Winn’s personal work searches for the language embedded in processes of reproduction. From painting to kinetics and three-dimensional modeling, he investigates the nature of the image, particularly in relation to mediation and technology. His academic research is directed most specifically towards a history of modernity, best represented by Benjamin’s Arcades Project, and extending into material culture, architecture, and the affects of time on objects. Alongside this research Winn is studying alternate systems of visualization, particularly thermal imaging and other ways of seeing outside the visual spectrum, and is working with ways of capturing three-dimensional information. Through University grants he has studied three-dimensional scanning and other dimensional digital inputs as well as large-scale methods for outputting models from virtual space.
Winn is a faculty member in the Center for Material Culture Studies where he has been a part of several colloquia, including the “Spaces of Shopping” which became the impetus for the book “Shopping: Material Culture Perspectives,” published by the University of Delaware press. He has written catalogue essays for “Reproduction” at Lemberg Gallery; for Brian Bishop’s solo show titled “Pause” at the University of Delaware ; and for a show he curated at the University of Delaware Galleries called “InWords,” that included an international group of artists who work with language as material. Most recently he co-wrote the essay “The Object of Nostalgia” with colleague Rene Marquez for a show they curated at Columbia College in Chicago, and wrote a catalogue essay for the work of Chris Hyndman’s exhibition “No Touching Zone,” at the University of Michigan.
Winn’s personal work has been included in a range of recent books spanning themes from three-dimensional typography to Paul Virilio’s influence on contemporary artists. He has been nominated for the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award for painting, and his work was represented in an article on new forms of drawing that was published in Contemporary Magazine. Winn’s work has been shown nationally and internationally and in 2007 was part of a five-year survey at the Freedman Gallery.
In collaboration with Simone Jones, Winn’s robotic projections have been shown most recently as part of The Montreal Biennale; at The Museum of Vancouver in conncetion with the 21st International Symposium on Electronic Art; Nuit Blanche in Toronto; the Ronald Feldman gallery in New York, and the Icebox in Philadelphia. Their work was presented at the Electra Festival, in “Stop,” a two-part show of international artists in Montreal, at the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada, “Media City 11 International Festival of Experimental Film and Video Art” in Windsor, Ontario, and in “Machine Life” at the Davies Foundation and Samuel J. Zacks Galleries in York, Ontario.