Intro II, or how it will work

I'll be meeting with undergraduates throughout the year and spending one day a week at the DSB, speaking and joking with the researchers there. The residency also includes a public talk and a few roundtables discussing the intersection of art and science. At the end of the academic year, I'll show a new, large-scale work in a public space on the main Harvard Campus.

I'll post more details as plans solidify.

Intro I, or how it happened

Many people are curious about how this residency came about. It started with a very serendipitous studio visit in fall of 2003. Rebecca Ward (Becky), Debbie Marks, and Chris Sander saw my work by chance during a weekend when the artists in my building opened up their spaces to the public. I was showing a piece called Healing #1, a floor piece that reacts to people as they walk across it. The piece did not react to Becky because of her radical pink-and-blond hair and green shirt which matched the colors I was projecting. Curious and offended, she asked me what was going on!

Healing #1, 2003
This led to deeper questions from all three about the math and science behind the piece. Later I found out they were doubtful I knew what I was talking about--Debbie remembers crossing her arms and thinking to herself, "what does this guy know about math?"-- but personally I was thrilled that someone was curious about the details. After some back and forth they revealed their identities as hard-core biologists: Becky and Debbie from the new Department of Systems Biology (DSB) at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Chris from Sloan-Kettering in New York. A friendship grew and the idea of a residency was born. Becky was a champion of the idea from the start. She became, and still is, a huge advocate of my work.

About a year or so later, I met Cathleen McCormick (Cathy), the Director of Programs for the Office for the Arts at Harvard (OFA). The OFA's mandate is to bring art to the undergraduates, and one way they've done this is by bringing in artists. She was interested in my work and connection to the medical school and came over with a few folks to check out my studio. Months passed, during which I though nothing was happening, but in fact people where talking and wheels were turning.

In spring of 2005 I heard the good news: Cathy and her staff invited me for a joint residency between OFA and HMS. She, Becky, and Teil Silverstein, who would be managing the residency, got together with me to talk about details. Along the way we applied for and were awarded a grant from the Office of the Provost's Fund for Interfaculty Collaboration. With this and other funding from both the OFA and HMS, we were able to get things started.