Workshop, talk on water as a sustaining, destroying force

Artist duo Caitlin & Misha, as part of their Immersive Scholar residency at the Libraries, will lead a 4/5 Coffee & Viz discussion about humanity’s relationship with water.

Water is essential to all life but can also drown and destroy. Harnessing this elemental force requires a balancing act. Immersive Scholar Creative Residents Caitlin & Misha introduce their artistic practice and discuss their current project at the Libraries, which combines USGS water data with artistic renderings to explore our relationship with water. The artist duo will give a talk entitled “Solving, Dissolving: Visualizing Water's State of Flux” on Friday, April 5, 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. in the Teaching and Visualization Lab at the Hunt Library as part of the Libraries’ Coffee & Viz series.

The event is free and open to the public. Come early for coffee and pastries, and bring your own mug to reduce waste. Following the Coffee & Viz talk, Caitlin & Misha will lead a video wall preview tour of their Immersive Scholar work.

Caitlin & Misha also facilitated an Infographics Workshop workshop for students and faculty on Thursday, March 28 from 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. in the Hill Library ITTC2 Lab. Participants created their own pictorial fraction chart about a topic of their choice (something near and dear to them). The workshop included an overview of different styles of infographics, and participants were guided in selecting a set of numbers/statistics to compare, sketching out ideas, and making digital illustrations.

Caitlin & Misha (Caitlin Foley and Misha Rabinovich) create collaborative works that engage ideas and practices such as sharing communities, livable ecologies, and the transmutation of waste. They employ traditional drawing and sculptural techniques within interactive media and participatory installation. They have exhibited at venues such as the New Museum’s Ideas City Festival (NYC), EFA Project Space (NYC), Machine Project (LA), SIGGRAPH (LA), and the Open Data Institute (UK). Based in Boston, Foley is the curator for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority’s art program and Rabinovich is an assistant professor of Interactive Media in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Caitlin & Misha's residency and the Immersive Scholar program are sponsored by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.