Dee Lisdun, SLEA Liaison
Dee Lisdun is the curator for the Street Artist Cafe
Dee was born curious of many things and surprised those around her by learning arithmetic on her own before learning to read and after learning to read, she went on to study foreign languages.
She grew up during the phenomenal rise of the computer and enrolled into a high school that had the then rare curriculum of having not only advanced math and physics, but also computer science. Never having been challenged before, and spending much of her time on computers and computer networks, the “advanced” part of the hard science subjects caught her unaware. She graduated with disappointing grades.
As it still was the era when there was a high demand for practical, hands-on expertise on computers, yet very few university graduates who didn’t have more academic career in mind, Dee got a job at an adult education institute branch office. While the original job title was for an entry level job, her duties now included computer and networking.administration.
The adult education institute, in their attempt to remedy the aforementioned shortage of current, hands-on, IT professionals, became one of the first for-profit schools to also offer internet. Dee fell in love with the World Wide Web and realized the massive potential of it about a year before Bill Gates’s “The Internet is a tidal wave.”
The technical side of computers was getting increasingly abstracted, and losing its allure for Dee, whereas rapidly developing Web became the focus of everyone and everything. Web design, requiring a combination of technical and artistic know-how, quickly became Dee’s main forte.
As the technical side of web design was abstracted away too, Dee was discovering more and more of her artistic talents. She got a new job at a small but ambitious business that was pursuing content creation in new media, aided by the latest technology. Highlights include leading the team that made a promotional video made for the national army, as well as a few music videos for signed bands, that explored the polished style and special effects previously available only to the big movie studios.
Ever restless and curious, Dee branched into music herself, creating the soundtrack for an indie movie and a haunting soundscape for an art gallery, with the latter gaining cult status and got played even after the exhibition had been disassembled.
The less notably utilized while nonetheless formidable writing and editing skills lead to, among other things, working closely with a poet and graphical artist on his poetry collection.
As exciting as art was for Dee, it offered less in financial satisfaction, and she worked in advertising for a multidivisional business.
After losing the control of half of her body and being taken to the hospital, Dee’s priorities took yet another direction. Given the opportunity, she chose early retirement and returned to the arts, albeit at much diminished capacity.