Who tf is K. South?
Hi! I'm Krystal South, an artist and writer in Melbourne, Australia from Portland, OR, and I'm on Substack, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and email! I have been online every day since I was 12 years old in 1997. Google Krystal South for more info.
Latest Essays
Want to read more of my writing? I post frequently on Substack. You can explore my writing on technology, art, disability, parenting, and the intersections of human experience with digital culture there.
Identify Yourself
In 2013, I was commissioned by Portland Institute of Contemporary Art to write a book. The result, called Identify Yourself, is a physical book and website exploring the development of the internet from a historical and personal perspective. I use internet artworks to bring together the two narrative essays. This book is now used in colleges to teach kids about internet history and artwork.
Oregon Story Board
For a few years, I helped develop and run a small business accelerator program that was focused on digital storytelling. As the Program Manager of OSB, I helped choose our cohort of companies spanning animation, VR, interactive books, VFX, and other forms of digital media. I then managed our communal office space and developed a program to train and mentor the company founders towards success with their startups, working with established company founders locally to develop a network of support for the Oregon ecosystem. We worked alongside the Portland Development Commission and Intel to get a giant grant from Microsoft Hololens to develop augmented reality educational training.
Exhibition Kickstarter
In 2014, I was invited to do a solo exhibition at a gallery called Ditch Projects in Eugene, Oregon. What I developed became the first crowdfunded art exhibition in the world. I asked a group of artists from around the world to create an art object in an edition of 10 that could be sold as Kickstarter rewards. It was a huge success, getting coverage from Vice and the Kickstarter blog, and the final show had one of each artwork.
I believe that art should be for anyone, not just the wealthy, and this show was successful in bringing together a new audience of art collectors who wouldn't normally purchase artwork.
Art & Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
For a number of years, on International Women's Day, I organised and hosted a number of Wikipedia Edit-a-thons, where I would bring together a group of interested volunteers and teach them how to edit Wikipedia entries. We then worked on adding women artists to Wikipedia, filling the gap in historical context that develops when women are left out of the story.
User Experience Design
For a number of years, I was a user experience designer and creative technologist at a mobile design agency in Portland that designed and developed applications and experiences for companies like Adidas, Nike, Disney, Intel, AT&T, and T-Mobile. I was with this company from 7 people to over 60, and I learned a lot by being hands on doing visual and UX design work. I helped develop booths for the Consumer Electronics Show and interactive tech experiences showcasing cutting edge tech in creative new ways at SXSW.
Art, Writing, and Lecturing
I've been in loads of exhibitions over the years, with a highlight being at the Whitney Museum of Art in NYC. I love participating in exhibitions, both physical and digital, and have created art in many mediums over the years, including video, sculpture, and web ephemera.
In addition to my Identify Yourself book, I've done lots of writing over the years, mostly about the work of artists that I love and admire. Here's some, here's more, and a bit more here.
Over the years, I have spoken at most of the colleges in Oregon including Oregon State University, Portland State University, Pacific Northwest College of Arts, and University of Oregon. In some, I spoke about my own artwork and in others I covered the breadth of internet art history.
