Natalie Jeremijenko

Natalie Jeremijenko (born 1966) is an artist and engineer whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering. She is an active member of the net.art movement, and her work primarily explores the interface between society, the environment and technology. She is currently an Associate Professor at NYU in the Visual Art Department, and has affiliated faculty appointments in Computer Science and Environmental Studies. She is married to Dalton Conley, an American Sociologist at New York University. Together, they have two children.

xDesign Environmental Health Clinic's mobile office

Recognition

Jeremijenko's work has been exhibited by several museums and galleries, including the MASS MoCA,^[1] the Whitney Museum,^[2] and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. A 1999 Rockefeller Fellow, she was recently named one of the 40 most influential designers by I.D. Magazine and one of the inaugural Top 100 Young Innovators by the MIT Technology Review (TR100). Jeremijenko is the director of the xDesign Environmental Health Clinic at NYU,^[3] assistant professor in Art, and affiliated with the Computer Science Department.

Recently, Jeremijenko’s work was included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial of American Art^[2] and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Triennial 2006-7. Jeremijenko’s permanent installation on the roof of Postmasters Gallery^[4] in Chelsea Model Urban Development(MUD): provides infrastructure and facilities for high-density bird cohabitation in an environmental experiment in interaction with the New York City bird population.

Her work is described as experimental design, hence xDesign, as it explores opportunities presented by new technologies for non-violent social change. Her research centers on structures of participation in the production of knowledge and information, and the political and social possibilities (and limitations) of information and emerging technologies—mostly through public experiments. In this vein, her work spans a range of media from statistical indices (such as the Despondency Index, which linked the Dow Jones to the suicide rate at San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge) to biological substrates (such as the installations of cloned trees in pairs in various urban micro-climates) to robotics (such as the development of feral robotic dog packs to investigate environmental hazards).

Jeremijenko is also a visiting professor at Royal College of Art, in London and an artist not-in-residence at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto. Previously, Jeremijenko was a member of the faculty in the Visual Arts at UCSD and in Engineering at Yale.

Projects

INCLUDING ARCHIVES, DATABASES AND INDICATORS

OOZ perch^[5]

HowStuffIsMade^[6]

Feral Robotic Dogs^[7]

Environmental Health Clinic

Jeremijenko directs the xDesign Environmental Health Clinic].^[3] The Environmental Health Clinic develops and prescribes locally optimized and often playful strategies to effect remediation of environmental systems, producing measurable and mediagenic evidence and coordinating diverse projects to effective material change.

XEROX PARC

Jeremijenko installed at Xerox PARC during Mark Weiser's time there, an installation called 'Live Wire'. Also known as 'Dangling String', it is considered an early visual representation of ubiquitous systems. The installation consisted of a piece of string attached to a stepper motor and controlled by a LAN connection; network activity caused the string to twitch, yielding a peripherally noticeable indication of traffic. Weiser called this an example of 'calm technology'.

2005

ZOOZ

Exploring Reciprocity in the Zoo

A series of animal enrichment devices designed for the context of the traditional Zoo. OOZ devices are species specific but designed for both non human and human users, encouraging humans to mirror the actions of the animals: explore the unique capacities of each respective species: expose the tremendous incapacities of humans, and challenge the human centric view of intelligence, competence and management of natural systems.

2007

Amphibious Architecture^[8]

Structures to transform the view of urban bodies of water from reflective surfaces into teaming habitats and open ecosystems. AA is to Aquariums what OOZ are to ZOOs , inside out, upsidedown, and facilitating productive interaction between humans and aquatic systems. AA structures interact with flow conditions to provide ecological niches suitable for particular populations augmenting ecological networks; exploit fluid forces for structural efficiency; and captures hydropower for dynamic adaptive structures. AA sites are designed to accumulate the actions of participants into environmental remediation.

2002

D4PA

Designed 4 Political Action^[9]

A catalogue of devices and strategies for political engagement and direct action developed by the Bureau and others. Described by Wired Magazine as the DARPA of dissent.

2002

OOZ^[5]

Various technological interfaces to facilitate interaction with natural systems as opposed to virtual systems. These interfaces encourage interactive relationships with non human and are intended to accumulate the actions of participants into productive local environmental knowledge and the remediation of urban territories.

2002

HowStuffIsMade^[6]

A visual encyclopedia documenting the manufacturing processes, environmental costs and labor conditions involved in the production of contemporary products. This is a wiki based collectively produced academic project to change the information available on and about the production.

Feral Robots^[7]

An Open Source robotics project providing resources and support for upgrading the raison d’etre of commercially available robotic dog toys; and facilitating mediagenic Feral Robotic Dog Pack Release events. Because the dogs follow concentration gradients of the contaminants they are equipped to sniff, their release renders information legible to diverse participants, provides the opportunity for evidence driven discussion, and facilitates public participation in environmental monitoring and remediation.

BIT Plane

Main article: BIT plane

The BIT plane is a radio-controlled model airplane, designed by the Bureau of Inverse Technology and equipped with a micro-video camera and transmitter. Its name could be a possible reference to bit plane, meaning a set of digital discrete signals. In 1997 it was launched on a series of sorties over the Silicon Valley to capture an aerial rendering. Guided by the live control-view video feed from the plane, the pilot on the ground was able to steer the unit deep into the glittering heartlands of the Information Age.

Most of the corporate research parks in Silicon Valley are no-camera zones and require US Citizen status or special clearance for entry. The bit plane (citizenship undisclosed) flew covertly through this rarified information-space, buzzing the largest concentration of venture capital in the world, to return with several hours of aerial footage.

Biotech Hobbyist^[10]

(1st issue) An online magazine with kits and resources to bring biotech to the garage bedroom and everyman, to raise the standards of evidence and capacity for public involvement in the political decisions on the biotechnological future.

Bat Billboard

Created in 2008, this project's goal was to dispel misinformation, as well as educate people on bats, their habitat, and activities. The billboard was an interactive home for bats that would display written messages based on the sonar messages the bats were sending. This work was showcased at MoMA's exhibit Talk to Me (exhibition)^[11]

Indicators

In Progress Placebo Effect

Tracking the quantitative value of the placebo effect in federal drug trials to represent a general measure of belief in pharmaceutical based medicine.

1998

CIRCA

The Ratio Virus’

Circulating on the Internet to the Number of Circulating Virus Warnings Using periodic estimates this comparison demonstrates that the level of fear, precaution and preemptive purchasing, far exceeds any real risk. Although imperfect information this indicates generalized paranoia and vigilance.

1997

1⁄2 Life Ratio

1996

Crossover Date

The projected future date at which the public investment in the silicon valley region is matched by the private investment in the area (not including angel funding 40%of all venture is exercised in this geographic area). bureauit.org

1995

Despondency Index

Archives, databases, and collections

2000

Kurtz Shout Out Line

SparrowLine

AntiTerror Line

An open source audio collection device.

Animations^[12] Collections of images of instances of various categories. These are animated, i.e. viewed so that each instance becomes a frame in an animation. The persistence of vision phenomenon amplifies small differences otherwise difficult to discern and as such provides a method for viewing difference.

1999

• Project Archive^[13]

A database of projects produced prior to 2001.

1997

• Icky Futures

A collection of visions of the Future videos produced by telecommunication companies in the 80s and 90s.

Other selected products

2004

• Clear Skies: FaceMasks^[14]

N95 facemask with visual calibration to facilitate direct monitoring of air quality, specifically, rate of pm accumulation.

1998

• Stumped^[15]

Printer queue virus counts the number of pages printed and prints a slice of tree each time a tree equivalent in printed.

1997

• ALifeTree^[15]

l-system based A-life tree growing on windows 95 Desktop. Growth rate responds responds to Carbon Dioxide levels read at serial port sensor: empirically guided simulation.

Live wire

Feral Robotics

OOZ amphibious architecture

See also

• Critical technical practice

References

1. ^ http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=29
2. ^ ^{a b} http://www.whitney.org/www/2006biennial/artists.php?artist=Jeremijenko_Natalie
3. ^ ^{a b} http://www.nyu.edu/projects/xdesign/
4. ^ http://www.postmastersart.com/archive/natalie06/natalie06_window3.html
5. ^ ^{a b} http://xdesign.ucsd.edu/ooz/
6. ^ ^{a b} http://www.howstuffismade.org/
7. ^ ^{a b} http://www.nyu.edu/projects/xdesign/feralrobots/
8. ^ http://xdesign.ucsd.edu/amphibiousarch/
9. ^ http://xdesign.ucsd.edu/d4pa/
10. ^ http://www.biotechhobbyist.org/
11. ^ http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/talktome/objects/
12. ^ http://Xdesign.ucsd.edu/animations/
13. ^ http://xdesign.ucsd.edu/projectdatabase
14. ^ http://xdesign.ucsd.edu/facemasks/
15. ^ ^{a b} http://www.onetrees.org/

External links

• xDesign Environmental Health Clinic
• Natalie Jeremijenko's home page with info about projects
• Environmental Health Clinic with info about xCLINIC
• info from Yale
• Profile of artist with descriptions of her work
• video interview at Connected Environments exhibit at the Neuberger Museum of Art
• MoMA Talk To Me Exhibition Site

Persondata
Name	Jeremijenko, Natalie
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Date of birth	1966
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