ODI's Data as Culture Programme
Through her practice Julie Freeman translates complex processes and data from natural sources into kinetic sculptures, physical objects, images, sound compositions, animations, VR & AR, questioning the use of data and digital technology in how we translate nature – whether it is through a swarm of zoomorphic butterflies responding to air pollution levels; a lake of fish composing sounds; a pair of mobile concrete speakers that lurk in galleries spewing sonic samples; enabling a colony of naked mole-rats to generate animation; or using virtual reality to understand binary pulsars.
For two decades, Julie’s focus has been the investigation of data as an art material using it to create work which reflects the human condition through the analysis and representation of live data, data from living systems. In 2018 she was awarded a PhD from the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London for her thesis titled Defining Data as an Art Material.
Julie’s work has been shown at leading at leading institutions including: the V&A, ICA, Kinetica, Barbican Centre, the Science Museum, and more, as well as internationally in Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Russia, Singapore and the USA. She is a TED Senior Fellow, and was a Nesta Arts Fellow and has been supported by the Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England, and EPSRC.
Julie is the Director of Translating Nature, a digital art production studio, and co-founder and board member of Fine Acts, a platform for art and human rights collaborations.
Datos como cultura: Cartegena Data Festival
April 2015 – at the Overseas Development Initiative's Cartegena Data Festival, Columbia
The New Observatory
June 2017 – October 2017 at FACT, Liverpool
We Need Us
June 2014 – ongoing, online at http://weneedus.org
