Marie Sester
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Marie Sester is a French-American decades-long
artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
, and current PhD student studying the nature of consciousness. Her artwork involves cross-disciplinary practices and experimental systems in Interactive Art using tracking technologies, light, audio, video, and biofeedback, focusing on social awareness and the responsibility of personal commitments. Her PhD work is i
Integral and Transpersonal Psychology
focusing on connectedness, expansiveness, and presence.


Biography

Born in France, Marie Sester studied to be an architect, earning a master's degree (Architect DPLG, M Arch) from the Ecole d'Architecture in
Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
, France in 1980. She soon shifted from the practice of architecture to the practice of representational arts. While receiving recognition for her paintings and drawings, she moved to Paris and started traveling through Europe and Africa. After receiving a residency in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
in 1993, her work shifted toward an exploration of public space, creating installations and experimental interactive works. After several long-term residencies including in New York, Los Angeles, Portland (OR), and
Gifu is a city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. During the Sengoku ...
(Japan), she relocated from Paris to the U.S., living between New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.


Work

On the theoretical level, after she graduated, Marie Sester's interests shifted from designing physical structures to the study of ideological frameworks, specifically how culture, politics and technology affect our spatial awareness, our emotions and beliefs. For several years, Marie Sester's work focused on notions of
identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...
and awareness - how we shun or invite attention, exert or lose control of our personal or public spaces, and how we navigate through contemporary society's ever more ubiquitous systems of
surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...
and monitoring on one hand, visibility and self-promotion on the other hand. Almost always placing the individual at its center, her work relied on literal interactions with its audiences, creating encounters where it is not clear if one has wandered into some sort of game -or stumbled upon something more sinister. Her work gradually shifted toward understanding the nature of consciousness. In 2014, she began an online artwork titled “Once Only,” which included an interview series with scientists and thinkers at the forefront of the science of consciousness. She attended the University of Arizona's Science of Consciousness Conferences in 2014 and 2016, and in 2018 was accepted in the Integral and Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) PhD program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is currently writing her dissertation.


Art Shows and Recognition

Marie Sester received grants from Creative Capital (2002), LEF Foundation (2004), New York State Council on the Arts (2004 and 2011). She was in residence at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences – IAMAS, Gifu, Japan (2001–02) and Eyebeam, NY (2003). Her work has earned recognition in the art and technology worlds, including an Honorary Mention in Interactive Art from Ars Electronica (2003), a Webby Award for
Net 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 ...
(2004) and a spot on the "50 Coolest Websites" list on Time Magazine Online (2004). Her works have been included in the Seoul and Singapore Biennales (2008), and installed at Glow Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2009), SFMOMA, San Francisco (2010–2011),
EMPAC The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) is a multi-venue arts center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, which opened on October 3, 2008. The building is named after Curtis Priem, co-founder ...
, Troy, New York (2010–2011), and Z33, Hasselt, Belgium (2011), to list a few.


Current Research

Her research examines the felt senses of expansion and connection. More specifically, the correlation between a heart-located attentional posture and an expansive felt sense of connection with others beings and other situations. What happens when the self dwells in the heart, and engages with the world from there?


References


External links


Marie Sester
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sester, Marie Living people Year of birth missing (living people)