CURATORIAL PROJECTS
"Citizen Artists"
The College of New Jersey, September 11th - October 23rd 2019
and Northeastern University, November 5th 2019 - January 15th, 2020
Featuring the work of Brandon Ballengee, Raven Chacon, Elizabeth Demaray, Jonathan Feldschuh, Ryan Feddersen, and Justus Harris
Curatorial Statement | What is a Citizen Artist?
The term "citizen scientist" has become increasingly popular with the rise of DIY and crowdsourcing culture, where volunteer citizens can expand the capabilities and reach of scientists for the creation of larger and more comprehensive studies. Thanks to new apps and web-based platforms, the ability to participate in science is available outside of academia and industry. Science can now be done by a 14 year-old on her laptop, or an 80 year-old in his backyard garden. Citizens from all over the world are helping to solve some of our biggest and most complicated problems. And some of these citizen scientists, are artists.
Artists, at heart, are problem solvers; What shades of blue best describe the bay of Cape Cod? What lines of code will generate a virtual tour of Mars? How can an outdoor sculpture garden be built to withstand a New Jersey winter? These are the types of questions which artists solve on a daily basis in order to create meaningful and thought-provoking experiences for viewers.
As science has become increasingly culturally central, it has also become increasingly politicized, and artists are responding to this trend. Through projects which tackle complex problems typically associated with the sciences, artists are bringing themes, such as anthropogenic climate change and the fundamentals of our physical reality, into the social realm. When the tools of art - scale, color, material, and form - embody these difficult and complicated subject matters, the artist creates a neutral ground for dialogue and discussion. In this context, art can act as a platform for change. Rather than increasing the participation in a scientific study as citizen science promotes, Citizen Artists are agents and enablers of personal, social, and societal change.
Through visualization, symbolism, interactive experiences, and sensory immersion, "Citizen Artists" presents the works of six artists who engage with scientific topics too often inaccessible outside of the laboratory. In these works lies an invitation to participate at the citizen level, providing a visual and metaphorical avenue for understanding, connection, and action.
Curatorial Statement | What is a Citizen Artist?
The term "citizen scientist" has become increasingly popular with the rise of DIY and crowdsourcing culture, where volunteer citizens can expand the capabilities and reach of scientists for the creation of larger and more comprehensive studies. Thanks to new apps and web-based platforms, the ability to participate in science is available outside of academia and industry. Science can now be done by a 14 year-old on her laptop, or an 80 year-old in his backyard garden. Citizens from all over the world are helping to solve some of our biggest and most complicated problems. And some of these citizen scientists, are artists.
Artists, at heart, are problem solvers; What shades of blue best describe the bay of Cape Cod? What lines of code will generate a virtual tour of Mars? How can an outdoor sculpture garden be built to withstand a New Jersey winter? These are the types of questions which artists solve on a daily basis in order to create meaningful and thought-provoking experiences for viewers.
As science has become increasingly culturally central, it has also become increasingly politicized, and artists are responding to this trend. Through projects which tackle complex problems typically associated with the sciences, artists are bringing themes, such as anthropogenic climate change and the fundamentals of our physical reality, into the social realm. When the tools of art - scale, color, material, and form - embody these difficult and complicated subject matters, the artist creates a neutral ground for dialogue and discussion. In this context, art can act as a platform for change. Rather than increasing the participation in a scientific study as citizen science promotes, Citizen Artists are agents and enablers of personal, social, and societal change.
Through visualization, symbolism, interactive experiences, and sensory immersion, "Citizen Artists" presents the works of six artists who engage with scientific topics too often inaccessible outside of the laboratory. In these works lies an invitation to participate at the citizen level, providing a visual and metaphorical avenue for understanding, connection, and action.
"hypothetically"
Lafayette College, February 10th - April 14th 2018
Featuring the work of Kathy High, Raphael Kim, and Jonathon Keats
Curatorial Statement | Collaboration between the arts and sciences is a popular notion that has evolved far beyond a buzz word. Revived by contemporary initiatives inspired by the late C.P. Snow’s lament on the gap between the two cultures of art and science, collaboration is a tangible way in which the two disciplines cannot only create a bridge of mutual understanding, but can lead to comprehensive approaches to our 21st century opportunities and problems. Artists are often the champions of the charge for cross-disciplinary work because they are free to take risks which others may deem improbable, irresponsible, or impossible.
While many successful cross-disciplinary collaborations have been created, such as Olafur Elisaon’s work to get electricity to off-the-grid countries in Little Sun and Natalie Jeremijenko’s efforts to curb the effects of the Anthropocene in pieces such as Butterfly Bridge, there are those projects which have yet to be realized and reside, perhaps forever, in the realm of the hypothetically possible.
Walking the lines of the allowable in bioethics and the possible in technology, “Hypothetically” presents artists that create work which propose experiments, initiatives, and solutions to persistent issues, from the level of the microbe to the whole of the planet.
Curatorial Statement | Collaboration between the arts and sciences is a popular notion that has evolved far beyond a buzz word. Revived by contemporary initiatives inspired by the late C.P. Snow’s lament on the gap between the two cultures of art and science, collaboration is a tangible way in which the two disciplines cannot only create a bridge of mutual understanding, but can lead to comprehensive approaches to our 21st century opportunities and problems. Artists are often the champions of the charge for cross-disciplinary work because they are free to take risks which others may deem improbable, irresponsible, or impossible.
While many successful cross-disciplinary collaborations have been created, such as Olafur Elisaon’s work to get electricity to off-the-grid countries in Little Sun and Natalie Jeremijenko’s efforts to curb the effects of the Anthropocene in pieces such as Butterfly Bridge, there are those projects which have yet to be realized and reside, perhaps forever, in the realm of the hypothetically possible.
Walking the lines of the allowable in bioethics and the possible in technology, “Hypothetically” presents artists that create work which propose experiments, initiatives, and solutions to persistent issues, from the level of the microbe to the whole of the planet.
"The New Mimesis"
A SciArt Initiative exhibit at Nurture Nature Center, February 10th - April 16th 2017
Featuring the work of Brigitte Caramana, Donna Cleary, Evan Daniel, Lia Embil, Michael Flomen, Nestor Gil & Luis Schettino, Ken Jones, Robert Lach, Anthony Heinz May, David Mazure, Connor Pirruccello-McClellan, Jocelyn Shu, Jim Toia, Hanna Washburn, Rebecca Welz, Rachael Wren, and Jing Zhou.
Curatorial Statement | Aristotle was the first to posit that art is a mimesis, or an imitation of the world around us. Our representation of the natural world through art can be seen as early as the paintings in Lascaux, and remains a strong tradition in contemporary art as climate, habitats, and nature changes in this age of the Anthropocene.
As a species we have stared up at the cosmos and peered into the cellular; we have studied the intricate patterns that surround us in wind currents, branching trees, and crystal structures; we have observed the spider’s web, the symmetry of snowflakes, the formations of coral. Since the beginning of our existence we have noticed the underlying order in nature and wondered why and how, looking to the world around us for inspiration, ideas, and solutions.
In our 21st century world of complex problems, we are increasingly turning to nature for answers. Our imitation of nature has grown beyond the realm of the purely aesthetic and into the world of cross-disciplinary problem solving. Mimesis has evolved into biomimicry, and through mimicking nature humanity has made advances in architecture, transportation, agriculture, robotics, medicine, aeronautics, energy, and more. We have stood on nature’s shoulders and have seen further than we ever could alone.
We look to nature not to ask ourselves what we can extract from it, but rather what we can learn. How can the patterns and structures of nature inform our cultural and technological advances? Where in nature is there knowledge to be gained, and what does that knowledge look like? What underlying forces guiding the natural world can act to guide us as well? What can we learn about ourselves through mimicking the natural world?
Co-curated with Julia Brennan
Curatorial Statement | Aristotle was the first to posit that art is a mimesis, or an imitation of the world around us. Our representation of the natural world through art can be seen as early as the paintings in Lascaux, and remains a strong tradition in contemporary art as climate, habitats, and nature changes in this age of the Anthropocene.
As a species we have stared up at the cosmos and peered into the cellular; we have studied the intricate patterns that surround us in wind currents, branching trees, and crystal structures; we have observed the spider’s web, the symmetry of snowflakes, the formations of coral. Since the beginning of our existence we have noticed the underlying order in nature and wondered why and how, looking to the world around us for inspiration, ideas, and solutions.
In our 21st century world of complex problems, we are increasingly turning to nature for answers. Our imitation of nature has grown beyond the realm of the purely aesthetic and into the world of cross-disciplinary problem solving. Mimesis has evolved into biomimicry, and through mimicking nature humanity has made advances in architecture, transportation, agriculture, robotics, medicine, aeronautics, energy, and more. We have stood on nature’s shoulders and have seen further than we ever could alone.
We look to nature not to ask ourselves what we can extract from it, but rather what we can learn. How can the patterns and structures of nature inform our cultural and technological advances? Where in nature is there knowledge to be gained, and what does that knowledge look like? What underlying forces guiding the natural world can act to guide us as well? What can we learn about ourselves through mimicking the natural world?
Co-curated with Julia Brennan
"What Lies Beneath"
A SciArt Initiative Exhibit at Central Booking Gallery, June 2014
Featuring the works of Jonathan Feldschuh, Jim Toia, Laura Splan, Daniel Hill, Jonathon Wells, and Steve Miller
Curatorial Statement | "What Lies Beneath" reveals the hidden layers and understructures of science through aesthetic explorations into the mantle of the earth, the machinery of particle physics, the patterns of mushroom and spider web growth, the symmetry of energy fields, the mixed psychological notions of the self, and the flora and fauna of the Amazon.
Curatorial Statement | "What Lies Beneath" reveals the hidden layers and understructures of science through aesthetic explorations into the mantle of the earth, the machinery of particle physics, the patterns of mushroom and spider web growth, the symmetry of energy fields, the mixed psychological notions of the self, and the flora and fauna of the Amazon.
