Nina Waisman

Internatural 1.4, 2020
Archival prints on paper
17 x 30 inches
With thanks for the very generous support of Forest Island Project Residency and U.C. Santa Barbara'sThe Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory

Reflections
If we don’t learn to think socially, as bacteria and virus wisely do, we will never succeed in living in equilibrium with the ecology we’ve been so fortunate to belong to.

Artist Statement
A small group of aliens arrive at Mono Lake.

Where they come from, the way to learn about
something is to synchronize with its rhythms and behaviors,
to let it tune them from the inside out.

On their first visit, they encounter water, tufa, cyanobacteria,
alkali flies, volcanos, gulls, humans. And digital logic.

With thanks for the very generous support of Forest Island Project Residency and U.C. Santa Barbara’s The Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory

 

Nina Waisman
Internatural 1.4, 2020
Archival prints on paper
17 x 30 inches

Nina Waisman
Internatural 1.4, 2020
Archival prints on paper
17 x 30 inches

Biography
As a multimedia artist with a background in dance, Nina Waisman’s work is informed by the critical roles that movement and sensation play in forming thought. Scientists find such “embodied thinking” shapes all human logic: no human idea is actually rational. Waisman’s interactive sound installations, sculptures, videos and performance-works highlight the possible hacking of such embodied thinking, while focusing on related issues — surveillance, invisible labor, border control, machine-human feedback loops, cultural role programming. Recent works lead viewers to “try on” non-human behaviors, in hopes of learning from those who’ve survived longer than we — namely every non-human species on Earth — before it’s too late. Waisman has created artworks for venues including the Dorothy Chandler Music Center, Mono Lake, the Hammer Museum, 18th Street Arts, the City of Santa Monica, CECUT Tijuana, OCMA/California Biennial, House of World Cultures/Berlin, FILE/Sao Paolo, The Museum of Image and Sound/Sao Paolo, MOLAA, Zero1, ISEA. Waisman co-created and directs The Laboratory for Embodied Intelligences (LEI), a collective dedicated to exploring the role of embodiment in forming other-than-human intelligences, ranging from microbial on through plant, animal and extraterrestrial intelligences. With degrees from Harvard, Art Center College of Design and UCSD, she has taught at institutions including Art Center College of Design, Cal Arts, SFAI, UCSD, Casa Vecina in Mexico City and lectures internationally.