I am Dylan Bernard … from Kansas … I sometimes go by the alias … Dylan De Topeka … I was born and raised in Topeka Kansas … which is where the nickname comes from … spent most of my life there … until I was around the age of nineteen … moved to Lawrence Kansas … spent three years there … and then spent three years in Chicago … going to school here … and building up myself artistically … When I was really young … and this is funny … something that I just started to remember recently … I liked spying on my neighbors … because … (laughter) … I would actually … I had binoculars … and I forget where we got it … but we had super sonic listening gear … I don’t know where we got them from … but it was not a good idea to give that to twelve year old me … I would sneak into peoples back yards … and I would just listen in on random  people … and just see what they were talking about … It was … I think it was just the rush … of like … these people don’t know that I’m here … but I … I had some really weird neighbors … there was a couple … that had some kids … and they were not … good parents … and I remember overhearing a lot of arguments … and words that I didn’t know what they meant … at the time … So … that’s one memory I can think of … (laughter) … Even … in preschool … I drew … so … so … much … My parents would try to keep my stuff … and we had massive … massive … piles … which we still do somewhere … of just weird shit that I would draw … I tried to build things … but … they didn’t make any sense … because of course … I didn’t know how … to put together … for instance … legos … I’d put them together so there would be a little hole … in the center … and then I would put paper in it … and I would call it a camera … Yeah … since I was young … I would doodle a lot … around elementary school … I got really into … gaming … and I wanted to make my own game … so I would write stories out … I had full notebooks … filled with just random ideas … it was around middle school that … I picked up a video camera for the first time … and me and my friends would make these short … films together … this was around the time YouTube started … and … we would … we had like a whole channel of different weird skit videos … and movies that we made … we ended up making over a hundred … short random … I did more … but never edited them … that really got me interested in film … Early on … when I started doing it in grade school … it was still VCR … so it was completely unedited … just do random shit in front of the camera … and then in middle school … we ended up getting a handy-cam … it was digital … and it was on … a memory stick … so we would import it onto the computer … and that’s when I started messing with different editing softwares … sometimes I go back and watch that stuff … because… its just so weird … that it’s interesting … I wasn’t trying to make … film … looking stuff … I really was just looking at the software … and wanting to push the software as far as I could go … What you end up with … is just a bunch of kids … who are … you know … out if control … and their parents should be watching them … and they’re not … doing all this weird shit … like going out into the street … and dancing … and then me editing it … with all these different filters … thrown on top of each other … and that stuff still inspires me to this day … there’s an innocence to it … Later … in high school … the fun thing is … about this school … I say … ironically … because the school that I went to was a very … very … conservative Catholic school … and they didn’t fund their arts at all … and the people I went to high school with … were the same people I went to middle school with … the funny thing was … the people I went to middle school with … we had a really close-knit group … and we were all … just into being as weird as possible … we had no problem just being dorks together … but in high school … most of them were football players … and baseball players … and a soon as we entered that environment … there was a completely different … feeling … to the group … and I sort of got … ostracized … more or less … so … I ended up just doing my own thing at school … and I didn’t even really make that much art … until the end of high school … what I was doing most of the time was … I did a lot of writing … I consumed a lot of media … I would just watch … a lot of random crap … I got into reading philosophy around … junior year … and … a lot of that isolation … ended up motivating me … after high school … pushing me more into the art … direction … feeling that I had something I needed to show … In Topeka … and this will sound like a joke … but in certain areas … it’s almost dangerous to have qualities … that a traditional artist … or if you want to get political … leftest … values … of any kind … Not saying you have to be a leftest to be an artist … they can go together in a lot of ways … just in the sense … as far as I see it … there’s a lot of open-mindedness on the left … that I think is important … not to say that some people on the right … aren’t openminded … but in my experience … especially in Topeka … they’re not … they’re more of … “Oh … you’re not doing exactly what I’m doing … that’s weird … I don’t like that … that makes me uncomfortable” … I kid you not … it’s actually dangerous … in Kansas … because there’s a lot of … gun toters … there’s a lot of people … I would call them … closeted … either homophobes … or … racists … or all of the … stereotype bad things … that you hear about on the right … so … becoming an artist … there … meant I really … really … had to commit to my identity … and learn how to protect myself more or less … because … I didn’t have anyone to defend me … I knew that this was something  that was a part of who I was … and I wasn’t going to change it for people … So … that is part of why I guess I … represent Topeka … because in a weird way … it shaped me … and made me more … I guess aggressive with my artistic identity … and more confident … in who I was … So … originally … when I was looking for film schools … because I decided film was what I was going to go into … which it took a while to even decide that … because my interests … where very diverse in terms of art … I’d done traditional art … I’d done music … I was interested in gaming … but not from a traditional point of view … this is still something that I’m interested in … I still believe that interactive art … I think that is at the forefront … and I want to be able to push that forward … eventually … but … film is what I do the most … After doing all those films in middle school … and loving film as a medium … I shopped around at a couple of different collages … because I got a couple of offers for scholarships …  between here … and Nashville … which were the two that gave me the biggest … scholarship … opportunities … Columbia sounded the nicest … I really liked Chicago as a city … So many artists … that I love … are from Chicago … and as a city … I’ve been to New York … and I like it … I like the east coast … but I like Chicago more … because there’s something … something about the midwest that’s very humble … but at the same time … Chicago still has … a personality … that’s what drew me to this city … I originally came for school … but I lived an entire  year here … without going to school … My plan is … to eventually move back here … potentially permanently … it’s still very loose … but this is a city … that I feel a connection to … Yeah … I went to Columbia Chicago … in film making … directing … although … it was very loose … I shot my own stuff … and acted in it … and edited … basically everything … stitched it from twine … you know … learning how to make films on my own … and push it as far as I could artistically … Experimental film was always more or less what I was interested in … versus doing something … where … you’re just a small part of it … I wanted to be the one creatively in control … Columbia effected me … it was kind of a weird storm … of things … that happened … where being in the environment pushed me … to take my art more seriously … and take my craft more seriously … but … what really pushed me the furthest … was actually … more or less … I guess I would say … getting kicked out of the school … even though … really what it was … I withdrew … but there was this perfect storm … of things that happened in my life … where … ok … there was a negative relationship in my life … that pushed me really … really … far … I actually am a suicide survivor … because of this situation I was in … and after that had happened … there was just a series of events that happened … within the school … within my friend group … and within my personal life … that more or less felt like … hitting rock bottom … My family … more or less … being completely in debt … me losing my scholarships … because I was in the hospital … which led to … not being able to finish my semester … or my career … feeling … once again … that I had been ostracized by this group of friends that I thought I could trust … and having a relationship … with someone that ended up dying … overdosing … all led to me … having this breakdown … which also … in a weird way … was a beautiful thing … because it pushed me artistically … to go even further … to explore this madness I was experiencing … and at the time … that also made me feel … there were no boundaries anymore … What I did … I turned to Instagram … and used it as a medium … to create … the furthest I could go with … my film … art … and kind of mixing the mediums together … blurring the lines between … a piece … and video art … and trying to create something … that was completely new … and also reflected these really heavy emotions I was feeling … and then on top of that … spending whatever money … I did not have … to promote that art … so that I would create these things that I called … Anti-Art … which were more or less … a rebellion against commercialism … because … I felt that commercialism did play a big hand in … I feel … it plays a hand in shaping how people think these days … and I don’t like the shallowness … and the culture it’s created … So this was my way of rebelling … and doing something that I felt was actually important … was creating this art that at first glance … repels people … it’s almost hard to look at some of my pieces … because they’re either so fast … or with these flash elements … or they just have some … disturbing element … somewhere … and promoting that … so that people have to look at it … almost forcing it down peoples throats … In a way … it could be me just coping … with how I felt like … people had treated me in the past … But … I try to bring elements to it … that aren’t just about my personal pain … but also try to reveal something through that … to other people … that they can either connect to … or pushes them intellectually … I do feel my art is … more then just indulgent … it is something that … I’m trying to push into the world … to push the art world forward … I do feel I’m at a better place now then a few years ago … absolutely … but that doesn’t  mean that everything’s peachy … I think I’ve just learned how to live in the chaos … and embrace it … Social media? … Yeah … this is a perfect topic … Social media … after I did the initial Anti-Ad’s … social media became the focus of the art … in the sense that … what we’re living in today … is so extraordinary … because we’re connected together through these apps … in such … unique ways … and it changes communication … like the way we communicate and think … is completely challenged … that’s why I love making this art … is because … it gives me a perfect opportunity … to not only … examine it … try to understand it … but also attempt to change it … because I do see a lot of cons … with social media … for instance … I do believe that social media has played a big part in … what I believe to be … a massive … anti-intellectual … movement … going on in America … it starts with the distrust … of each other … so much information is running rampant … it’s impossible to discern what is true … and then on top of that … what we know to be true … reveals that … there are people … pulling the strings … behind massive organizations … that are not … ethical … it’s become common knowledge that that is kind of the case … and because of that … it’s pushed … and we were already in an age of … irony … and distrust … because of postmodernism … and I feel that this has pushed it … even further … so … I don’t think anybody trusts … each other … at this time …and place … and on top of that … I just think there’s a certain attitude … that circulates online … where it’s not cool … to be genuine … because … being genuine means that you’re vulnerable … and most people see that as a negative thing … and because everybody has sort have been hurt by this … they feel they need to hurt someone else … So … a big part of … what I’m happy about my art is … how much of it really is me being as genuine as possible … to almost an absurd degree … where I’m revealing things … that you almost shouldn’t reveal to other people … even outside of social media … and … I love the reactions I get … I love the people … especially the people … who as they call them … “Haters” … and … “Trolls” … I love those kind of people … because when I get those comments … it’s an opportunity to test … that mentality … and push it as far as it can go … In my experience from doing that … a lot of those people … had … legitimate … revelations … I’ve made friends with a lot of these people … that’s kind of unheard of … because most people on the internet … have excepted … this sort of … stigma … of … if this person challenges you … you challenge them back … when you kind of flip it on them … and show them … what you’re doing … is as genuine as it gets … and you’re not going to back down … eventually those people realize … A … They’re waisting their time … or B … What they thought about you initially is not … what they projected … It’s really starting to create a momentum … so … I feel really good about that … What will I be up to? … First of all … I would like to say hello to my future self … because if you use this … I’ll be reading this in the future … and I’ll remember me … saying this right now … Where I see things going … I actually feel really positive … I didn’t for the longest time … but I actually do think we are starting to move towards a place … where … people are going to appreciate art again … I think we’re moving to a place where people want … to appreciate things … We’re getting to a place … where we’re tired of distrusting each other … and hurting each other … and we’re getting to a place where we would rather understand each other … and build each other up … as a community … and as a people … and I’m very excited for that … I couldn’t be happier to be an artist right now … because I still have so much to say … and explore … I couldn’t be more excited … The future is … partially I understand it … and partially I don’t … and both of those things are great … I love mystery … and I love journeying into the unknown …