The strangest thing happened on the plane to Paris

The strangest thing happened on the plane to Paris. I realized that I was leaving one part of my life behind, like discarding a well worn, favorite dress when it is beyond the point of wearing. This can be either too small, too large, worn with holes, or simply not right anymore.

This dress, we'll call it, has become that which I hold on to and use to define me. I am not sure where I can go without it, who I will be, or meet. But I do know that it has been 10 years since I have spent a month traveling in Europe. I am even using the same backpack I got in 2001. This trip is almost like the marker on a decade of my life. No. Exactly like that. What it will do to me? How it will change me? Or will it make me more the same?

Something else you should know is that I can't sleep on planes. I can't sleep in cars, or trains, or buses either. What this means is that I watched four movies over the span of 10 hours. It also means that when we experienced turbulence over the rocky mountains, I wept, exhausted and nervous, echoing the first trip I took to England when the plane almost fell from the sky in a lightening storm. I memorized French words, like nuit (night) and poupee (doll), and most Importantly I contemplated where I had been and where I was headed.

I promised myself I would write everyday of the trip. I decided to say all the words around me, read every French sign, and try to speak to people in their language. I promised myself I would visit my mother's birthplace in Normandy.

As I sit writing in the very same Parisian hotel, hotel du nesle, that I stayed in 10 years before, up too early for the wine I drank last night, listening to the garbage truck outside and the subtle movements of A in the bed, I can honestly say that I am exactly where I want to be.

Performance and Writing Resume

  Education

2007 MA, MFA Experimental Performance, New College of California

2003 Certificate in Theater, University of California at Santa Cruz

2002 BA Theater, University of California at Santa Cruz

Performance an Directing Experience

She Was a Computer

July 20-22nd 2012 Counterpulse Theater San Francisco, CA

- Performed and collaborated in CaraRose DeFabio's original piece about women in the digital age.

The Gods of San Francisco

May 2011 Shotwell Studios San Francisco, CA

- Wrote and performed in this one-act musical about an estranged mother and daughter, the men they love, and the Gods they create in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake.

Moving Through Syzygryd www.kolabs.org

August 2010 Syzygryd Black Rock City, NV

- Co-directed and conceived this site-specific movement piece with original music and text.

The Pride and Prejudice Project

April 2nd 4th 2009 The Garage San Francisco, CA

- Wrote and performed in this experimental adaptation of Austen™s Pride and Prejudice. Directed by Zack.

The Endless Frontier

Sept 2008, Jan 2009 The Exit Theater, The Garage San Francisco, CA

- Produced, wrote, directed, and performed an evening length experimental musical show with theater company Ko Labs during an artist residency at 975 Howard for the 2008 San Francisco Fringe Festival and the 2009 Women on the Way Festival. The San Francisco Fringe Festival awarded a Sold Out Award the show.

Worlds Apart: Local Response 51802 by ESP Project

March 29 31 2007 Yerba Buena Forum Theater San Francisco, CA

- Performed as dancer in Erika Chong Shuch™s performance piece about issues of incarceration.

Mourning Papers

November 16th 2007 Union Square San Francisco, CA

- Promoted and co-directed this 30 minute, 50 performer anti-war performance piece.

The Memory of Water

July 2007 New College Theater San Francisco, CA

- Conceived, Directed, and Performed evening length performance piece investigating Hurricane Katrina and Burningman festival through the element of water. The piece utilized text, movement, original music, and puppetry.

Sutro Stories

July 2006 New College Theater San Francisco, CA

- Wrote, Directed, and Performed 45 min multimedia performance piece tracing combining found video, images, and stories from the 1906 Earthquake with the lives and Gods of a fictional family.

Butoh Performances with Rick Walker

April 11th 2003 Santa Cruz Digital Arts Festival Santa Cruz, CA

Feb 29 2004 Rio Theater Santa Cruz, CA

- Co-choreographed and performed in this 15 minute semi improvisational Butoh piece investigated notions of eroticism and gender identity in conjunction with live-looper musician.

Random with a Purpose Salome in Retrograde

Dec - Feb 2003 UCSC Theater Department Santa Cruz, CA

- Choreographed and performed in this five-minute dance which rethinks Oscar Wilde™s Salome.

Bodies in Crisis

August 2002 Ragesties Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scotland.

Director: Shakina Nayfack

- Worked in an ensemble to create performance company, adapt Ragesties, and performed it in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland.

Low Level PanicDirector

March- May 2001 CAT Productions Custard Factory in Birmingham, England.

- Created production company, Cat Productions, and produced and directed play.

Cinderella

Sept - Dec 1999 Shakespeare Santa Cruz Director: Paul Whitworth

- Acted a Regan, an Evil stepsister, in this Pantomime production of Cinderella.

Cosmic Star

2005 The Blue Lagoon, Café Pergolesi, and DIY venues Bay Area

- Co-Created experimental pop band with Gabriel Gilder, which performed at various venues.

Teaching Experience

Lead Drama Teacher

June 2009 2010 Glitter and Razz Productions Performing Arts

- Worked with children ages 4 10 in one week sessions to write and perform original short plays and dance pieces. Also taught the fundamentals of theater and movement.

Theater and Dance Teacher

June - August 2000, 2003 Camp WinnarainbowCircus and Performing Arts

- Choreographed original dance works and helped children to choreograph their own pieces using techniques of modern and improvisational dance, and wrote and directed 3 short plays for children within 2 week periods with 9 to 25 children ages 7- 16.

Theater and Dance Teaching Assistant

2002 - 2003 Department of Theater Arts UC Santa Cruz

- Assisted various Professors over four quarters and held weekly sections with 30 students on the class topics.

- Graded quizzes and papers, maintained attendance records, and oversaw performances.

Classroom Theater and Music Teacher

1999 - 2002Arts Bridge Program Watsonville Elementary Schools

Taught choral music and theater teacher for bilingual and underprivileged children. Wrote and adapted multicultural short plays for 4th and 5th grade classrooms, with two different host classrooms per year.

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Technical Experience

Art. House. Rock. DJ

2007 present The Argus Lounge, San Francisco

- Produce an evening of music and prepare music sets and play music with a four-channel mixer.

The Glass MenagerieLighting and Video Operator

Sept - October 2004 San Jose Stage Company San Jose

- Worked on a production of The Glass Menagerie alongside the Lighting Designer to help program and perform lighting and video cues for the performance.

Crash CourseDJ

2004 2005 The Blue Lagoon, Santa Cruz

- Prepare music sets and play music with a four-channel mixer using both records and Cds.

Poor Players Lighting Designer

May 2002 The Actors Theater, Santa Cruz Director: Shakina Nayfack

- Designed lighting for the show and worked as the board operator in an intimate, local community theater.

Bodies in Crisis Lighting Designer

August 2002 Ragesties Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scotland.

Director: Shakina Nayfack

- Adapted the lighting design for our show from UCSC to a smaller theater in Edinburgh.

Training

2000-2001 - Music Theory, Piano lessons, Vocal lessons and choir - UCSC

2001-2002 - Lighting Design, Alexander Technique, Cicely Barry Vocal Technique - University of Birmingham, England.

2002 - Modern Dance - UCSC

2002 - Butoh Workshop - Ken Mai, Edinburgh

2003 Indonesian Theater, Improvisational Dance, Acting Studio II - UCSC.

2003 - Butoh Workshop (Intensive 3 day) with - Diego Piñon, San Francisco

2004 - Butoh Workshop (Intensive 3 day) with - Diego Piñon, San Diego

2004 - Butoh Class Series ( 6 weeks) - Hiroko Tamano, Oakland

2005 - 2007 Choreography, Contact Improvisation, Tap, Voice and Music Composition, Acting and Directing, Writing for Performance -Experimental Performance Institute at New College CA.

2006 2007 - Internship - Erika Shuch Performance Project.

2008 Auditions and Callbacks Studio ACT with Greg Hubbard

Honors and Awards

2000 - Student Employee Recognition Award Program - $700.00 award for web design work.

2000 - Priscilla Newton Scholarship - Merit based scholarship for promising female actress.

1999-2002 - Arts Bridge Scholarship - Theater teacher for underprivileged children

- Wrote and adapted short plays for 4th and 5th grade classrooms, with two different host classrooms per year.

2004 - Metro Newspaper Goldie Award Voted #1 Club DJ in Santa Cruz.

Digital Resume

PDF of RESUME

PERSONAL SUMMARY

Niki Selken (Nicole) M.F.A. is a tech and design consultant living in San Francisco. By day she has as focused on non-profit and design client work with her company Big Treehouse; she has a ten year career working with schools, publishers, design firms, feel-good organizations, law enforcement agencies, law offices, and small businesses of all kinds to help make their relationship with technology grow and change with the ever-shifting technological landscape. Her nighttime pursuits include playwrighting, performance, DJing, and blogging.

TECHNOLOGY & DESIGN EXPERIENCE

Big Treehouse 2008 – Present

Founder and CFO

• Founded Bay Area IT and Web services.
• Focusing on helping small business and non profits move from onsite to cloud and hosted website and computer solutions.
• Clients include SEIU USWW, LYRIC, El/La, Zen Hospice, Beck Law Group, National Outdoor Media, and Education Outside.

Hesperian Foundation 2009 – 2011

IT and Web Projects Manager

• Managed an upgrade of internal IT infrastructure (Mac, Windows, Linux servers) for Berkeley publishing company.
• Supported the expansion of publishing content to new digital formats
• Technical direction for Digital Commons: online art database, Wordpress/CMS based website, e-pub conversion with ebrary, and web publishing systems.

Giant Rabbit 2009 – 2011

Technology Consultant

• IT Consultant for a Bay are firm focusing in Non Profit web and computer and technology services.

Thinc 2006 – 2009

Chief Technologist

• Research and purchase equipment; install and maintain computers, software, servers, and networks for leading Bay Area design firm. Directed animated marketing presentation for Wal-Mart (May 2006).

UC Santa Cruz 2001 – 2005

Audio-Visual Assistant

• Helped to repair electronics and install audio-visual systems using SP Controls, Crestron and AMX.
• Researched and ordered equipment for classroom installations,with budgets up to $200,000.
• Video source switching for live televised broadcasts.

Various Productions 2001 – 2006

Lighting Designer and Operator

• Design looks and light choices for dance, theatrical productions, and art shows.
• Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, UK (2002), Actors Theater, Santa Cruz (2002), San Jose Stage Company (2004), Interrupted Life, New College of CA (2006).

CREATIVE DIRECTION

Ko Labs Theater Collective 2007 – Present

Creative Director

• Ko Labs, founded in 2007 by Niki Selken, is a Ko-laboratory catalyst for new theater works.
• Gods of San Francisco: wrote and performed one-act multi-media musical .
• Moving Through Syzygryd: directed site-specific movement piece in connection with instillation Syzygryd.
• The Pride and Prejudice Project : wrote and performed experimental adaptation of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
• Mourning Papers: co-directed this 30 minute, 50 performer anti-war performance piece Novemeber 2007, Union Square, San Francisco.
• The Memory of Water: Directed, and Performed evening length multimedia performance piece.

CAT Productions 2001

Creative Director

• Directed performance of Low Level Panic at Custard Factory in Birmingham, England.

PERFORMANCE

She Was a Computer 2012

Actor

• Performed and technical support in Cara Rose DeFabio’s original piece about women in the digital age at Counterpulse Theater, San Francisco.
• Performance received a review in The Atlantic by the tech editor.

Worlds Apart: Local Response – 51802 2007

Dancer

• Dancer in Erika Chong Shuch’s performance piece about issues of incarceration at Yerba Buena Forum Theater, San Francisco.

Bodies in Crisis 2002

Dancer

• Ensemble based Butoh inspired performance about September 9-11 performed at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scotland.

Cinderella 1999

Actor

• Acted a Regan, an Evil stepsister, in this musical production of Cinderella directed by Paul Whitworth at UCSC Main Stage, Santa Cruz.

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATION

• 2012 San Francisco City College, Continuing education in HTML5/CSS and Design
• 2007 New College of California, MFA in Experimental Performance
• 2003 UC Santa Cruz, Certificate in Theater
• 2002 UC Santa Cruz, Bachelor of Arts in Theater

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Adobe Photoshop  Expert Knowledge   Adobe CS3 - CS6 fluent

Adobe Illustrator  Expert Knowledge   Adobe CS3 - CS6 fluent

Adobe In Design  Moderate Knowledge   Adobe CS3 - CS6 fluent

HTML5/CSS  Moderate Knowledge   Fluent in current xHTML5 and CSS standards

PHP/MySQL  Moderate Knowledge   Fluent in various MySQL applications and PHP

Mac / PC  Expert Knowledge   Windows and Mac desktop and server fluent

Wordpress  Expert Knowledge   Fluent in customizing and designing Wordpress

Writing about music

Buried deep in my past (circa 2004) I started a music blog. It was called Music for Unicorns. It was derailed in 2006 by my departure for grad school and some valid concerns I had about the heat of digital music rights during the Bush era. It is sadly defunct, although still accessible through the magic of the internet so I thought I should share it, for old times sake.

Music for Unicorns provided a place for me to interview bands or musicians I liked, review new albums and songs, share strange musical gems I found on the internet and sometimes just an excuse to make amazing web graphic that illustrate Sparks songs.

Ko-llaboration

Through Ko Labs I have Ko-llaborated with a number of talented artists on theater pieces, music, puppetry, film, and site specific dance works. Here is a list of my ko-llaborators. I am always looking for new artists to work with on creative projects. A personal artistic goal, and my purpose behind founding Ko Labs was to provide the space for the Ko-laboration of artists, writers, musicians, designers, film makers, and dancers on new and in development performance works. Please email me if you are interested in working with Ko Labs in any creative capacity. We are always looking for new Ko-llaborators!

DJING

Check out my new DJ night, Bacon/Styxx on the third Saturday of the month!

I am a rock and electro DJ working in the San Francisco area. I have DJed at various venues around San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Cruz, California and Black Rock City, Nevada.In 2004 I won a Metro Santa Cruz Goldie Award for Best Club DJ

 Art. house. Rock. Is a monthly DJ night I hosted from 2006 to 2011 at the Argus Lounge in San Francisco as DJ Cherry T. The night ended due to new bar ownership, but it was a rocking 5 years of music.

Check out my Visual History of Art. House. Rock Flyers here.

Previously I DJed regularly at Crash Course, a weekly indie, brit pop, and post punk night in Santa Cruz. I hope to start a new DJ night in 2012. So let me know if you have a space that might need some music!

My Ko-laborators

Individual Artists

• Alan Holt - Ko Labs: The Gods of San Francisco
• Amity Bacon - Ko Labs: The Gods of San Francisco
• Brendan Aanes - Ko Labs: The Gods of San Francisco
• Danielle Sublett - Ko Labs: The Gods of San Francisco
• David J Manning - Ko Labs: The Endless Frontier
• Gabriel Gilder - Ko Labs: The Gods of San Francisco and The Endless Frontier
• Helene Vosters - Ko Labs: The Pride and Prejudice Project
• Julie Maya Panda - Ko Labs: The Gods of San Francisco, The Pride and Prejudice Project, and The Endless Frontier
• Justina Kochansky - Ko Labs: The Endless Frontier
• Kasey Smith - Ko Labs: The Gods of San Francisco, The Pride and Prejudice Project, and The Endless Frontier
• Shakina Nayfack - Ragesties: Bodies in Crisis and Ko Labs: The Gods of San Francisco
• Tera Kilbride - Ko Labs: The Endless Frontier
• Zack - Ko Labs: The Gods of San Francisco, The Pride and Prejudice Project, and The Endless Frontier

Ko Labs: A Theater Collective Dedicated to New Work

Ko Labs, founded by Niki Selken, is a Ko-laboratory catalyst for new theater works. Ko Labs an inclusive theater troupe whose core members work with a variety of exceptional local artists to foster the development of original performances. We work as theatrical archeologists, investigating, researching, and hopefully, reconstructing America’s broken body: political body, physical landscape, and social form. We work as an ensemble to excavate incidents from history and recreate landscapes for an audience out of small remnants: a grain of sand, a beaker of water, a newspaper article. Ko Labs believes It is the job of interdisciplinary theater, theater of the artifact, theater of the dreams to recreate, through any means possible a new history, a shared history for the local community and hopefully for America, as divided and disconnected as it has become. For more info about Ko Labs, check out the website here. I have some older pictures of work on my old website.

Web Design and Develpoment

I have been designing and coding websites, prints and flyers for the past 10 years. The methods have  varied as I have developed with the tools available.

• Most recently I have been working in wordpress and hand coding php and css. Recent sites include:  The Splinter Generation, Shamonica Magazine and this site you are viewing right now!
• Here is a snapshot of my design portfolio, that I created in 2005.
• My former nikiselken.com, a Flash based website, is available Here