Victoria Vesna (born 1959) is a professor and

digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

artist. She is known for her

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

and

internet art upright=1.3, "Simple Net Art Diagram", a 1997 work by Michael Sarff and Tim Whidden Internet art (also known as net art) is a form of new media art distributed via the Internet. This form of art circumvents the traditional dominance of the phys ...

and has been active since the early 1980s. Along with collaborator Jim Gimzewski she is thought to have created one of the first

interactive art Interactive art is a form of art that involves the spectator in a way that allows the art to achieve its purpose. Some interactive art installations achieve this by letting the observer walk through, over or around them; others ask the artist ...

works related to

nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal o ...

(sometimes called nanoart) and defines her art practice as

experimental research An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...

Early life and education

Victoria Vesna was born in

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on June 9, 1959. She graduated from the High School of Art & Design in

New York City, NY New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1976. She received a Fine Arts Diploma from the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-b ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

in 1984. In 2000, she completed her Ph.D. at CAiiA (The Centre for Advanced Studies in Interactive Arts) at the

University of Wales The University of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Prifysgol Cymru'') is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff � ...

with a thesis entitled "Networked Public Spaces: An Investigation into Virtual Embodiment" in 2000.UCLA faculty profile
accessed December 2, 2017.

Career

Teaching

Victoria Vesna was the chair of the Department of Design Media Arts at the

UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture The UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture (UCLA Arts) is a professional school at the University of California, Los Angeles. Through its four degree-granting departments, it provides a range of course offerings and programs. Additionally, th ...

as well as director of UCLA's Art, Sci Center and the UC Digital Arts Research Network.

Awards

She received the ''Oscar Signorini'' award for best net artwork in 1998 and the

CINE Ciné film or cine film is the term commonly used in the UK and historically in the US to refer to the 8 mm, Super 8, 9.5 mm, and 16 mm motion picture film formats used for home movies. It is not normally used to refer to ...

Golden Eagle award for best scientific documentary in 1986.

Artwork

Through creative research, she examines perception and identity shifts in connection with scientific innovation as well as examining bio and

through art. Exhibitions include Spaceship Earth at the Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in

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(2011) and MORPHONANO at the Beall Center for Art and Technology,

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on ...

(2012). ''Artweek'' reviewer Claudine Isé writes, “Vesna has created a number of Web-based works that examine the dichotomy between concepts of “virtual’ and ‘concrete.’ Her on-line projects include an upcoming electronic conference about the cultural production of death as well as a popular site called ''Bodies INCorporated'', which gives visitors an opportunity to design their own ‘cyber bodies’ from a selection of organic and synthetic textures, such as water, lava, chocolate, rubber or plastic.”

Author

In Christopher Hanson's review of her book ''Database aesthetics: Art in the age of information overflow,'' he says that Vesna provides an engaging collection of essays about changing aesthetics in interactive art and its relationship to the database.Christopher Hanson, review of ''Database Aesthetics'' in ''Discourse'' 29:1, Winter 2007, p. 189.
jstor.org; accessed December 2, 2017.

Personal life

Formerly married to

Bogdan Maglich Bogdan Castle Maglich (also spelled Maglic or Maglić) (August 5, 1928, Sombor, Yugoslavia – November 25, 2017, Newport Beach, California, US) was a Serbian experimental nuclear physicist and the leading advocate of a purported non-radioactive ...

, Vesna has two children by that marriage, which ended in divorce.

Works

lien A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the pers ...

Star Dust (2019–present) *Noise Aquarium (2016–present) *Brainstorming (2015–present) *''Bodies Corp 2.0'' (2015) *''Octopus Mandala Glow'' (2013), in collaboration with Ray Zimmerman, Dawn Faelnar, Mike Datz, Peter Rand, Steven Amrhein, and others *''ACOUSTIC NETWORKS OF BIRDS'' (2012), in collaboration with biologist Charles Taylor and physicist Takashi Ikegami *''Quantum Tunneling'' (2008) *''Water Bowls'' (2006) *''Mood Swings'' (2006) *''Datamining Bodies'' (2004) in collaboration with Gerald de Jong and David Beaudry *''Zero@wavefunction'' (2002) in collaboration with nanoscientist James Gimzewski *''Cell Ghosts'' (2001) *''Building a Community of People with No Time'' (2001) *''Datamining Bodies (1999)'' *''Bodies© InCorporated (1996)'' *''Virtual Concrete'' (1995) *''Nanomandala'' *''Another Day in Paradise'' (1992)

Publications

*''Database aesthetics: Art in the age of information overflow'' (2007), University Of Minnesota Press. *''Mel Chin-Provocative Eco-Art in Action'' Academic journal article from Art Journal, Vol. 65, No. 1. *''Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between'' Art and Electronic Media. Phaidon Press. 2008.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*MORPHONANO: Beall Center for Art and Technology, Irvine, California (2012)*Spaceship Earth: Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Torun (2011) *Hox Zodiac: Microwave International New Media Arts Festival ALCHEMY, School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.(2011) *Quantum Tunneling: Median Kunst Labor (Media Art Laboratory), Graz, Austria.(2008) *Cell Ghosts: Apeejay Media Gallery, New Delhi.(2005) *Zero@wavefunction: Biennale for Electronic Arts, Perth. John Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. (2002)

Group exhibitions

* TechNoBody'','' Pelham Art Center, New York, NY (2015) * "Red Angel," Installation. Art & Science, Aperto '86,

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, Italy (1986)