carried through the gear serving as each video's topic.

The face reveal came at a time when he himself admitted it to be a strategic career move given the current moment of audiophile YouTube. Consumer interest in audio gear has grown significantly in the last few years and continues to get bigger as knowledge spreads in very accessible video form, superseding message boards and forums of old. A lot of people started paying more attention to headphones circumstantially during the pandemic and with the onset of ambient WFH. Apple and Sony also enabled this popularity by making expensive headphones fashionable.

For many this is just the beginning, though, and more evidence of this market trajectory can be observed in examples of bigger YouTubers like Linus, of Linus Tech Tips, who purchased an 18,000 sq ft warehouse in June of last year with plans to create a facility built to test consumer products, specifically stating headphones, the results of which will be reported by way of more videos. Anyway, Crinacle already incidentally revealed Z Reviews' face within a few frames of his CanJam NYC 2023 vlog a few months prior in March. Moreover, in April, Flint gifted me a headphone amp that to me was an upgrade from my Audioengine D1, which I did buy for myself in 2020.

Listening to someone speak at length about their own solitary experience of listening, while the true nature of this activity is in itself ephemeral and imperceptible beyond their means of conveyance, is work.

Anyone interested enough to find themselves unfurling hours of video opinion must at least identify with the speaker, who acts as a qualifier in mustering their viewer's confidence in making a single purchase. That this veiled social stratification revolves around the possession of products isni't surprising; many hobbies center some kind of ownership as a means to access belonging, and acquisition of keys permits the hobbyist a veritable place within its community. This is soothing; especially when the jingling of the keys can be determined bluntly as "sounds good" or "sounds bad," easing one's inability to make decisions. It's not the medium of video that offers new access to this market, rather its framing of a presenter as a proxy through which one hopes to discover something about themselves. On Zeos' channel, the viewer is confronted with Zeos' normalization of hypersexualized anime girls displayed in the background of his PoV videos while he talks to himself about headphones in a basement. Of course, there are many other people to watch. In the activity of association and dissociation that follows the viewer, there is enough dissonance pointing to the realization that attempting command over that which was never meant to be possessed is more so a reflection of our own motivations.

While writing this, I've reflected on my own rotation of different listening devices I use for different situations: wireless ANC headphones for when I'm commuting, wired closed-back cushy over-ear headphones for spending hours on he computer, IEMs for when I want to cover my ears with a hat in winter, etc. Within my own lifestyle, I have prioritized products like these so that I can endure situations that I largely don't want to be in. For instance, being on a train in the morning, or being alone in the evening. As varied and specific the situations may be, my remedy ultimately remains the same. It's clear to me why the demand exists for understanding which tools may be best to employ across the myriad situations in which many others would also rather be experiencing something else. Starting means navigating what options are available for obtaining this information. Then one might be able to discover how to make the best of their situation.

Sean Lockwood, 2023

A script highlighting engagement with trends in technology, relating online phenomenon with wider culture and social reality.

Memes

On the Development of a Meme and Impact on Culture

In 2024 I gave multiple public talks and screenings on the 10 year anniversary of a meme I am responsible for. The meme is the Globglogabgalab - https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/globglogabgalab. I originally uploaded the video in 2014. It was a bizarre experience of watching the trajectory from random post online, to internet phenomenon, to cultural impact and inclusion in mainstream consciousness via a rapper. I learned a lot about YouTube and the internet from this experience.

The talks took place at two locations across Germany - Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and Trust, Berlin.

Exhibition Press Releases

The following press releases were written while organizing and operating the exhibition space, Paid, in Seattle, Washington between 2022 and 2023. For more information about the gallery, visit paid.exchange

Paid linear antiphonal honk concert by Kieran Daly at Paid, Seattle

Paid is proud to present a performance by Kieran Daly on Friday March 17. The door will open at 7:30PM and the performance will take place at 8:00PM.

Kieran Daly is a composer and performer currently residing in Chicago. Using improvisation and iterative nonlinear processes as primary means for constructing a (mostly) monophonic music from first principles, his prolific work has been featured by publications such as Chicago Reader, Lateral Addition, Lana Turner Journal, Pitchfork, Trilobite, Triple Canopy, and Wire Magazine.

Tier Lists by Nicholas Strobelt at Paid, Seattle

It’s not a big deal to dislike an actor. There are many actors and we’re allowed to like and dislike them. One’s feelings about particular actors might determine what movies they do or do not watch. It’s one part of the audience-experience whole that contributes to one’s taste in movies. Taste in this case can be described as consistency or patterns in consumption. In all other consumptive activities where options exist, the same rule applies. Across other markets, saturation of options permits us to pick and choose what represents our interests the most. Coke versus Pepsi and so on. We recognize that everyone else around us is doing this too, and we can organize ourselves socially around the overlapping selections.

Sometime last year I learned from Nick that he doesn’t like Tom Hanks. He actually really dislikes him. Since then, I have thought about Hanks more. What do I think about Tom Hanks? And where does my position on him situate me within a greater context of my peers? Obviously this is a very famous actor. When I think about Hanks, I think about The Most Normal Guy in Hollywood. I think vanilla. When I think about vanilla I think about limited choices. Once the product of an option achieves the acceptance of enough people, it becomes vanilla-ized. A baseline for flavor, on top of which more interesting and distinct flavors may stack. When there aren’t enough options, more options appear. When there are too many options, the desire for simplification reduces how many options there are.

Nap by Jason Hirata at Paid, Seattle

What does a child need an encyclopedia for? What does it mean to introduce so much empirical data to a child? It's not only painting the corners of the room, constructing a bounding box, and illustrating the full constraints of human experience, but also filling the room with every possible outcome. It's preventative toward chaos.

Selections from the Photographic Archive of Kosen Ohtsubo, Presented by Christian Kōun Alborz Oldham, and in cooperation with Kosen Ohtsubo, Ryusei-ha, and Empty Gallery at Paid, Seattle

If one were to ask how much water the flowers in a garden drink, would one ask the watering can or the flower? Christian's practice involves other people. To know and interact with Christian is to become involved in the production and dissemination of his work. Because we are involved in other aspects of his work (outside of this show) we are compromised narrators.

This is, seemingly, by topiary design. It is important for us to express through this show a reflection on the context in which we’ve come to know each other, one which has been insulated by Christian’s long-term commitment to this particular project—both technically and philosophically. It reminds us to tend to our relationships and appreciate how they grow and change over time

A Primitive Gratitude for the Gift of Life by Elizabeth VR at Paid, Seattle

A few meetings into planning this show we were given a bag which contained two crumply holiday gift-wrapped marionettes. One a smiling green dragon, and the other a smiling tall clown. The puppets are objects from the artist’s childhood. They were loaned to us to offer inspiration in producing the poster for this show in the form of a self portrait. A marionette’s behavior is dependent on the actions of its operator, translating movement through the pulling of strings. Unwrapping our gifts, we found the strings were not tangled but wound in a careful way.

World Felix by Focus at Paid, Seattle

Paid is pleased to announce the opening of World Felix, the first irl exhibition of works by focus. We don’t know much about focus, but have been privileged to consume their generous and infrequent media drops over the course of the past four or five years. focus drops are events that produce powerful echoes, and we feel honored to facilitate their continuation in a physical form.

Best Nissan Companion at Paid, Seattle

The term first thus refers to the first iteration of a given publication in a previously unreleased format. A book only released as a hardcover might enjoy a first thus edition as a paperback years after its initial printing. Paid is pleased to announce the first thus opening of our space in Beacon Hill. After existing in varying formats, Paid will undergo a substantial, i.e. functional, shift as it is re-editioned as a gallery space.

To re-edition what is ostensibly a garage, one which has heretofore performed the expected functions of a garage, we felt it most appropriate to embrace the dissonance generated as the space transitions from one that acts as a parking space for cars to one which acts as a parking space for art. It is through conventional exhibition material such as this announcement or subsequent promotion that the criteria of establishing a gallery is satisfied. This opening is mostly about announcing the space is ready.

Negligence Tort at Veronica, Seattle

PARKING TODAY is circulated free of charge to those who have an interest in the parking industry. In order to facilitate delivery, readers outside North America are charged $60. Post Office receipt available upon request. Single copy price $15.

Manuscripts, articles, photographs, artwork, product releases and all contributed materials are welcomed by PARKING TODAY; however submissions are subject to editing. Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for all content (including text, representations and illustrations of advertisements printed and also any and all claims made against the publisher. Publisher's sole responsibility for error in advertising content extends to correction in the succeeding issue.

It’s almost been a year since I subscribed to Parking Today magazine. I’ve learned that the parking industry is concerned with innovations in parking systems and that systems facilitating parking are needed because they support other sites that require parking. I like thinking about parking for this reason—it always points to some other site of interest. It’s appurtenant to other places. After moving a few months ago I was relieved to see issues of the magazine continuing to appear in my mail box. Of course, that’s because I changed my address with the post office for $1.06.

1209 North Orange Street, or the Corporation Trust Center, is a single-story building located in Wilmington, Delaware. Over 50% of publicly traded corporations in the US and 60% of the Fortune 500 are incorporated in this office because of Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL)—often referred to as the single most important corporate jurisdiction since the beginning of the 20th century. The DGCL allows businesses based in other states to file their taxes in Delaware, whose unusually low corporate tax rate saves major corporations billions in taxes. The office is operated by Corporation Trust Company (CT, or CT Corporation), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer, a multi-national information services company based in the Netherlands with operations in over 35 countries. CT Corporation is the largest registered agent service firm in the world representing hundreds of thousands of business entities worldwide.

Direct-mail solicitation is a common and often lucrative sort of fraud. Over the years, alluring advertisements in newspapers and magazines have proved to be no less rewarding to the people who dream them up. In Mmabas Sfviols, not long ago, someone inserted an ad in a weekly magazine much fancied by photography buffs. They offered Punzaefo210 C cameras for $19.95 at a time when they were normally selling for vastly more. Someone else who doubted that anybody in their right mind would make such a proposal had the good sense to ask the Mmabas Sfviols office of the Postal Inspection Service what it thought of the ad’s validity. Inspector Battery got on the case, and just in time: When he caught up with the originator of this particular scheme, there was no sign of any cameras, but there was $48,631.41 in their bank account and another $23,831.52 in their residence. And within the next few days a flood of mail came in—11,062 letters containing $174,323.10 worth of orders for nonexistent cameras. After all ascertainable claims had been paid off—some of the victims were so eager to get their bargain cameras that they had mailed in cash and neglected to enclose return addresses—there remained $17,018.51, which the Post Office Department conscientiously turned over to the Treasury Department, thus again contributing, in however minuscule way, to a diminution of the national deficit.

—Sean Lockwood

Exhibition Texts

Jason Hirata at Billytown

Monday

Who’s taking these photos? The name of the person we see with light hair is Angelus. Melle was also there, but we don’t see him in any of the images. They shot these photos while working at the artist center Billytown in the Hague. I’m not sure if this job comes with a wage or not.

Tuesday

These photographs were made in an exhibition of our artwork. They are a favor to us. Most of what they show could be described as keeping things going: keeping the doors open, saying “hello” and “thank you for coming,” or turning things on and off as needed. Within these duties is an outgrowth and feeling of its own, its own reason and excuse. This also describes what is shown.

Wednesday

A roll of 35mm film discloses its own limitations. Spooled within its casing is enough industrially prescribed material to produce 36 frames of exposure, or photographs. This is thought to be the maximum material allowance that is also commercially viable. Once a roll is shot, it’s typically only 80% printable due to technical and aesthetic obstacles, further implicating its capacity. A sprocket hole may break, a frame may be under-exposed, subjects may blink, a finger or lens cap may block the lens. One way of exceeding the frame limit of film is by reorienting our approach to production. Cropping, combining, flipping, and stretching are methods of further interpretation which take the exposure itself as a setting to work within. Three rolls of film were shot for this project.

Thursday

The quality of these images was once so common as to be mundane. However, today they appear distinct. Today they are noticeably “analog”. To my eye, some of them appear to be transmissions from a bygone era, while others somehow look stylishly current. In any case, they were all taken in the summer of 2023 while we (Magnus and Jason) were both far away from the gallery in our respective homes. The apparatus these photos provide us is a view that we could never have perceived, even and especially if we had been there to take them ourselves. Their analog style is also distinct from the specialized imagery of exhibition documentation. It is a subjective view made at the request of an absent observer. The glimpses of interiority it provides supplies us with a perspective in excess of the visually observable.

Friday

Should these photographs be compared to exhibition documentation? Or would something like a glimpse behind the scenes, a making-of, be more apt? Every photo has a backside. Included in this is what's just outside the frame, what's very distantly outside the frame and what can never be framed. We could call this project “extra-documentary” though perhaps this is vague. Is it extra in the sense that it captures more than it is asked to? Or does excess accumulate precisely in what it refuses to capture? Or perhaps the surplus unfolds

I assisted in editing this passage for it to be included in a publication following the exhibition held at Billytown, located in the Hague, the Netherlands. The book will be distributed by bookstores around the world.

Typing Game at Prairie Underground, Seattle

Language follows clothing. Proper marketing technique dictates to us that products cannot simply exist and be bought—they must also be described. In any commercial context a step of knowing precedes purchasing. In an e-commerce context webpages should be filled appropriately with text here and there to function in the same way as dressing a boutique, stretching to ends of a rectangle as need be. Describing options or variations or suggested pairings or identifying solutions to identified problems requires some form of copy writing or numeric/non-numeric sizing information or color or short or long or style in order to describe the product. During my residency I was able to witness the tools, specifically computer keyboards, used for creating that description.

I've been really into typing games for some time now. I feel like a lot of people associate them with being young in school and learning touch-typing while being told how much of an essential skill it will be. I think it has mostly helped me with messaging comfortably. I like thinking about them more now because of how much they also feel like work simulators. Typing games typically consist of transcribing prescribed passages of text, and the game becomes a matter of copying these passages. Time management also plays a role because there are usually time constraints motivating you to finishing your copying quickly. All of the elements of industrial labor—repetition, accuracy, speed, etc. can be very straightforwardly encapsulated into a game to more or less pass time or feel busy. Games like these can also be an effective gauge for understanding storage solutions. Because the basic mechanic of any typing game hasn't ever needed to change, the same idea can be repackaged over and over again (maybe with slight variations on a theme) as new products. Every update in readable media formats occurring over the last few decades has shown that these kinds of products can be re-shoveled on to whatever tech, never questioning how much longer typing will be necessary. Only now as we see them disappearing from laptops do we see mechanical keyboards getting the final push into the tech fetish category of quirky peripherals. Their continued survival is an in-house chore, left to the domain of appliances whose design integrity will outlast them. Dishwashers can easily clean dust and food crumbs out of keyboards in one cycle.

At Prairie Underground, a once operational sauna fell victim to an illicit supply/demand chain concerning copper one night, rendering it defunct of its original use and relegating it to a storage closet. Since both a dishwasher and a sauna are on site, and because they both heat water to the same temperature when they're working, I wanted to introduce employee keyboards to them. So I went to the building at night, when I knew no one would be at work the next day, and removed employee keyboards from their work stations so that they could spend the following night, of the opening reception, in the sauna.

The playlist I made is for listening to while playing typing games. The music I chose to include in the playlist all comes from other video game soundtracks and is all composed by video game music composers. I tried to encapsulate the energy required to type fast and accurately in the tracks I selected. I eventually burned discs with the music playlist on it. For this I was mostly inspired by the backup of Prairie Underground Operations & Maintenance Manual to a CD. Some copies of the disc were given to customers as a lagniappe.

The examples of my writing shown here are included in their full form and can be expanded from titles.

Sample Script

On Headphones and YouTube Reviews

Memes

On the Development of a Meme and Impact on Culture

Exhibition Press Releases

Paid linear antiphonal honk concert by Kieran Daly at Paid, Seattle

Tier Lists by Nicholas Strobelt at Paid, Seattle

Nap by Jason Hirata at Paid, Seattle

Selections from the Photographic Archive of Kosen Ohtsubo, Presented by Christian Kōun Alborz Oldham, and in cooperation with Kosen Ohtsubo, Ryusei-ha, and Empty Gallery at Paid, Seattle

A Primitive Gratitude for the Gift of Life by Elizabeth VR at Paid, Seattle

World Felix by Focus at Paid, Seattle

Best Nissan Companion at Paid, Seattle

Negligence Tort at Veronica, Seattle

Exhibition Texts

Jason Hirata at Billytown

Typing Game at Prairie Underground, Seattle

Work Featured in Publications

Veneer Magazine #13

BILL Magazine #5

Discovery! Installation Views

Paywall #1

Veneer Magazine #12

Christian Oldham's Update Newsletter

MONDAY Volume 3

57 Cell #5