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Anna Dumitriu and Alex May: Recent Works

College Station, Texas-- Art, science, and technology combine in a fascinating fusion as the Wright Gallery of the Texas A&M College of Architecture opens their latest exhibition Anna Dumitriu and Alex May: Recent Works, running March 5-8, 2018. Through their innovative approaches, British artists Anna Dumitriu and Alex May have established themselves at the forefront of the art-science practice, gaining international critical acclaim for their works which explore cutting-edge bioscience and technology. In conjunction with the exhibition of their stunning artworks, the artists will host three captivating, interactive workshops, bringing an even closer look at their pioneering pieces and processes.

Bacteria lie at the center of Dumitriu’s groundbreaking work, which combines traditional artistic media with contemporary science to produce artwork that is not only about bacteria but rather fused with them. She works hands-on with the tools and techniques of microbiology and synthetic biology to create intricate artworks that reveal strange histories and emerging futures.

May’s work is comprised of a wide range of styles including video art, humanoid robots, full scale installations and generative works that transcend the boundaries between the digital and physical domains. He is most noted for his innovative application of video mapping, a furtherance of the technique of video projection on physical objects, for which he has developed his own bespoke software.

In describing the exhibition, Carol LaFayette (curator and Harold Adams Interdisciplinary Professor of Visualization) commented, “Anna Dumitriu and Alex May remind us that we are inherently collaborative organisms: at the micro-level, we host other living entities and cannot live without them. Through a blend of craft, technology and bioscience, these artists heighten our visual and tactile experiences of a mysterious story we tell ourselves, one that changes along with knowledge, history, and paradigm. We are the medium for inquiry. Their process involves collaboration with other fields of research and practice. Dumitriu and May are change agents, entering realms increasingly more porous and resilient in response.”

In addition, both artists will be in residence for a series of lectures, discussions, and interactive workshops from March 6-8, 2018. May and Dumitriu will discuss their processes and fields of study in captivating lectures on March 7, 2018 from 5-7pm in Health Sciences HPEB LL30 (Health Professionals Education Building). Click here for directions.

They will also engage students and audiences in three interactive workshops:

Anna Dumitriu: BioArt and Bacteria

March 6, 2018

12-3pm

Langford A 212

Anna Dumitriu will introduce her practice which fuses craft, sculpture and science to explore our relationship to the microbial world, technology and biomedicine. She will introduce participants to ways of working hands-on with microbiology and DNA and consider the ethical and health and safety implications of this form of art practice. She will explore her fascination for the history of medicine and storytelling and invite participants to contribute to a participatory artwork. 15 participants are reserved, but there is plenty of room to observe. Click here to register as a participant.

Alex May: Video Mapping with Painting with Light

March 7, 2018

12-3pm

Langford A 212

Alex May will introduce "Painting with Light" the video mapping tool he created that enables artists of any technical ability to paint with static and moving images through any video projector onto 3D physical objects. 15 participants are reserved, but there is plenty of room to observe. Click here to register as a participant.

Anna Dumitriu and Alex May: The Collaborative Process

March 8, 2018

9:30-11:30 am

Langford A 212

Anna Dumitriu and Alex May will discuss how they work as individual artists and in collaboration with each on projects that explore life through digital technologies from whole genome sequencing and generative art, to virtual reality and robotics. They will also explore their extensive collaborations with scientists and propose methods of best practice.

(Times and locations subject to change. Visit creativity.tamu.edu for updated information during the week of February 26, 2018)

An opening reception will be held at the Wright Gallery on Monday, March 5, 2018 from 4-6pm.

Exhibition Details:

Anna Dumitriu and Alex May: Recent Works

March 6-8, 2018

Wright Gallery, Texas A&M College of Architecture

Opening Reception: Monday March 5, 2018, 4-6 pm

"Anna Dumitiru and Alex May: Recent Works" is sponsored by the Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA) and co-sponsored by The Wright Gallery, The College of Architecture, The Institute for Applied Creativity, The Arts Council of Brazos Valley, and the College of Health Sciences at Texas A&M University. Dumitriu and May’s residencies are a part of the AVPA 2017-18 Season.

ABOUT ANNA DUMITRIU

Anna Dumitriu is a British artist whose work fuses craft, technology and bioscience to explore our relationship to the microbial world, biomedicine and technology. She has a strong international exhibition profile, having exhibited at The Picasso Museum in Barcelona (Spain), The Science Gallery in Dublin (Eire), The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Taipei (Taiwan), ZKM (Germany), Waag Society Amsterdam (Netherlands), Art Laboratory Berlin (Germany), The V&A Museum in London (UK) and the Museum of the History of Science (UK). Dumitriu’s work is held in several major public collections, including the Science Museum London (UK) and Eden Project in Cornwall (UK). She workshop embedded in scientific and medical settings and is artist in residence on the Modernising Medical Microbiology Project at the University of Oxford (UK), a visiting research fellow: artist in residence in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Hertfordshire (UK), an honorary research fellow in the Wellcome Trust Brighton and Sussex Centre for Global Health at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (UK), and a research fellow at Waag Society (Netherlands).

Dumitriu recently completed a residency at the Liu Laboratory for Synthetic Evolution at The University of California in Irvine (USA) and the resulting artworks were featured in the ground-breaking exhibition “WETWARE” at the Beall Center for Art and Technology in Irvine (USA) curated by Jens Hauser and David Familian. Her work is featured in William Myers significant large format book on Bio-Art, entitled “Bio-Art: Altered Realities” published by Thames and Hudson in 2016. She has recently begun a new collaboration with the National Culture Type Collection, the oldest and most significant collection of historically important micro-organisms in the world. More information at www.annadumitriu.co.uk

ABOUT ALEX MAY

Alex May is a British artist exploring a wide range of digital technologies, most notably video projection onto physical objects (building on the technique known as video mapping or projection mapping by using his own bespoke software), also interactive installations, generative works, full-size humanoid robots, performance, and video art. He has performed live video mapping at Tate Modern in London, and for the inauguration of Serre Numérique in Valenciennes, France, and exhibited internationally including at the Eden Project (permanent collection), V&A, Royal Academy of Art, Wellcome Collection, Science Museum, Bletchley Park, Watermans, Goldsmiths, One Canada Square in Canary Wharf, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas, Venezuela, the Science Gallery in Dublin, Princeton University, University of Calgary (international visiting artist 2016), and the Beall Center for Art + Technology, University of California, Irvine.

May gives talks about many aspects of digital art, digital preservation, and public engagement with social robotics through art (UCLA, USC, School of Visual Arts (SVA) New York, University of Boulder, SUNY, TEDx Bucharest, Chelsea College of Art (in conversation with curator Robert Storr), Waag Society in Amsterdam, ICT2013 European Commission Digital Agenda event in Vilnius, Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, British Film Institute in London, Ahmed Shawky Museum in Cairo) and runs workshops for artists using his own software (UCLA, for Fluxmedia at Concordia University in Montreal, International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) in Istanbul), and gave the 2012 Christmas lecture for the Computer Arts Society. Visit http://www.alexmayarts.co.uk/ for more information.

Anna Dumitiru and Alex May

Schedule

Some times and locations may change, please check back here the week before

Monday, March 5

4-6 pm: Opening reception at the Wright Gallery

Tuesday, March 6

12-3pm Workshop 1, Anna Dumitriu in Langford A

Wednesday, March 7

12-3 pm Workshop 2, Alex May in Langford A

5-7 pm Artists' lectures, Health Sciences

Health Sciences, HPEB LL30

Thursday, March 8

9:30-11:30 am Workshop 3, Anna Dumitriu and Alex May in Langford A

ABOUT THE WRIGHT GALLERY

The College of Architecture's Wright Gallery is located on the second floor of the Langford Architecture Center's Building A on the Texas A&M College Station campus. The gallery is dedicated to showcasing the visual arts with a commitment to honoring diversity in all its forms; providing a venue for emerging and established artists, architects and designers of local, regional, national and international acclaim; featuring works by women artists and artists from other underrepresented groups, artists whose works promote dialogue on topics of social and cultural importance, and artists whose work challenges conventional art practice; and serving as a center for campus and community visual arts engagement, education and enjoyment.

The gallery's 2008 renovation was made possible by a generous gift from Jim Wright, a retired senior partner with Page Sutherland Page who earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Texas A&M in 1954, and his wife Mary.

Visualization prof's NSF-funded STEM-to-STEAM effort prompts Academies to green-light study

"The green-lighting of a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study investigating the value of integrating arts and humanities into science and technology education is a milestone in the global transdisciplinary education movement," said Carol LaFayette, a visualization professor at Texas A&M University and founder of an advocacy network on the vanguard of the movement.

With initial support from the National Science Foundation, LaFayette created the Network for Sciences Engineering, Arts & Design (SEAD Network) to advocate for STEM to STEAM — namely, adding art and design components, the "A," to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning.

(read full article here)