
Stewart Copeland
My name is Stewart Skylar Copeland, I am an educator and artist based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I am a professor in the Experimental Art & Technology area at the University of New Mexico and I also work for RISD’s Nature Lab where I run Vis-a-thon, a science/art visualization program I co-created with my colleague, Georgia Rhodes. I would describe myself as a transdisciplinary artist with a passion for emergent media, new narrative genres, and artistic research. My work often incorporates technology as a means to explore, dissect, and interrogate technological systems themselves. Collaboration across disciplines plays a major role in my practice, particularly in the field of science where I often work with ecologists, biologists, and engineers.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, I have spent more time than ever before online. As my daily experience becomes increasingly virtual, the impact is surprisingly physical – which is to say, I feel awful. Don Ihde’s “mediation theory” offers a postphenomenological framework for understanding embodiment relations. For Idhe, technologies are not passive extensions, but form a unity with a human being. It is through this unity that we come to the world. My digital experience is an embodied one with deeply complicated physical repercussions. However, the digital avatars I inhabit do a poor job embodying my physical state. Can a more dynamic, expressive, and encompassing digital representation of ourselves reveal deeper truths about the nature of digital embodiment? My proposed project is a multimedia art investigation into the corporeal repercussions of digital experiences. I will use LiDAR to create a virtual representation of myself to be augmented in real-time based on biometric readings from a wearable sensor. Luminous Bodies presents an opportunity for me to synthesize my recent research and scholarship into a new artwork. I am particularly excited to discuss embodiment as a digital phenomenon with other artists studying embodiment.
~~~
I was born and raised in a small town in rural Tennessee. I have worked as a film director, producer, graphic designer, touring musician, photographer, fabricator, and webmaster. Now I am primarily focused on teaching and making art, although I still find time to work on documentary films. I received my BA in Film Production at Webster University and my MFA in Digital + Media at the Rhode Island School of Design. I have taught at the University of Illinoisand the Rhode Island School of Design. I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Art at the University of New Mexico. More of my work can be viewed here.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.