Sarah Jane Pell (born 30 December 1974) is an Australian artist, researcher and occupational diver."TEDxMelbourne's Surprise Speaker Is Literally Out Of This World"
''HuffPost'', 3 August 2016.Jonathan Marshall
"The art of life support"
''realtimearts.net'',. Her works combine the traditions of Performance art and human factors with Underwater habitat and

Occupational diving Professional diving is underwater diving where the divers are paid for their work. The procedures are often regulated by legislation and codes of practice as it is an inherently hazardous occupation and the diver works as a member of a team. Du ...

technologies. She is best known for pioneering "aquabatics" that is performed underwater or shown in museums as films and artefacts. She designs civilian space-analogues and produces

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...

, live art, and novel experiments.

Early life and education

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Sarah grew up like every other Australian child except that she was naturally athletic, artistic and scholastically inclined. She holds a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

degree from Victorian College of the Arts, Australia (1995) and a Masters of Arts in Human Performance from

Victoria University of Technology Victoria University (VU or Vic Uni) is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is one of only six dual-sector universities in Australia, providing courses in both higher education and Technical and Further Educat ...

, Australia (1998). Pell was conferred a Doctor of Philosophy, Visual Art, from Edith Cowan University, Australia (2006). She is an alumnus of the International Space University, France (2006),

Singularity University Singularity Education Group (using the public names Singularity Group, Singularity University or SingularityU) is an American company that offers executive educational programs, a business incubator, and business consultancy services. Although ...

NASA Ames Research Park NASA Research Park is a research park operated by NASA near San Jose, California, which is developing a shared-use research and development campus in association with government entities, academia, industry and nonprofit organizations. NASA Rese ...

, California (2010) and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University,

Daytona Beach, Florida Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal Resort town, resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County, Florida, Volusia County near the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic coastline, its population ...

(2016)."Sarah Jane Pell Artist Researcher, Aquabatics"
''ted.com'',.

Career

Early professional career

Pell has been a visual and

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

professional for over 20 years.Erin Fox
"TEDxISU: Behind the Scenes with Sarah Jane Pell"
''ecurrent.fit.edu'',3 August 2012. Her first major art production captioned "The Many-to-Many World" premiered in the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Victoria (1997) and it incorporated climbing in the trans-disciplinary Choreography."DR. SARAH JANE PELL Artist, Researcher, Occupational Diver & Astronaut Candidate"
''artistastronaut.com'',. Sarah supported her art by working for well-respected curators, galleries, festivals and museums before moving to Western Australia in 2001. She was the inaugural Doctor of Philosophy candidate at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) supported by an ECU Pro Vice-Chancellor's Research Advancement & Enterprise Scholarship (2002–2005).

Exhibitions

Pell's artworks have been shown in various Arts galleries, museums and other venues across Australia, Asia, Scandinavia, UK, and Europe. Among them include: * ''Substance & Transparency'', National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (1998) * Spectrum Project Space, Perth (2002) * ''Walking with Water'',

Western Australian Maritime Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, now known as WA Museum Boola Bardip, officially re-ope ...

(2005),

Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) is a contemporary visual and performance arts venue located in a heritage-listed building in Perth, Western Australia. History 1896–1959: Schools The building at 53 James Street, Northbridge, which ...

(2006) * ''Taiwan-Australian New Media Art Festival''

Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts The Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (KdMoFA; ) is an art museum in Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan. The museum is located at the Taipei National University of the Arts. History The museum was opened in 2007. Architecture The museum is located insid ...

, Taipei National University of the Arts Taiwan (2007). * ''Inside Running, the sport of art'', Fremantle Arts Centre, AU (2013)

Performances

Pell has performed on various platforms. Among them include: * ''The Many-To-Many World'', The Great Hall National Gallery of Victoria (1997) * ''Training'',

National Review of Live Art The National Review of Live Art, also known by the abbreviation NRLA, was an annual festival of live art which ran from 1979 to 2010 in the UK. History The festival owed its origins to a one-day event called simply the Performance Platform, wh ...

, Midland, Western Australia (2002) * ''Second Nature: Second Skin'',

, Glasgow (2003) * ''Under Current, Hydrophilia''

(2003, 2004) * ''Hydrophilia, BEAP04 Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth (2004) * ''• LifeBoat – mobile life art laboratory'' – collaboration with Nigel Helyer,

Oron Catts Oron Catts is an Australian artist and researcher currently residing in Perth, Western Australia where he has been employed at the University of Western Australia since 1996. He works as an artistic director of SymbioticA, which he also co-found ...

and

Ionat Zurr Dr. Ionat Zurr is an Australian artist, researcher and curator. She is also a lecturer for the University of Western Australia (UWA), and has been a visiting tutor in Design Interactions for the Royal College of Art. Zurr, together with Oron Catt ...

, ISEA04 International Symposium of Electronic Arts, The Baltic (2004), Touch Me Festival: OutInOpen, Zargreb (2005) * ''Under Current'', Bonnington Gallery, UK (2004) * ''Petrification'' – collaboration with Lawrence English, ARC Biennial, Brisbane (2005) * ''Hydrophilia'', Tract -Live Art Festival, Art Surgery &

Newlyn Art Gallery Newlyn Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in Newlyn, Cornwall, UK. Opened in 1895, designed by James Hicks of Redruth and financed by John Passmore Edwards the gallery was conceived as a home and exhibition venue for the Newlyn ...

, UK (2006) * ''Deep Performance Enhancement,'' Fremantle Arts Centre, AU (2013)

Films

Pell has written, produced and performed in her own films. Among them include: * ''Walking with Water'', 2005. Screened Multimedia Asia Pacific, Bangkok (2005, 2006), Reykjavik Arts Festival, Iceland (2006), DEPOT Danks Street Gallery, Sydney AU (2006), * ''ETTAS Showcase'', 2012. Premiered

European Space Research and Technology Centre The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, altho ...

STEC Noordwijk, NL (2012), ''Free Enterprise: The Art of Citizen Space Exploration'', California US (2013) * ''We are all Explorer Fish'', 2016. Premiered ''Trondheim Biennale of Art & Technology, Meta.Morf'', Norway (2016), International Space Development Conference (2016), ''Today's Fest'', ''The Hague'' (2016), ''

KOSMICA KOSMICA is an institute that runs poetical and critical projects about outer space activities and their impact on Earth. Its central activity is a series of curated festivals worldwide with over 20 editions in countries like UK, France, Mexico and ...

'', Mexico (2016). Pell has also acted in feature films including ''The Tailor of Autumn'', by

Shaun Wilson Shaun is an anglicized spelling of the Irish name Seán. Alternative spellings include Shawn, Sean and Shawne. Notable persons with the given name include: People *Shaun (musician) (born 1990), South Korean musician * Shaun (YouTuber), British ...

, Honey House Films (2015)

Occupational diving

Pell undertook recreational diver courses at the Perth Diving Academy and qualified as an ADAS 2R Occupational Diver at The Underwater Centre, Fremantle in 2002 to become a third-generation diver following her father and grandfather."ARTIST AND 1X EVEREST SUMMITTEE EXPEDITIONER, DR. SARAH JANE PELL"
''bendinghorizons.com'',. In 2006,

Dennis Chamberland Dennis Chamberland (born 1951) is an American bioengineer, explorer, author, award-winning nuclear engineer, space life scientist, and aquanaut. Career Dennis Chamberland, elected a Fellow of the New York Explorers Club in 1991, is an aquanaut, ...

invited Pell as Official Artist-Aquanaut of the Atlantica Expeditions undersea habitat mission. Pell was employed as an Onshore

Commercial Diver Professional diving is underwater diving where the divers are paid for their work. The procedures are often regulated by legislation and codes of practice as it is an inherently hazardous occupation and the diver works as a member of a team. Du ...

contractor between 2008 and 2012, and logged over 500+ hours performing repetitive black-water operations for the Aquaculture industry in Macquarie Harbour. In 2013, Pell led Extravehicular activity (EVA) simulation training underwater for the International Space University SHSSP Graduate program with official observer Astronaut Paolo Nespoli. In 2016, Pell was the Simulation Astronaut for the European Commission Project MOONWALK Human analogue missions performing Human-Robotic Collaboration EVA Simulation trials at the Comex Undersea Lunar Analogue site, Marseille, France.

Aqueous research

Pell has been a professional aqueous researcher for many years. Since 2002, her aqueous research has been shown in galleries, museums and other venues across Australia, Asia, Scandinavia, UK, and Europe. In 2002, Pell founded the Aquabatics Research Team initiative RTifor performing pneumatic acts and designing and demonstrating prototype-breathing apparatus. She also completed a PhD proposing ''Aquabatics as new works of Live Art'' to Edith Cowan University."Sarah Jane Pell"
''greenmuseum.org'',. In 2004, Pell was awarded a Freedman Foundation Travelling Arts Scholarship to research the archives at the Live Art Archive,

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, w ...

, the

Live Art Development Agency Live Art Development Agency, also commonly known by its acronym LADA, is a publicly funded arts organisation and registered charity founded in London in 1999 by Lois Keidan and Catherine Ugwu. LADA provides professional advice for artists as well ...

, London and the British Library. Pell later published ''Aquabatics as new works of Live art'' in various formats. In 2007, Leonardo LABS, MIT, awarded Pell the "Best PhD Art & Science". She was an Adjunct Lecturer to the University of Western Australia (2005–2007) collaborating with

Symbiotica SymbioticA is an artistic research lab at the University of Western Australia's School of Anatomy and Human Biology."Culture: Art That Touches a Nerve." Anthony King. Nature 470, 334 (17 February 2011) doi:10.1038/470334a The lab looks at biolo ...

and the Arts Catalyst, on ''SubCulture: liminal Biosphere''."Gravity Well"
''exertiongameslab.org'', Pell was a Visiting Research Fellow

RMIT University RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city ...

(2012–2015), researching interaction design and human computing in novel bodily interfaces suitable for extending human performance experience underwater in the context of exertion games.

Everest

In 2015, Pell led ''Bending Horizons Expedition'' and reached Everest Base Camp intending to summit Mount Everest and make art on-route. She survived the Nepal earthquakes.

Astronaut candidate

In 2016, Dr. Pell qualified as an Artist-Astronaut Candidate for the suborbital spaceflight aeronomy experiment with Project PoSSUM.Doug Messier
"Project PoSSUM Graduates 13 Scientist-Astronaut Candidates"
''parabolicarc.com'', 19 July 2016.

Other endeavours

Pell serves on SeaSpace Boards and Committees. She is a TED Fellow. She was a CoChair of the European Space Agency (ESA), Topical Team Art and Science (ETTAS) 2011–2014. She was also appointed Senior Space Art Consultant to Icarus Interstellar in 2013. Pell has authored and co-authored several publications. She also visited many space agencies and designed and exhibited on a space-art payload that was launched into orbit with

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

2009.

Awards and honours

* 2010 – TED (conference) Fellow * 2016 –

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

Fellow"Investment of $7.6 Million In Australian Arts And Artists"
''australiacouncil.gov.au'', 9 September 2016.

Personal life

Pell currently resides in Australia and researches extreme performance and aqueous architectures for future use in outer space.

References

External links

*
Astronaut Candidate website

Film website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pell, Sarah Jane 1974 births Living people Australian artists Australian explorers Edith Cowan University alumni International Space University alumni