Tega Brain in conversation

Interviewed by HOLO magazine publisher Alexander Scholz the artist will talk about her work and her design approach.

“Imagine a network based on nodes behaving like living entities rather than just being at your service. You no longer have some app providing you with a reliable connection. Simply filling some numbers into the DNS form won’t work either. Instead, you’ll have to spend some time to get familiar with each router’s individual personality. You’ll find that none of them are in the mood to run according to what you believed to be fixed standards, but rather display a good portion of eccentricity. One has a candle that needs to be lit – and also blown out sooner or later –an internet binge melts a lot of wax. Another is synched with the moon’s cycle. And then there is this houseplant you’d normally ignore – but no longer. Yes, it will graciously allow you to use its network however, there are some rules.”

Tega Brain’s project Being Radiotropic which was part of the exhibition Designing Hope lets us question our usual behavior and our technologic dependencies. Tega Brain is an artist and environmental engineer making eccentric engineering. Her work intersects art, ecology and engineering, addressing the scope and politics of emerging technologies. It takes the form of site specific public works, dysfunctional devices, experimental infrastructures and information systems.

 

 

Tega Brain

tegabrain.com

Tega Brain makes eccentric engineering, working across art, experimental design, ecology & engineering. Eccentric engineering reimagines technologies to address their scope and politics, with a focus on externalities and unintended consequences. She makes site specific public works, dysfunctional devices, experimental infrastructures and information systems.

She has exhibited at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, the Science Gallery Dublin, Eyebeam in New York City and the Australian Centre for Design, Sydney. Her work has been discussed widely including in the New York Times, Art in America, The Atlantic, NPR, Al Jazeera and The Guardian and in art and technology blogs like the Creators Project and the New Aesthetic. She has given talks and workshops at museums and festivals like EYEO, TedxSydney and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

Tega is a fellow at Data and Society NYC and is an Assistant Professor of New Media at SUNY Purchase. In 2016 she was a Processing Foundation fellow, contributing to the p5js project. She has done residencies atEyebeam Art and Technology Center, New York City, GASP Public Art Park, and at the Environmental Health Clinic, New York University. In 2013 she was awarded a Creative Australia Fellowship for early career artists from the Australia Council for the Arts.