Sarah Zimmer

The interpretation of sensory information allows us make sense the world. The particles of  sound, water, and earth unite to create the components of everyday life. These natural particles, coupled with particles of technologically based society, such as data, inspire my creative endeavors.

My work merges the sensory information that is traditionally unavailable due to the limits of human perception. I push past the biological restrictions of human perception. Technological advancement allows time and space (the world and each moment that passes) to be explored, translated, and reconfigured in new ways. The technology I use in each project is, at times, also the subject of the work. For example, in Proceed live video installation  is used to juxtapose the concepts of surveillance and sousveillance. Each individual that passes by the installation can see themselves on a screen, a live collage of multiple video feeds. They choose to interact, to stay, to be part of the work. Behind the scenes stills of these video collages are being stored.

In Temporal Shift, I use open source code, sensors and a microprocessor to reconfigure environmental data, such as temperature and light, into sound. The unseen and unheard becomes present as the data based sound vibrates water, a phenomena known as cymatics.

Analog photography sparked my curiosity in the imperceptible. It enabled me to see the world in long exposures, through pin holes, and in the dark of night. My process evolved, and now incorporates computation, optics, light, sound, microscopy, microprocessors, sensors and digital media. My attention to gesture, color, form - classical foundations of art making - remain intact. It is important to me meld aesthetics of classical art forms with the digital and artificial technologies of contemporary art making. This is an ongoing process that unfolds differently in each body of work.

The junction of art, environmental sciences and technology motivates my desire to teach artists of ages, to embrace, or at the very least, explore all modes of making and investigation as art forms.