VIRTUAL MACHINES: the salon experience
LORE bookstore | Leimert Park, LA | sept 2025
VIRTUAL MACHINES is an experimental salon developed by foster the studio to explore how radical self-expression can restore our sense of agency in a world shaped by invisible systems. hosted at LORE Bookstore in Leimert Park, the salon activates a visual framework that helps participants see, name, and transform the structures shaping their lives.
rooted in my practice as an artist-researcher, the salon examines how human systems (emotional, social, behavioral, political) can be translated into perceptible form. when the invisible becomes visible, we regain the power to act.
this salon was ran in collaboration with the following phenomenal artists:
theo hargis (visual artist)
esteban arellano (visual technologist)
natalie brewster (framework)
iziazh zayzay & the SBS quartet
a special thanks to LORE Bookstore for hosting our salon.
VIRTUAL MACHINES framework: a tool for human agency under constraint
modeled after the logic of a technological virtual machine, the framework reveals how individuals navigate life within boundaries set by society, yet maintain autonomy through expression, imagination, and personal choice. if technological systems can be rewritten, so can we.
the framework identifies four human mechanics of expression:
EXPAND: experiment with identity, aesthetics, language, and possibility.
PRESERVE: set boundaries, cultivate resilience, safeguard your voice.
PROTECT: defend personal and collective dignity against systems that suppress or erase.
EXPLORE: push beyond expectation, embrace connection, stretch into new futures.
radical SELF-EXPRESSION becomes the “code rewrite” that reconfigures our relationship to oppressive constraint.
a four-step process for translating the unseen into shared understanding:
translate — human experience becomes perceptible through visual art.
transcribe — naming and describing the underlying system or expression.
render — converting that system into a democratic, visual framework.
reflect — engaging in communal dialogue to deepen understanding and agency.
this method turns art into social technology: a tool for reflection, communication, and transformation.
the salon experience: translating human systems
at the VIRTUAL MACHINES salon, participants engaged with the framework through musical ambiance, conversation, prompts, and the IDEA WALL, a collective space for naming the systems shaping their lives. through sticky notes, stories, and shared insight, the room became a living diagram of human experience.
the salon affirmed a central belief at foster the studio:
human systems can be translated, visualized, and re-written.
VIRTUAL MACHINES bridges art, science, and social technology, proving that frameworks aren’t just intellectual tools, but living instruments that help people examine and transform their own lives.
this work turns passive observation into active engagement. it offers a democratic interface for navigating identity, power, constraint, and possibility. and it continues to shape how we create new models of belonging and futures rooted in agency.
see responses to the IDEA WALL to the left.
chain reactions
july artist in residence | Sip & Sonder | inglewood ca | july 2025
chain reactions asks:
if a reckoning is coming, would there be signs?
what happens before the breakthrough, as sparks gather & connect?
this exhibition reimagines liberation as a network of active, intentional moments. each piece in the show demonstrates the multifaceted nature of liberation, and the diversity in moments that are necessary to build towards liberated futures.
timely with recent upheaval in the United States, ICE raids in LA, and general targeting of marginalized peoples, this show is proof that even in the midst of devastation, there are moments of community, resistance, & gathering, still happening. and further, these unseen moments are equally important to our collective story of liberation as ruptures of resistance.
hope is alive, so long as liberation is an actively curated ecosystem.
chain reactions was concluded by an artist talk & workshop led by miela.
the workshop: exploring liberation as a living ecosystem
part 1 — getting to know the pieces
i opened with a theory: liberation is an ecosystem.
using six elements of a biological ecosystem — interdependence, energy, cyclic rhythms, adaptability, diversity, and place — i reframed each through the lens of liberation. we then revisited the artwork with this framework in mind.
part 2 — call & response
we explored how each element connected to the seven works in chain reactions, and how together they formed a self-sustaining system of change.
through guided questions, participants reflected on liberation in the context of their own lives. the space shifted — ideas built on one another, conversations deepened, and the room became alive.
part 3 — creating together
participants broke into small groups, each re-imagining one ecosystem element through collaborative drawing.stories and ideas flowed freely, filling the room with color and connection.each group presented their work, sharing how it represented their element in liberation. finally, we brought all the drawings together to recreate the full “liberation is an ecosystem” map — now co-created by everyone in the room.
by the end of the workshop, participants were equipped with the tools of liberation to spark chain reactions in their own communities.even more, they had become both researcher and artist — arriving together at the very theory introduced at the start. read more here.
experiments in faith
pop-up installation | Octavia’s Bookshelf | pasadena ca | june 2025
a living installation of experiments in Black memory, surrender, and imagination. each piece acts as its own inquiry into how faith is developed, remembered, and reimagined—through ancient, present, and futuristic lenses. the installation also offers participants handmade bookmarks, that are up-cycled from sketches.
coinciding with Octavia Butler’s birth month, this show is also a love letter to Pasadena’s finest. one year since my first reading of Parable of the Sower, this installation also marks a moment of alignment in the evolution of foster the studio & its own practice of faith/becoming.
view the inside of the field\guide for the installation:
Black\stract: techniques & storytelling in Black abstraction
solo show | NeueHouse Hollywood | los angeles | february 2025
Black\stract is a multidisciplinary art exhibit that reimagines Black identity and futures through the lens of abstraction.
miela’s work delves into the power of abstraction as a vehicle for liberation and transformation. by blending individuality with shared experiences, Black\stract offers a vision of Black creativity that is both deeply personal and expansively collective. through vibrant compositions, the exhibit invites audiences to reflect on the infinite possibilities of what Blackness can be.
this show uses themes as a framework for reflection:
[figures & forms] celebrating individuality through abstract shapes
[why so blue?] using the color blue as a narrative device for alienation
[patternists] patterns as a vehicle to multifaceted identities
[mosaics] identity as a mosaics of interconnected stories
through Black\stract, we celebrate the expressive, the evolving, and the boundless. this is more than an art exhibit—it is an invitation to reflect, connect, and imagine expansive Black futures.
photos courtesy of elmer vivas.
animated poem played at the show.
on othering
solo show | Farley’s coffee shop | san francisco | december 2023
9 paintings focused on searching for what it means to be othered.
guiding poem:
to be othered is to be forgotten,
disposed of —
made alien to society.
this is the story of Blackness,
this is the story of pride,
this is the story of humanity,
& its destruction of the soul.
see themes & guiding questions to the right.
a sister of the yam
debut art show | another cafe | san francisco | spring 2023 |
an art show consisting of 10 paintings & original pieces of poetry that intends to reimagine the Black American woman as the catalyst for the American experiment.
the show uses seven elements to give shape to the ranging dimensions of Black femininity:
the environment, the fem form, out of oblivion, the cycle, faith stirred, an armed reckoning, a sister of the yam
guiding poem:
i am a sister of the yam
because i committed to the journey of healing,
and self-acceptance
i know to heal,
is to liberate myself —
it is freedom from fear,
and healing is a road towards visibility.
how to forget a Black vegan
four-part art installation with poetry accompaniment | Harvard spring 2021
guiding question:
how do neo-liberal environmental justice policies drive cultural erasure of POC communities?
definition of a Black vegan:
a term to honor Black people who have grown up forced to live in a society that deems their life disposable, and still do their part, dreaming of a world in which there is equitable and meaningful involvement of all people in developing food system & environmental policies.