iEar Salon Špela Petrič

iEAR Salon presented Špela Petrič, curated by John Santomieri, on November 9, 2022.
MORE ABOUT iEAR Salon: The Arts Department at RPI presented the 2022 “iEAR Salon” virtual series exploring sense-abilities and environmental bodies, curated by the Arts Graduate Colloquium of Rensselaer. Mutli-disciplinary artists and thinkers Ursula Biemann, Timothy Morton, Jenn E Norton, Jaguar Mary X, and Špela Petrič addressed topics of deep ecology, alternative ways of knowing and new figurations of being-in-place.
This series is sponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, in collaboration with The Sanctuary for Independent Media’s NATURE Lab initiative, and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the New York State Legislature. iEAR Salon is curated by the Ph.D students of Arts Graduate Colloquium, Fall 2022: Nina Isabelle, John Santomieri, Hanae Utamura, Allie ES Wist, Arma Yari with Arts Graduate Colloquium Professor Branda Miller; iEAR Presents! curated by Kathy High and Branda Miller.
MORE ABOUT Špela Petrič,
A presentation of, On The Vegetariat, followed by Q&A.
Špela Petrič is a Ljubljana and Amsterdam based new media artist who has been trained in the natural sciences as well as transmedia arts. Her artistic practice combines technology, wet biomedia practices, and performance. She is currently working as a researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, studying how automation of care manifests in various spheres, from horticulture to human medicine. Petrič received several awards, such as the White Aphroid for outstanding artistic achievement (Slovenia), the Bioart and Design Award (Netherlands), and an Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica (Austria). The PLANT-MACHINE is the umbrella title for an art practice and research through which Špela Petrič examines the entwinement of advanced technologies with living bodies, positing horticulture as a model of these relations. By experimenting with ways to appropriate or subvert data acquisition and processing methods, the projects question the current use of algorithms. In the context of the artworks, data becomes the raw material for non-utilitarian, speculative representations of plant life in the sphere of information. www.spelapetric.org
MORE ABOUT THE CURATOR:
John Santomieri is a plant-based, media artist practicing in Buffalo. His work integrates art, horticulture, and theory to conceptualize nonhuman representation and the interrelationships of human ecology. He is influenced by professional work in horticulture and public gardening, and his study of urban sociology at Tulane University, and the University at Buffalo where he received his BA and MFA, and SUNY Niagara where he received his AAS degree in horticulture. John Santomieri is currently a PhD student in the Arts Department of Rensselaer.