Julie Freeman (born 1972 in Halton, UK)[1] is an artist whose work spans visual, audio and digital art forms and explores the relationship between science, nature and how humans interact with it.[2]

Julie Freeman
Born1972
NationalityBritish
EducationLansdown Centre for Electronic Arts, Middlesex University
Known forDigital art, installation art, Sound art
AwardsNESTA fellowship, Wellcome Trust Arts Award (2007-8) TED fellowship (2011-)

Biography

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Freeman's work has focused on using electronic technologies to ‘translate nature’ – whether it is through the sound of torrential rain dripping on a giant rhubarb leaf, a pair of mobile concrete speakers who lurk in galleries haranguing passersby with fractured sonic samples, or by providing an interactive platform from which to view the flap, twitch and prick of dogs' ears.[citation needed]

In 2005 she launched her most known digital artwork, 'The Lake', which used hydrophones, custom software and advanced technology to track electronically tagged fish and translate their movement into an audio-visual experience.[3][4] The work was developed over eighteen months, was exhibited at Tingrith Coarse Fishery and supported by a two-year arts fellowship from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).[5] It was exhibited at the Tingrith Fishery in Bedfordshire.[3][4]

She was artist-in-residence at the Microsystems and Nanotechnology Centre at Cranfield University (2007-9)[6] where, with Professor Jeremy J. Ramsden, she created works that aimed to increase public understanding of self-assembly and organising processes at the nanoscale, and their potential social impacts and consequences.[citation needed]

In 2009, Freeman's Dogs' Ears artwork gave rise to 'twoofing' (dogs tweeting) in the early days of Twitter art.[7]

External videos
 
  Julie Freeman's Data as Culture, 3:33, TED talks
  Data becomes art in Julie Freeman’s “We Need Us”, 1:39, TEDBlog

Freeman is a graduate of the MA in Digital Arts at the Centre for Electronic Arts, Middlesex University, London[6] and board member of nonprofit collective MzTEK (which encourages women artists to pick up technical skills).[6] She earned a PhD from Queen Mary University of London[8] for her thesis 'Defining Data as an Art Material', which was one of Leonardo's highest-ranking abstracts of 2021.[9] She was a Nesta Arts Fellow and is the recipient of a Wellcome Trust, Arts Council award.[10] Additionally, she is a TED senior fellow.[11]

She has been featured on the BBC World Service programme The Science Hour[12] and The Guardian's online Tech Weekly podcast.[13]

Freeman co-founded the Data as Culture art programme at the Open Data Institute.[8]

References

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  1. ^ "Julie Freeman". Saatchi Art. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  2. ^ "Meet 12 Badass Scientists…Who Also Happen to be Women — TED Fellows". Medium. 12 October 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Hi-tech fish make their own music". BBC News. 19 July 2005. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  4. ^ a b Phil Daoust (13 July 2005). "Taking the piscine". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  5. ^ "Underwater artwork". Womans Hour. BBC Radio 4. 20 September 2005. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  6. ^ a b c "About Julie Freeman". Translatingnature.org. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  7. ^ Ruth, Jamieson (23 February 2009). "This article is more than 15 years old Art on Twitter: yes, but is it twart?". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Julie Freeman". Fine Acts. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  9. ^ "Labs 2021". Leonardo. 55 (5). 5 October 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  10. ^ "Julie Freeman - Data as Culture - ODI - The Open Data Institute". Data as Culture. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  11. ^ "Julie Freeman". Abandon Normal Devices. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  12. ^ "The Science Hour - Hepatitus C vaccine". BBC World Service. 8 November 2014.
  13. ^ "Art in the age of the internet" (podcast). theguardian.com. 4 February 2016.
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