On January 7, 2023, we met for our monthly quarantine dinner, spotlighting THE PIG. Artists, scientists, and researchers came together, bringing food, stories, myths, and creativity to honor our circle of PIG guests.
Nina Sobell is a contemporary sculptor, multimedia, and performance artist who pioneered the use of EEG technology, closed-circuit television, and internet communication in the art world. Early in her career, she focused on experimental forms of interaction and performance and explored the ways in which technology mediates psychic transformations and modulates the perception of space and time. Her substantial body of work includes live performances and TV, museum installations, sculpture, and interactive video matrices that invited public participation.
Nobuho Nagasawa is a Japanese-born US-based transdisciplinary artist. Nagasawa is known for her site-specific installations involving in-depth research into cultural history and memory and extensive community participation.
Dr. Claudia Schnugg is a researcher and curator with an interdisciplinary background in social sciences, business administration, cultural sciences, and the arts. She is a curator in the fields of art & science collaboration, organizational aesthetics, embodied knowledge, and artistic interventions.
Christian Köberl is a professor of impact research and planetary geology at the University of Vienna, Austria. From June 2010 to May 2020 he was director general of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. He is best known for his research on meteorite impact craters.
Richard Ross is an artist/activist/photographer, distinguished research professor of art based in Santa Barbara, California. As the creator of Juvenile-in-Justice, his work turns a lens on the placement and treatment of American juveniles housed by law in facilities that treat, confine, punish, assist and, occasionally, harm them. Ross has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, MacArthur, Public Welfare Foundation and the Center for Cultural Innovation.
Katya Cazar is a visual artist from Cuenca, with practical and theoretical training in contemporary art. She has had several solo and group exhibitions in the country and abroad, including solo exhibitions in Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and the United States. She holds a degree in Visual Arts from the University of Cuenca (Ecuador, 1995). Master in Cultural Studies from the University of Azuay (Ecuador, 2000), Certified in Museum Management and Cultural Heritage by the American Museum Program (USA, 2015) and is a PhD candidate in the visual arts program at the Complutense University (Madrid, Spain, since 2019).
Ivana Dama is an interdisciplinary artist currently pursuing a graduate degree in Sculpture at Yale University. She previously graduated from UCLA’s School of Arts and Architecture with a degree in Design Media Arts and Digital Humanities. Ivana’s work, which includes audio-video installations, robotics, web projects, and music performances, investigates the nonverbal expression of traumatic experiences through the lens of sound studies and sonic memories.
Linda Weintraub is an American art writer, educator and curator. She has written several books on contemporary art. Her most recent works address environmental consciousness that defines the ways cultures approach art, science, ethics, philosophy, politics, manufacturing, and architecture.
Victoria Vesna, Ph.D., is an Artist and Professor at the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts and Director of the Art Sci center at the School of the Arts and California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). Although she was trained early on as a painter (Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Belgrade, 1984), her curious mind took her on an exploratory path that resulted in work that can be defined as experimental creative research residing between disciplines and technologies.