Visual Activism l Research Posters
Thursday, September 26
United States: 10am HDT, 1pm PDT, 2pm MDT, 3pm CDT, 4pm EDT
Europe: 21:00 BST Australia: Friday, September 27, 6:00am AEST
For this Zoom event, we will hear from four of our members about the potentials of research posters, an important medium to present scientific information as well as artistic work in the context of conferences and symposia. This easily transportable means of visual communication, which is often honored with prizes for best design, can be considered an art form in its own right. In this presentation, we will look at examples, methods, and opportunities for the research poster format and discuss how it can be used as an instrument of interdisciplinary dialogue, project documentation, artistic expression, and even activism.
Alexandra Toland, Saskia Jorda, Luc Biscan-White, Rhonda Janke
Each presenter will have approximately 15 minutes to discuss their work, with Q&A to follow.
Member presenters
Dr. Toland is associate professor for arts and research at the Bauhaus University Weimar, where she directs the Ph.D. programme in art and design. She earned her MFA from the Dutch Art Institute (DAI) and a doctorate degree in landscape planning from the TU-Berlin as a DFG fellow in the Perspectives of Urban Ecology Graduate Research Group. Toland has held lectures and published on topics of art and environment, especially in context of soil protection issues, air pollution, and urban ecology. She co-chaired the German Soil Science Society’s (DBG) Commission on Soils in Education and Society (2011-2015), and since 2022 is IUSS co-chair of the Commission on the History, Philosophy and Sociology (and Arts) of Soil Science. Toland coedited the book Field to Palette: Dialogues on Soil and Art in the Anthropocene published by Routledge (2019). In her artistic practice, she explores social and cultural issues of urban soils, vegetation, and air in the Anthropocene, and has exhibited works, for example, at Ars Electronica (Prix Honorary Mention in 2017), Museum Schloß Moyland, the German Hygiene Museum Dresden, the Centre for Contemporary Art Glasgow, and Art Laboratory Berlin.
Saskia Jordá is an interdisciplinary artist working on site-specific installations, soft sculptures, and drawings. Her work has referenced the relationship between body and space, cultural identity, and mapping a sense of place since her undergraduate studies at Arizona State University and her graduate studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where she earned her MFA in 2004. She has received various awards, including the Arlene and Morton Scult Contemporary Forum Award of the Phoenix Art Museum and an Artist Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Most recently, Jordá was selected to represent Arizona at the New Worlds: Women to Watch 2024 exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in Washington, D.C.. She has exhibited widely within the United States and internationally, and is currently based in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition to her studio work, she has been teaching Drawing and Textiles at college level since 2012. www.saskiajorda.com
Luc Biscan-White is an Indigenous queer native Appalachian image-maker, forest ecologist, sociolinguist, and researcher. Sprouting from the Central Appalachia mountains of Southwest Virginia, Luc’s art practice questions the notion of individualism by reminding us of our communion with the natural world. In tandem with their interests in environmental sociology and sociolinguistics, Luc weaves together scientific methodologies, studio practice, and sociological frameworks to more holistically address environmental and social injustices, particularly in rural, queer, and Appalachian communities. Luc is a graduate of Radford University receiving both their BFA in studio art (sculpture and analog photography) and BS in biology (forest ecology and plant conservation), with minors in Appalachian studies, French, organic chemistry, rural sociology, and women’s and gender studies. Luc is currently an MFA graduate student at the University of New Mexico in the areas of sculpture and art & ecology. lucbiscanwhite.xyz
Rhonda Janke combines her interest in art and science by making art from fabric that has been buried in soil, which then contains pigment left by the bacteria and fungi. The color intensity reflects the “health” of the soil. Rhonda’s MS and PhD are in agronomy (from Cornell), but she also has a Masters degree in interdisciplinary art from Goddard College. Raised on a farm in central Kansas, she has taught organic/sustainable agriculture at the Rodale Institute (Pennsylvania), Kansas State University, Hashemite University (Jordan) and Sultan Qaboos University (Oman). She has shown her “soil art” at small venues in rural Kansas, and more recently at the international soils conference in Florence, Italy. In addition to soil, her materials include hand-made paper, natural dyes/ pigments, wool, beeswax, and other materials from her farm in Wamego, Kansas. Her recent research on soil metagenomics (DNA) analysis allows her to add more layers of information about her sites, including soil microorganism abundance and biodiversity. www.rhondajanke.art
This event is free for members + one guest. $5 for non-members. All participants MUST REGISTER.
