My research resides at the intersection of contemporary art practice and continental philosophy. The broad theme of my combined research is to develop a better understanding of the nature of change in the world. My art practice engages with socio-political issues of climate change; freedoms and responsibilities; corporate and political surveillance; disciplines of community and citizenship; and, no less importantly, with the wonder and freedom of imagination unleashed. What can art do? What can art inspire? What can art say? What can art change?
My philosophical research draws new connections and possibilities across the gaps between genetics and continental philosophy, and considers questions of the subject and ontological change in the context of neuroscience and genetics. Beginning with the question of the ontological possibilities for change within living beings, my current work examines the phenomenon of genetic mutation. With primary reference to Alain Badiou’s axiomatic philosophy of the event, Catherine Malabou’s development of the idea of plasticity, and to their renewed question of the subject, I introduce and establish the concept of evental mutation and argue for the speculative possibility of a new subjectivity: that of a molecular subject. |
My Ph.D. is in Philosophy, Art and Critical Thought (2015) from the European Graduate School. I also hold an MFA in Photography from the California Institute of the Arts, and a B.Sc. in Genetics and a B.Ed. from the University of Alberta. I currently teach in the schools of Visual Arts and Critical Creative Studies at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, Alberta.