Interdisciplinary artist Vanouse in residence in the Carson Center

Paul Vanouse
Paul Vanouse

Interdisciplinary artist Vanouse in residence in the Carson Center

calendar icon10 Oct 2022    

Lincoln, Neb.--Interdisciplinary artist Paul Vanouse will be in residence in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts and will present at IGNITE on Friday, Oct. 21 at 12:30 p.m.

The IGNITE colloquium involves guest lectures, workshops and seminars around creative and professional development. IGNITE is free and open to the public.

Vanouse will be discussing his most recent project, “Labor” (2019), a scent-based, bio-media installation that produces the scent of human sweat—not with humans, but with three glass bioreactors. The project poetically reflects upon industrial society’s shift from human and machine labor to increasingly pervasive forms of microbial manufacturing, and positions viewers to contemplate the changing borders defining what is human.

The project was awarded the Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica, the world’s most time-honored media arts competition, in 2019.

“Labor” will be on display at Fiendish Plots in Lincoln from Oct. 21-Nov. 20. An opening reception will be held on Friday, Oct. 21 from 6-8 p.m. The gallery, located at 2130 Magnum Circle, is open Saturdays and Sunday 1-4 p.m. or by appointment. 

Vanouse has been working in emerging media forms since 1990, and his electronic cinema, biological experiments and interactive installations have been exhibited in more than 25 countries and widely across the U.S. 

In 2022, he received the Award for Excellence for “Difference Machines,” which he co-curated with Tina Rivers Ryan at Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo for Best Exhibition with up to $10 million operating budget from the Association of Art Museum Curators. 

His work has been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (2019), Renew Media/Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (2008-2010), Creative Capital Foundation Fellowship (2006-11), among others.

Vanouse is a professor of art at the University at Buffalo, New York, where he is also founding director of the Coalesce Center for Biological Art, a major facet of UB’s Community of Excellence in Genomics, Environment and Microbiome. 

He holds a B.F.A. from the University at Buffalo, and an M.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University.

For more on Vanouse, visit https://go.unl.edu/fc0m.

The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts is located at 1300 Q St. in Lincoln.