because of the divergent evolutionary histories of
different sections of the brain. How does this relate
to your thoughts on the artist as constantly in dialogue with technologies?
was the 2006 “Tropicália” show at the Bronx
Museum.) Her works were so simple: masks
with herbs in them; seashells in a bag of water with a rubber band around it; and male/
female wearable outfits made of household
ZM: I am totally interested in the tensions
items (vacuum tubes, broom brushes, etc.).
the mind places on the body, and even more
They cut through my desensitized, ultraspecifically, the dynamics of authority beironic, first-world exterior that had been
tween the emotional and intellectual, which
exposed to so much other art and technology.
play out on both an individual and societal
Her works, embedded with knowledge and
scale. “Interrrational” is a recent performance designed to serve a function, are technologies
I co-created with choreographer Magnhild
in their own right, and this is easy to forget.
Fossum. In it she plays a headless body and
I am a head (mind) without a body. In prePS: What is currently inspiring you, and what
paring this work we pored over all sorts of
can we expect from you in the near future?
contemporary hypotheses on mind and body,
and asked, “how can we portray these ideas?” ZM: I have some really mundane, but very
It naturally came together that, at the becontroversial ideas I am excited about. I’d
ginning of the play, the mind character has
like to design behavioral economics studies
a lot of authority over the body, but by the
and have researchers execute them on my
middle of the play these dynamics shift. The behalf. I’d like to examine existing outlier
climactic scene is when my character spouts
data and promote the discarded info. I have
a stream-of-consciousness list of current
plans with a collaborator to build an online
news events, but doesn’t register their gravity, platform where specialists within the sciwhile the body, like an alarm system, starts
ences and arts, who are already making work
feverishly building a shelter. The last scene
that is crossing into each others’ disciplines,
of the play quotes Ray Kurzweil (founder of
can communicate and peer review each othSingularity), hyping the future pleasures of
ers’ work. I’d love to develop, or collaborate
bodiless-ness. However, the body character
to develop, an art appreciation class for
ends up with the most agency of all in this
scientists that acknowledges the paradigm
scene, and that was something that, as we
shifts of 20th and 21st century art, as well as
developed the play, was surprising even to us. co-design an introductory science class that
enables artists to be critically discerning of
In regard to the artist and her constant
popular news stories related to science and
engagement with new technology, I am aptechnology. And I need to keep learning and
prehensive to answer for more than myself.
performing, so hopefully you will find me
However, I do think it is difficult to use a
doing any or all of those things in the near
new medium and not have the medium use
future.
you. At the same time, if you don’t use new
technologies in your practice I think you
Visit her website here.
need to take artistic responsibility for that
as well. Whatever your medium, it has an
inherent, and temporally significant, politic
that should be acknowledged and accounted
for in the work. I try to be attentive of new
technologies. I attend tech-related lectures
regularly; and I play Fold-it, take programming courses, and teach myself Processing
for fun and as research for my practice. On
the surface, however, my work employs very
little of this sort of technology. This is, in
part, because of a physical encounter I had
with the works of Lygia Clark. (I think it
SciArt in America April 2014
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