iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

I’ll be appearing on EWTN’s Miracle Hunter radio show/podcast tomorrow, Dec 28th at 1 and 7pm, discussing the release of the digital exhibition of my show Felt Presence. We look at the Catholic visual tradition and relics as they relate to art and culture today.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

I was honored to serve as the graduate commencement speaker at Towson University’s College of Fine Arts and Communication, having graduated with my Studio Art MFA. Watch me ugly (stoically?) cry at: www.youtube.com/live/2VEVmqQ...

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Our Lady of Guadalupe - Dec 12, 1531. She appears with roses.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Excited to share that I’ll be appearing on Michael O’Neill’s Miracle Hunter show/podcast on EWTN, discussing my latest art exhibition. 7pm on Dec 21st. The show explores miraculous images within Catholicism and their relationship to AI art. Digital Exhibition will go live in conjunction!

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

I wrote a thing on X about why I’m choosing Bluesky.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

I have forthcoming articles about the artworks of St. Francis’s mystical experiences, analyzing how and why they changed over time, as well as a large body of work exploring the history of miraculous rose petal images and photography as modern relics. Stay tuned!

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 19/10/2024

As a person of faith and experiencer of anomalous phenomena, I’m fascinated with how art and human history have been deeply affected and influenced by the miraculous and impossible. Felt Presence, my thesis show, opens October 24th at Towson University🧵

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 13/10/2024

107 years ago today, “The Miracle of the Sun” occurred in Fatima, Portugal. The Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children earlier that year, promising that if they returned to that spot every month, she would make an undeniable sign appear to the crowds.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 20/08/2024

Making a third-class relic of St Therese of Lisieux for my MFA thesis. This project has become increasingly personal, and thus, more difficult to tell. On the flip side, it’s been really rewarding to listen to her materials and to bring her “presence” home with me.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 19/06/2024

Help! I'm trying to find any details about this Marian Apparition which looks to be in Chile. Photo comes from National Geographic, sourcing from the Miracle Hunter's website, but I can't find anything about it. Any thoughts or leads?

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 29/05/2024

Ahh! This is the first time I've found my research pop-up in the wild, thanks to @johntouhey at Aleteia. I'm grateful for the write-up and John's contribution to the conversation. You'll be seeing more of my research shortly! @dwpasulka

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 17/05/2024

I am currently investigating the original sources for the Lipa Marian apparition, which was recently and definitively deemed non-supernatural by papal order. Despite allegations of hoaxing, the primary source material is rife with eyewitness testimony of unusual occurrences...

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 24/04/2024

Here is a fun one. In the course of my archives research, I came across an alleged “miraculous” photo of the Virgin Mary taken in the clouds over Fatima. I couldn’t quite make it out myself, but I found that the source is allegedly a parish in Baltimore. 🧵

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 23/04/2024

This is someone’s greatest day of their life, and I’m super excited for them.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 22/04/2024

I spoke with my new friend Robin Lassiter on her podcast “Earth: A Love Story” about my history of anomalous experiences and their influence on my current body of research and artwork. Available wherever you listen to podcasts!

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 17/04/2024

In a field in Fatima, Portugal, in the year 1917, a crowd of upwards of 40,000 people saw what they believed to be the Sun “dance” and change colors. Mysterious flower petals fell from the skies and disappeared just out of reach of the upstretched hands.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

Going full Charlie Day and explaining to my critique class how influential the Lord of the Rings was to my artistic practice 🤣 Came to Tolkien as a download, Peter Jackson’s insane vision 👌🏻, the films employed 1 out of every 160 New Zealanders… it has everything.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 10/04/2024

As I’m working on my thesis, this scene from PTA’s Magnolia has been playing in my head on loop. It’s an interesting, albeit unusual mantra.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 05/04/2024

I’m in @morbidanatomy’s online journal! Check out my talk from the American Academy of Religion’s conference discussing AI art.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 05/04/2024

Shoutout to @deirdreleong whose ethnography “Mother Figured” about Filipino Marian apparitions is an absolute joy to read. Doing research on the Lipa apparition and this book is among the authoritative literature.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 08/03/2024

If you need your chakras cracked open, have a child. I have experienced more intense, indescribable spiritual experiences in the last year than ever before, and my only prayer is an endless chorus of “thank you.” Happy 1st Birthday baby girl.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 01/02/2024

My installation, “Noo Icons,” will be on view as part of the “Emerging Aesthetics,” group MFA show at Towson University in Baltimore, MD. This has been my favorite iteration of this install, so if you’re nearby, come check it out!

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 12/01/2024

The response I just got from Dutch Ruppersberger’s office, former ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, on support of the Schumer-Rounds amendment. #ufotwitter

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 04/01/2024

Working on two very different writing projects, and can’t wait to share them!

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 01/01/2024

This was a year so completely full that tears were common and my partner and I chalked it up to “our cups running over.” I got into three gallery shows and published a journal article with one of my academic heroes. But everything pales into comparison to starting a family.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 26/12/2023

The reason we put lights in trees on Christmas is to remind us that everything has light within it. The world can be re-enchanted if we learn to see. Merry Christmas!

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 23/12/2023

Stumbled on this MD Dept of the Environment Emergency Response Truck while dog walking, seemingly outfitted for… ghost busting?

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 27/11/2023

Noo Icons Work in Progress: Certain Marian Apparitions of the 20th Century, including Fatima, report the falling of “angel hair” or rose petals associated with appearances of the Virgin Mary. At Lipa, Philippines, these rose petals are even alleged to carry miraculous images. 🧵

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 13/11/2023

Finally pulling together this semester's research: building towards using AI-generated images and the historical archive as a "witness" to power at Marian Apparitions sites.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 18/10/2023

Obligatory Thomas Merton October quote.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 03/10/2023

Ora Et Labora is well into its film festival run! We just wrapped a screening at the @CltFilmFest this weekend, and will next be playing the @Freshcoastfilm festival in Marquette, MI. Joe Pera territory! We loved making this film and can't wait for you to see it.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 28/09/2023

I stopped my student employee who was wearing this shirt and asked him what the deal was - if he knew the significance of it. He had no idea what Medjugorje was, and thought the image was Jesus. He said the shirt appeared in his room this week, he has no idea where it came from.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

I had the absolute pleasure of serving as an assistant projectionist for Melissa Ferrari’s Magic Lantern performance “Relict: A Phantasmagoria” at Towson University, ahead of her performance at the ArtYard Live Animation Festival this weekend. Teaser here:

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 15/09/2023

My Fall semester Directed Readings course, working towards my MFA Thesis, is preoccupied with miraculous rose petal images as a folk material culture central to spreading Marian devotional belief. I am seeking any personal stories or images with miraculous rose petal images! 🧵

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 17/08/2023

We got our dog an “alien autopsy” toy, where the squeaky heart pulls out of an open chest cavity. We named it “J-Rod.”

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 23/07/2023

Our first stained glass piece in the new home is pretty cool. #ufotwitter

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 21/07/2023

My wife bought me new reading material for the young one for my birthday. Just kidding, but I can only imagine what she’ll think growing up around them. They have the same black cover magnetism of all of the Time-Life “Mysteries of the Unknown.”

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 17/07/2023

I love these depictions of the anomalous phenomena surrounding St. Francis of Assisi, which seem to capture more accurately some of the oral and written tradition - Francis transfigured as a flaming chariot, and his ascension after death. Paintings by Jose Benlliure y Gil.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 07/07/2023

Noo Icons is showing! I am the featured artist in a gallery exhibition called “Arts & Algorithms” hosted by Penn State University’s @hvlaunchbox entrepreneurship incubator and @joinrealmai. The show explores whether or not AI generated work can be considered “art.”

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 02/07/2023

I love these photos of kids at the "Miracle of the Sun" in the Fatima Archive. "We got dragged along to this by our parents... when is the Virgin Mary supposed to be appearing?"

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 25/06/2023

I am incredibly proud of my wife and partner Jena, who celebrates her second Capital Emmy win for her independently produced feature documentary “Mom & M.” She put her heart and soul into making the film and I’m happy to have played my small part in helping it come together.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 21/06/2023

Ezekiel confronted by the “wheel within wheels.”

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 12/04/2023

Here is the trailer for “So Many Things Are Not So,” premiering this Friday, 4/14, 8pm, at the 2640 Space in Baltimore, as part of the New Works screening series. The film explores the belief in life on Mars and cross currents in modern conspiracy culture. 🧵

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 10/04/2023

Got to expose them to high strangeness early. The swaddle was a gift from a beloved student and is her (and my) favorite. Meet baby Nora! Our hearts are incredibly full and she is a happy and healthy little bundle of joy.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 07/04/2023

The stigmata of Antonio Ruffini, an Italian third order Franciscan, who received the wounds after a visitation by a woman in a black cloak at a roadside fountain. Crossposted from @collectionofmediumisticart on Instagram.

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MJBurchick @mjburchick.bsky.social · 07/04/2023

I'm excited to announce that "So Many Things Are Not So”, a short experimental documentary on the belief in life on Mars and conspiracy culture, will premiere as part of New Works Baltimore, curated by Jimmy Joe Roche and Matthew Sullivan, 4/14 in Baltimore City. 🧵

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