Following a thrilling year in SETI Institute’s Artist in Residence Program, Nina Waisman has brought her Laboratory for Embodied Intelligences (LEI) to The 18th Street Arts Center.

As a former dancer turned multi-media artist, Waisman is fascinated by the critical roles that movement and sensation play in forming thought – this new area of scientific research is often called “embodied thinking”. Waisman’s interactive sound installations, videos and collaborative performances highlight the subliminal training and hacking potentials afforded by embodied thinking. Her projects focus on related issues such as surveillance, invisible labor, machine-human feedback loops, nanotechnology. Venues include House of World Cultures, Berlin; LAXART; CECUT, Tijuana; OCMA; the Beall Center for Art & Technology, Zero1 Biennial, the San Diego Museum of Art, The New Children’s Museum in San Diego. She has taught at institutions such as Cal Arts, SFAI, UCSD, and recently launched a multi-year series of collaborative art projects exploring embodiment’s role in forming non-human intelligences, ranging from microbial on through plant, animal and extraterrestrial intelligences. More info: http://www.ninawaisman.net

Waisman is joined at LEI by founding member and movement expert Flora Wiegmann.

Flora Wiegmann, Founding Member/Movement Expert

Flora Wiegmann is a Los Angeles-based dancer and choreographer.  She works in both live performance and film, often making research-based work that is specific to its particular site. She has had the opportunity to collaborate with artists such as Fritz Haeg, Silke Otto-Knapp, Alix Lambert, Amy Granat, Miljohn Ruperto, Nina Waisman and Tom Lawson. Her projects have been presented at the ICA, Philadelphia; The Kitchen, New York; the California Biennial and LA><ART in California, The David Roberts Foundation and The Camden Arts Centre, London; The Banff Center for Creativity in Canada, and Université Rennes in France. More info: http://florawiegmann.com