Art/tech Artist-in-Residence, Vejle Kommune
residency and exhibition, 2022 - 2023
From 2021 to 2023 I served as the Art/tech artist-in-residence for Vejle kommune (municipality). As the AIR I acted as both an art and design educator and a professional artist. My job was twofold;
1) to act as a consultant and collaborator with local teachers, students and decision-makers to create events that support playful and artistic approaches to learning about new technologies and
2) to pursue the development of personal art/tech projects here in Vejle, Denmark, and abroad.
The culmination of the residency resulted in Sarah Trahan: Art/tech Huskunstner, an exhibition at Spinderihallerne. The exhibition included objects, photographs and text explaining some of my activities and projects during my time as art/tech artist-in-residence. It was organized into 4 focus areas: Teacher Collaboration & Workshops, Art in the FabLab, BioTechLab Experiments, and Fermenting Data. Each of these categories involved collaborative work with educators, designers, researchers, students and other artists from local, national and international places.The exhibition included work from my projects With/in a Landscape, Vibrant Soils, Hot Plastic and Surface Error.
This resdiency was made possible through support from Vejle kommune and a generous grant from Statens Kunstfond. Other supporting partners for the residency include Vejle Bibliotekerne, Vejle Musik-og kulturskole, FabLab Spinderihallerne, BioTechLab Spinderihallerne and the Fermenting Data project. Images and video courtesy of Jonas Normann.
+ Interview in Kulturmonitor
+ Spinderihallerne AIR page
+ #arttechhuskunstner on Instagram
The culmination of the residency resulted in Sarah Trahan: Art/tech Huskunstner, an exhibition at Spinderihallerne. The exhibition included objects, photographs and text explaining some of my activities and projects during my time as art/tech artist-in-residence. It was organized into 4 focus areas: Teacher Collaboration & Workshops, Art in the FabLab, BioTechLab Experiments, and Fermenting Data. Each of these categories involved collaborative work with educators, designers, researchers, students and other artists from local, national and international places.The exhibition included work from my projects With/in a Landscape, Vibrant Soils, Hot Plastic and Surface Error.
This resdiency was made possible through support from Vejle kommune and a generous grant from Statens Kunstfond. Other supporting partners for the residency include Vejle Bibliotekerne, Vejle Musik-og kulturskole, FabLab Spinderihallerne, BioTechLab Spinderihallerne and the Fermenting Data project. Images and video courtesy of Jonas Normann.
+ Interview in Kulturmonitor
+ Spinderihallerne AIR page
+ #arttechhuskunstner on Instagram
Exhibition view, Art in the FabLab.
Detail.
Exhibition view, Vibrant Soils project.
Exhibition view, Vibrant Soils project.
Exhbition view, Teacher Collaboration.
Exhbition view, Teacher Collaboration.
Exhibition view, Plastic Fantastic project.
Exhibition view, Plastic Fantastic and Surface Error projects.
Exhibition view, BioTechLab Experiments.
Detail, clay prints.
Exhibition view, Fermenting Data.
Detail.
Exhibition view, Art in the FabLab.
Hot Plastic
photographic series, ongoing
The process of 3D-printing is not a perfect one. Transforming digital information into a physical object using machines and hot plastic produces a fair amount of waste. As an artist that uses a 3D-printer to produce tools and art objects, I often find myself surrounded by small piles of melted and tangled plastic; a physical collection of human/machine errors, failed prototypes and other glitches that occur on the path to creating a fully-realized, 3D-printed object. When I stop for a moment and take the time to look closely at one of these piles of plastic detritus, complex and intricate structures begin to reveal themselves. Is this plastic material actually waste, or can it be transformed into something else in its own right?
The images in this series are created by capturing images of 3D-printed plastic fragments via a flatbed scanner. This process allows me to create hyper-real, large-scale photographic prints, transforming overlooked bits of waste into abstract art objects.
The images in this series are created by capturing images of 3D-printed plastic fragments via a flatbed scanner. This process allows me to create hyper-real, large-scale photographic prints, transforming overlooked bits of waste into abstract art objects.
Eclipse, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36”.
Detail.
A perfect balance, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36”.
Dark star, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36”.
On the wind, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36”
Detail.
Ø, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36”.
Blink, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36”.
Vortex, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36”.
Skull, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36”.
Drifting plates, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36”.
Agnes, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36”.
Cast into the void, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 36”.
Detail.
Automatic
exhibition, 301 Gallery, 2019
An exploration of art and authorship in an age of automation.
Automatic is an exploration of the evolving role of technology as tool, medium, and active collaborator in artistic practice. Designed and developed by myself and Andrew Sliwinski, this collection of work centers around a series of drawings produced by an Automatic Drawing Machine (ADM).
Inspired by Surrealist Automatism in which the artist suppresses conscious control over the drawing process - allowing the unconscious mind to guide mark making - our ADM transforms electrical activity in a wearer’s brain into a series of graphic marks. The drawings in this collection of work were produced while eight different artists engaged in a range of practices including painting, drawing, writing, woodworking, and computer programming; forming a type of call and response between each artist and the technology.
The ADM system works by utilizing a non-invasive brain sensing technology called Electroencephalography (EEG), as well as custom software built to transform raw brain activity into a graphic representation. For this exhibition at the 301 Gallery in Beverly, MA, these graphic representations of various artists’ brain activity were transferred from screen onto paper using a computer-controlled plotter and a ballpoint pen.
Automatic is an exploration of the evolving role of technology as tool, medium, and active collaborator in artistic practice. Designed and developed by myself and Andrew Sliwinski, this collection of work centers around a series of drawings produced by an Automatic Drawing Machine (ADM).
Inspired by Surrealist Automatism in which the artist suppresses conscious control over the drawing process - allowing the unconscious mind to guide mark making - our ADM transforms electrical activity in a wearer’s brain into a series of graphic marks. The drawings in this collection of work were produced while eight different artists engaged in a range of practices including painting, drawing, writing, woodworking, and computer programming; forming a type of call and response between each artist and the technology.
The ADM system works by utilizing a non-invasive brain sensing technology called Electroencephalography (EEG), as well as custom software built to transform raw brain activity into a graphic representation. For this exhibition at the 301 Gallery in Beverly, MA, these graphic representations of various artists’ brain activity were transferred from screen onto paper using a computer-controlled plotter and a ballpoint pen.
ADM helmet detail.
Student using the ADM while painting.
Student using the ADM while letterpress printing; on screen is the corresponding drawing being made using the artist’s EEG data.
Left: An artist drawing. Right: a visualization of their corresponding EEG data.
Left: Artist’s finished drawing.
Right: Corresponding ADM drawing.Left: Video documentation of an artist wearing the ADM helmet while woodworking. Right: the artist’s ADM drawing happening simultaneously (no audio).
Audio / video doumentation of an artist playing a banjo in a duet while wearing the ADM helmet.
A selection of ADM-generated drawings, made using participating artists’ EEG data processed through custom software.
ADM drawing detail.
An ADM drawing being plotted.
Exhibition view.
Exhibition view.
Exhibition view.
Exhibition view with live projection from the ADM.
Exhibition view.
Exhibition view; tabletop audio / video on iPads.
Exhibition view; process work and statement.
Exhibition view.
With/in a Landscape
experimental project, 2021 - 2022
We are in the outdoors.
I am plugged into my computer and it is sensing me, itself, and the surrounding landscape, blending us all together in a series of recorded ones and zeros. My breath goes out into the wind, the wind whirs into the computer fan and drifts back to me again. We are a cyborg, an extended, expanded body. We are networks within a network within networks, constantly interpreted and interpreting.
As I reflect on this experience outdoors I wonder how this entanglement in a remote landscape can be contained and carried for sharing with others. How can multiple, simultaneous, and invisible states of being be expressed? This project is an attempt to make material the intangible interconnections our bodies have with technology and the living world. The vessels in this collection are sculpted from an intermingling of electrical impulses, where the human body, its extensions (technology) and the landscape are embodied and contained with/in the same vessel.
The forms here are generated from data captured during experiences on solo hikes in the Arctic Circle during a two-week span in the summer of 2021. The data consisted of small electric impulses captured from my body, the computer, and the surrounding landscape. The data was recorded using a portable EEG helmet and converted into 3-dimensional objects using an algorithmic 3D modeling program. The resulting 3D models were then made into material objects through a 3D printing and hand-finishing process. Each individual vessel is reflective of a unique moment of time in the remote landscape of the Arctic; for example, hearing wind whistling through the EEG sensors, feeling rocks slip under my feet, watching a tadpole swim. While scientific sensing equipment was used in the creation of this project, the resulting forms are not simply data visualizations; rather, they are interpretations of the blending of human and non-human existences, sculpted with artistic intent.
This project was made with the help of the Ars Bioartica artist residency and Statens Kunstfond. This project has been shown as a part of Land, Mark, a group show at the Rocky Neck Artist Colony in Gloucester, MA. It has also been featured in a pop-up exhibition at Vejle Bibliotekerne in Vejle, DK and as a part of the Vejle Kommune Artist-in-residence exhibition in Spinderihallerne, Vejle, DK.
+ Land, Mark Press Release
The forms here are generated from data captured during experiences on solo hikes in the Arctic Circle during a two-week span in the summer of 2021. The data consisted of small electric impulses captured from my body, the computer, and the surrounding landscape. The data was recorded using a portable EEG helmet and converted into 3-dimensional objects using an algorithmic 3D modeling program. The resulting 3D models were then made into material objects through a 3D printing and hand-finishing process. Each individual vessel is reflective of a unique moment of time in the remote landscape of the Arctic; for example, hearing wind whistling through the EEG sensors, feeling rocks slip under my feet, watching a tadpole swim. While scientific sensing equipment was used in the creation of this project, the resulting forms are not simply data visualizations; rather, they are interpretations of the blending of human and non-human existences, sculpted with artistic intent.
This project was made with the help of the Ars Bioartica artist residency and Statens Kunstfond. This project has been shown as a part of Land, Mark, a group show at the Rocky Neck Artist Colony in Gloucester, MA. It has also been featured in a pop-up exhibition at Vejle Bibliotekerne in Vejle, DK and as a part of the Vejle Kommune Artist-in-residence exhibition in Spinderihallerne, Vejle, DK.
+ Land, Mark Press Release
Rock formations, Saana Nature Area, FI.
Saana Fell, FI.
Native lichen growth, Saana Nature Area, FI.
Detail, rock formations, Saana Nature Area, FI.
A group of 3D meshes generated from EEG data.
Vessel being 3D-printed in PLA.
Hand assembly of 3D-printed sculpture parts.
First set of vessels generated from EEG data. 3D-printed in bioplastic (PLA), assembled and finished by hand. Various dimensions.
With/in a Landscape in the exhibition Sarah Trahan: Art/tech artist-in-residence at Spinderihallerne, Vejle, DK. Image courtesy of Jonas Normann.
Exhibition detail. Image courtesy of Jonas Normann.
Hand Of The Machine
exhibition, Emerson Contemporary, 2020
This project investigates digital manufacturing through its imperfections. What we commonly understand as a uniform and infinitely repeatable dialog between user, computer, and 3D printer belies a much more nuanced and imperfect system. Communication breakdowns, bugs, and evidence of the unpredictable nature of hot plastic become apparent as we zoom in. Anomalies within the programmed structure become gestures within ordered fields of plastic lines.
The work shown in this exhibition halts the fabrication process to focus on these aberrant details. Impressions, abstractions, and mutations are interpreted through lenses, light, and ink. These forms are ultimately reflected back into the 3D printer. Anomalies build up, forms break down, and are reconstituted into new structures ripe for exploration.
This project was included in the group exhibition Spacetime (x, y, z + t) at Emerson Media Arts Gallery in Boston, MA. The exhibition was curated by Dr. Leonie Bradbury and featured work by Katherine Mitchell DiRico (US), Zsuzsanna Segedi (HUN), Nicole L’Huillier (CL), Monika Grzymala (GER) as well as myself. Exhibition images from George Bouret Photography.
+ Curator Statement
+ Boston Globe Review
+ Boston Art Review Interview
The work shown in this exhibition halts the fabrication process to focus on these aberrant details. Impressions, abstractions, and mutations are interpreted through lenses, light, and ink. These forms are ultimately reflected back into the 3D printer. Anomalies build up, forms break down, and are reconstituted into new structures ripe for exploration.
This project was included in the group exhibition Spacetime (x, y, z + t) at Emerson Media Arts Gallery in Boston, MA. The exhibition was curated by Dr. Leonie Bradbury and featured work by Katherine Mitchell DiRico (US), Zsuzsanna Segedi (HUN), Nicole L’Huillier (CL), Monika Grzymala (GER) as well as myself. Exhibition images from George Bouret Photography.
+ Curator Statement
+ Boston Globe Review
+ Boston Art Review Interview
Exhibition view.
Exhibition view.
Animation, made by layering relief prints of 3D-printed waste material.
Exhibition view.
Animation on screen,
9 x 12”.
Detail.
Archival inkjet print, 24 x 36”.
Detail.
Archival inkjet print, 24 x 36”.
3D printed sculpture set, various sizes. These were designed to showcase the inner structure of a 3D print. The sculptures were continuously printed during the exhibition and free to take home for visitors.
Sculpture detail.
Exhibition view, 3D printer.