Victoria Vesna

Victoria Vesna (born 1959) is a professor and digital media artist. She is known for her feminist video, computer and internet art and has been active since the early 1980s.[1][2][3] Along with collaborator Jim Gimzewski she is thought to have created one of the first interactive artworks related to nanotechnology (sometimes called nanoart)[4][5][6] and defines her art practice as experimental research.[7]

Victoria Vesna
Victoria Vesna performing Octupus Mandala at Santa Monica Glow. Photo: Brandon Choe.
BornJune 9, 1959
Washington D.C.
EducationUniversity of Wales and University of Belgrade
Known fornanoart, digital art, computer art, video art
Notable workZero@wavefunction (2002), Datamining Bodies (1999), and Bodies Corp 2.0 (2015)
AwardsOscar Signorini Prize
Websitehttps://victoriavesna.com/

Early life and education

Victoria Vesna was born in Washington, D.C., on June 9, 1959.[7] She graduated from the High School of Art & Design in New York City, New York, in 1976.[7] She received a Fine Arts Diploma from the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1984. In 2000, she completed her Ph.D. at CAiiA (The Centre for Advanced Studies in Interactive Arts) at the University of Wales with a thesis entitled "Networked Public Spaces: An Investigation into Virtual Embodiment" in 2000.[8]

Career

Teaching

Victoria Vesna was the chair of the Department of Design Media Arts at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture as well as director of UCLA's Art|Sci Center and the UC Digital Arts Research Network.[8]

Awards

She received the Oscar Signorini award for best net artwork in 1998 and the CINE Golden Eagle award for best scientific documentary in 1986.[9][10]

Artwork

Through creative research, she examines perception and identity shifts in connection with scientific innovation as well as examining bio and nanotechnology through art.[11]

Exhibitions include Spaceship Earth at the Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Toruń (2011) and MORPHONANO at the Beall Center for Art and Technology, Irvine, California (2012).[12]

Artweek reviewer Claudine Isé writes, “Vesna has created a number of Web-based works that examine the dichotomy between concepts of “virtual’ and ‘concrete.’ Her on-line projects include an upcoming electronic conference about the cultural production of death as well as a popular site called Bodies INCorporated, which gives visitors an opportunity to design their own ‘cyber bodies’ from a selection of organic and synthetic textures, such as water, lava, chocolate, rubber or plastic.”[13]

Author

In Christopher Hanson's review of her book Database aesthetics: Art in the age of information overflow, he says that Vesna provides an engaging collection of essays about changing aesthetics in interactive art and its relationship to the database.[14]

Personal life

Formerly married to Bogdan Maglich, Vesna has two children by that marriage, which ended in divorce.

Works
  • [Alien] Star Dust (since 2019)
  • Noise Aquarium (since 2016)
  • Brainstorming (since 2015)
  • Bodies Corp 2.0 (2015)
  • Octopus Mandala Glow (2013), in collaboration with Ray Zimmerman, Dawn Faelnar, Mike Datz, Peter Rand, Steven Amrhein, and others
  • ACOUSTIC NETWORKS OF BIRDS (2012), in collaboration with biologist Charles Taylor and physicist Takashi Ikegami
  • Quantum Tunneling (2008)
  • Water Bowls (2006)
  • Mood Swings (2006)
  • Datamining Bodies (2004) in collaboration with Gerald de Jong and David Beaudry
  • Zero@wavefunction (2002) in collaboration with nanoscientist James Gimzewski[5][6]
  • Cell Ghosts (2001)
  • Building a Community of People with No Time (2001)
  • Datamining Bodies (1999)
  • Bodies© InCorporated (1996)[15]
  • Virtual Concrete (1995) [16]
  • Nanomandala [17]
  • Another Day in Paradise (1992)[18]

Publications
  • Database aesthetics: Art in the age of information overflow (2007), University Of Minnesota Press.[19][14]
  • Mel Chin-Provocative Eco-Art in Action Academic journal article from Art Journal, Vol. 65, No. 1.
  • Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between Art and Electronic Media. Phaidon Press. 2008.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions
  • MORPHONANO: Beall Center for Art and Technology, Irvine, California (2012)*Spaceship Earth: Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Torun (2011)
  • Hox Zodiac: Microwave International New Media Arts Festival ALCHEMY, School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.(2011)
  • Quantum Tunneling: Median Kunst Labor (Media Art Laboratory), Graz, Austria.(2008)
  • Cell Ghosts: Apeejay Media Gallery, New Delhi.(2005)
  • Zero@wavefunction: Biennale for Electronic Arts, Perth. John Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. (2002)

Group exhibitions
  • TechNoBody, Pelham Art Center, New York, NY (2015)[20][21]
  • "Red Angel," Installation. Art & Science, Aperto '86, Venice Biennale, Italy (1986)

References
  1. "Victoria Vesna". Women of Vision. Histories in Feminist Film and Video. Vol. 9 (NED - New ed.). University of Minnesota Press. 2001. pp. 235–247. ISBN 9780816633715. JSTOR 10.5749/j.cttts8r3.19.
  2. Colman, Alison (2005). "Constructing an Aesthetic of Web Art from a Review of Artists' Use of the World Wide Web". Visual Arts Research. 31 (1): 13–25. JSTOR 20715365.
  3. Brown, Kristen (1999). "Trends in computer and technological art" (PDF). Art Criticism. 14 (2): 94–106 – via ARTBibliographies Modern, ProQuest.
  4. Spector, Tami I. (2008-07-25). "Nanotechnology, Nanoscale Science and Art". Leonardo. 41 (4): 348–349. doi:10.1162/leon.2008.41.4.348. ISSN 1530-9282.
  5. "Zero@wavefunction". notime.arts.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  6. Ridder-Vignone, Kathryn D. de (2012-08-31). "Public Engagement and the Art of Nanotechnology". Leonardo. 45 (5): 433–438. doi:10.1162/LEON_a_00440. ISSN 1530-9282.
  7. "Victoria Vesna - Biography". vv.arts.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
  8. UCLA faculty profile; accessed December 2, 2017.
  9. Profile, LABoral website; accessed December 2, 2017.
  10. "XXV Oscar Signorini Prize – Robotic Art – NOEMA – Technology & Society". noemalab.eu. 16 December 2008. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  11. Profile, elmcip.net; accessed December 2, 2017.
  12. Profile, MutualArt.com; accessed December 2, 2017.
  13. Isé, Claudine (1996). "Everywhere and nowhere at once: out on the web". Artweek. 27 (2): 11.
  14. Christopher Hanson, review of Database Aesthetics in Discourse 29:1, Winter 2007, p. 189., jstor.org; accessed December 2, 2017.
  15. Kurtz, Glenn A. (April 1997). "Victoria Vesna at the San Francisco Art Institute". Artweek. 28: 20.
  16. "Virtual Concrete Essay". vv.arts.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  17. "NANO | nanomandala". nano.arts.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  18. Vesna, Victoria (1998). "Another Day in Paradise and Virtual Concrete: Installation and Telepresence Works". Leonardo. 31 (1): 13–19. doi:10.2307/1576542. ISSN 1530-9282. JSTOR 1576542. S2CID 193021182.
  19. Murray, Soraya (2009). Vesna, Victoria; Paul, Christiane (eds.). "Digital Aesthetics: Two Handbooks". Art Journal. 68 (3): 112–115. JSTOR 25676496.
  20. "Virtually Real: Conversations on TechNoBody – Part I | Anti-Utopias". anti-utopias.com. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  21. "Virtually Real: Conversations on TechNoBody – Part II | Anti-Utopias". anti-utopias.com. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
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