Title: BUCCANEER BRUCE
Year: 2013
Type: Digital Mosaic / Video

Buccaneer Bruce is a digital piece created for Piracy Redux, during the 2013 Gasparilla Arts Festival, in Tampa FL. The show was organized by Tempus Projects and Hampton Arts Management, and it is a study of the glorified image of the Pirate, celebrated year after year during the Gasparilla Festivities.

The idea for this project came from an incident that happened in one of my web design classes. In order to explain the concept of Digital Footprint, I always ask my students to google themselves. Surprisingly, one of them had been recently arrested for DUI and her mug shot was one of the first to appear. Her digital life was going to be affected by this incident for a long time.

The buccaneer has been glorified for decades in Tampa. Indirectly, it has affected the behavior of generations in Hillsborough County. And these are the mug shots that compose Buccaneer Bruce’s image. There is a gigantic contrast between the idealized image of the pirate and the true faces of crime, filled with sorrow, tears and pain. These are the new buccaneers, we see them everyday, the difference is that they do not look so happy.

Many thanks to Carmen Gil Vrolijk, Tracy Midulla, Kurt Piazza, Michael Snyder, Carl Cowden and ShanLee.

Creative Loafing - Best of the Bay 2013 : Best Satirical Arrrrrtwork






Buccaneer Bruce, 2013