a new international juried exhibition of new media by artists with disabilities

Stephanie Andrews

Shoreline, Washington

www.stephnet.org

"All composition is derived from something. In this case, we are meant to bring into focus the relationships between creativity and inspiration."

Stephanie Andrews is a multimodal artist who uses technology to explore the intricately interwoven realms of the real and the realized. An innovator in technology arts, she has expanded techniques in areas such as pneumatic systems, digital imaging, video, 3-D graphics, light installation, stereoscopic aesthetics, and computer-controlled kinetics.

"The theme of accretion is influenced by my experience of disability, in that my injuries and the imprint they have left in my body are a direct result of computer interaction," says Andrews, who has thoracic outlet syndrome, repetitive strain injury, and chronic pain.

The accretion series is a creative project that continues to accumulate, shaped by the interplay between physical movement, digital memory, human manipulation, and energetic manifestation. The series explores the growing pains in the co-evolution of human body and global digital environment. The extruded figures are modeled from digital recordings, a sequence of motion-captured choreographies describing a loose narrative. These nodules of sculptural cinema are gathered from a creative interpretation of the body's energetic journey relating with digital space: discovery, attraction, the conflict of integration, and finally, mutual absorption and expansion.

"There is a cycle of influence and mutual creation between ourselves and our environment, and because we live increasingly in a digital world, it's important we examine the structures created by theses interactions," Andrews says. An assistant professor at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington, Andrews holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She was previously a technical director for Pixar Studios on the films A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2.