Josh Short is an interdisciplinary artist that uses sound, installation, and broadcasting to create immersive experiences that frame contemporary American mythologies and rituals. Machines, pirate radio, and cultural detritus are used to create interactive environments to let the viewer explore their inner desires, breaking the internal dialog we carry with us into everyday life. Notably his recent project, The Speed Trials Arcade, merges remote controlled vehicles, exercise equipment, and radio to create analog driving simulators that explore the uniquely American relationship to automobiles, and the supply chain. Josh is also the founder of the Cardboard Institute of Technology, a collaborative group that creates immersive installations completely out of cardboard. Josh is also the founder of Bomb Shelter Radio, an ongoing Radio project that creates temporary low powered FM radio encounters all over the country. Often these projects take the form of site specific installations that utilize materials gathered from the local environment. In 2019 Josh started www.BombShelterRadio.live a 24 hour online element of his radio practice. He performs weekly live broadcasts.
After graduating with an MFA from UC Davis in 2009 Josh was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, and a graduate fellowship at the Headlands Center for the Arts in 2010. Josh has had several solo exhibits at venues including the Bedford Gallery, Johansson Projects, The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and the Exploratorium. Josh has been an resident artist at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Yaddo, Joan Mitchell Center, and Crosstown Arts. He regularly tours the country operating his mobile radio station “the Lucille Valentine” and as of 2024 he is building a new FM radio broadcasting station out of a 1968 Cadillac Coupe Deville named Doris.
NEWS
6/6/2024
Did an Artist Talk at Sierra College in Nevada City. I covered some topics including cardboard sculpture, travel, radio, getting art into the world, art as a lifestyle, and adulting.
4/20/2024
Cadillac Coupe DeVille update, Interior is done. New wheels are in the mail. We’ll get those on over the next couple of weeks.
4/6/2024
It’s my one year aniversery at my Job here at CSU Cal Maritime, so far so good, I really dig running a Makerspace, I get to make stuff all day long in the shop and I don’t have to give grades.
7/15/2023
Taveled to Texas to get married to Courtney aka Lady Fingerpop, then traveled to Taos NM to create Taosburg at the Imagine Museum.
EXHIBITIONS
The Second installment of the Speed Trials Arcade found its home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. During the exhibit Josh hosted “Happy Hour” broadcasts where the Arcade was open to the public, accompanied by a 2 hour daily radio show and cocktails. “Escape from LA” a 6 player driving simulator was added to the arcade.
