Hosted Wednesday, 20 September 2023, 10:30AM CST for 

Intra-actions #2: THE WORLD AFTER US

In this online presentation, Professor Nathaniel Stern (b 1977, New York) offers us insight into his project The World After Us: Imaging techno-aesthetic futures, a series and traveling exhibition of media sculptures that materially speculate on what our devices – phones and tablets, batteries and displays, etc. – might become, over thousands or millions of years.

Stern’s project has many different facets where the artist mimics geological time through pressure, heat and chemistry; transforms e-waste into tools or ink; and converts ‘dead media’ into planters that demonstrate that nature, ultimately, wins.

Stern is a full Professor in Art, Mechanical Engineering and Entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His often-interactive art with technology, both its use and waste, has been exhibited extensively in museums and galleries internationally, and featured in leading publications including Scientific American and WIRED. He has contributed to numerous books and research journals, and authored Ecological Aesthetics: artful tactics for humans, nature, and politics (Dartmouth College Press at the University Press of New England, 2018) and Interactive Art and Embodiment: The Implicit Body as Performance (Gylphi Limited, 2013). Stern has been a Research Associate with the University of Johannesburg’s Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre for more than a decade.

Stern’s presentation is the second in a series of public engagements titled Intra-actions. Conceived and facilitated by the University of Johannesburg’s newly-established Bioart + Design Africa, and inspired by the visionary concepts of theorist Karen Barad, the engagements weave together the fabric of intra-connectedness, where practitioners are not only in dialogue but also reflect on and shape the research process itself. This novel approach fosters a profound understanding of the interplay between creative expression, scientific inquiry, and the intricate complexities of the microbial world beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Moderated by Dineo Diphofa from the Visual Identities in Art & Design Research Centre, University of Johannesburg (VIAD). For more information on Nathaniel Stern, visit www.nathanielstern.com