I, Wesley W Wilson, am a deadpan philosopher. Humor plays a role in my life. I am working as an anthropologically detached American: from the inside out. My relationship to United States culture is the ultimate force driving me to create. My fascinating persona is the normative white American male. I was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, FL, where U.S. culture arrived just a few decades after the brief 1920s land boom, catering primarily to the wealthy white boating community, the Navy, and the port. Dubbed “the Venice of America,” Fort Lauderdale gets its name from a tiny fort established in 1838 to kill natives. Creative thought has played a big part in my life. During my youth my family hosted exchange students from around the world, up to 13 at once. I attended weird Montessori school from age 1 and then went to a white Catholic High School that mandated daily theology classes and prayer, providing me with a lot of time to argue with evangelical teachers about evolution and masturbation. In my free time I to made movies with friends, touring the Fort Lauderdale wastewater treatment plant and other establishments. In this video self-portrait titled Default Avatars, I explore the racial appearances of default avatars by becoming the “start from scratch” male Mii, a character which remains the same on the console across the globe.
