Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Lovesick, 2019, ten glass vials with custom retrovirus in two vitrines, two-channel video, sound, photographs. Photo by Henrik Kam

Event

In Conversation: Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Annalee Newitz

Artist and biohacker Heather Dewey-Hagborg and science writer Annalee Newitz engage in a lively discussion about art and science.

Join artist and biohacker Heather Dewey-Hagborg and science fact and fiction writer Annalee Newitz for a lively conversation exploring the generative intersection of art and science. Dewey-Haborg’s 2019 installation Lovesick, on view in MYR, was made in collaboration with research scientists and depicts a custom retrovirus that increases production of oxytocin (the “love hormone”) in the human body. Newitz explores both science fiction and nonfiction in their award-winning articles, books, and podcasts. Together, the two will discuss the increasingly blurring lines between the natural and the unnatural, ethically, philosophically, and in practice. This conversation is co-presented with the Exploratorium, where Dewey-Hagborg is Artist-in-Residence, and is introduced by MYR guest curator Elizabeth Thomas.

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

Dr. Heather Dewey-Hagborg is an artist who is interested in art as research and technological critique. Dewey-Hagborg has shown work internationally at venues including SFMoMA, the World Economic Forum, the Guangzhou Triennial, and the Walker Center for Contemporary Art. Her work is held in public collections at the Centre Pompidou and the Victoria and Albert Museum, among others, and has been widely discussed in outlets such as The New York Times and Artforum. Dewey-Hagborg is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Interactive Media at NYU Abu Dhabi and an Artist-in-Residence at the Exploratorium. She holds a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Annalee Newitz writes science fiction and nonfiction. They are the author of the book Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age, and the novels The Future of Another Timeline, and Autonomous, which won the Lambda Literary Award. As a science journalist, they are a writer for the New York Times and elsewhere, and have a monthly column in New Scientist. Newitz has also published in The Washington Post, Slate, Popular Science, Ars Technica, and The Atlantic, among others, and is the co-host of the Hugo Award-winning podcast Our Opinions Are Correct. They hold a Ph.D. in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley.