Prof Nathaniel Stern
BSC Design, School of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (USA); Master of Professional Studies (MPS), Interactive Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University (USA); PhD Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Stern is Professor in Departments of Art and Design, Peck School of Design and Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (UWM); Director, UWM Startup Challenge, Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, UWM; Executive Director, Autism Brilliance Lab for Entrepreneurship; Chief Networking Officer, Sunflower EcoTech (former Eco Labs) – a web3 company taking climate action; also affiliated with Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute, Wisconsin (USA). Prof Stern’s ecological approach takes account of materials, processes and thoughts; Stern is concerned with how humans and non-humans, matter and concepts, things and not-yet things, politics, economics, language, and industry interact.
Prof Stern’s recent travelling solo exhibition, The World After Us: Imaging Techno-aesthetic Futures, is a timely series of aesthetic and ethical provocations around where and how humans might change their ecological trajectories. Here, sculptures, installations, prints and photographs take the form of a wall-hung jungle, incorporating towers of computer detritus and biological reclamation; artificially aged electronics; and computers and phones recovered as ink, manual tools or paper. It asks viewers to rethink and potentially transform conversations, thoughts, and actions around media production, use and waste. Whether in the everyday interactions or on a much larger scale, what is at stake is the relationship between humans and the natural world on the one hand, politics and commerce on the other. Stern’s work was shown on the VIAD’s SYM|BIO|ART INTRA-ACTING AT THE CRITICAL NODE BETWEEN BIOTECHNOLOGY AND CONTEMPORARY ART exhibition (2023, FADA Gallery, UJ). His forthcoming traveling show with Sasha Stiles, Generation to Generation: conversing with kindred technologies, explores how humans and technology have always evolved together, focusing on more critical and nuanced engagements with AI in the present moment
Prof Nathaniel Stern joined VIAD in 2012.
