X Lisa Jevbratt
jevbratt@arts.ucsb.edu





I am an artist and professor in the department of art at University of California Santa Barbara. I have a traditional art education from my homeland Sweden, but the medium that clicked, the one that made me an artist, is computer programming. I hope to create systems that teaches us something, systems that uncover truths my mind cannot imagine. Using programming allowed me to make visualizations of huge data sets, revealing hidden patterns and information. My projects are often collaborative systems where the audience and I become citizen scientist, making discoveries together. I have made software visualizing the structure of the internet and the web, image processing programs exposing ghost activity, and an app that allow us to experience how other animals see color.

There are many threads that lead to my current interest in fiber arts. On a purely aesthetic level my data visualization work tends to resonate with textile techniques such as weaving and knitting. The aesthetic similarities are an indication of deeper process-related and historical connections between computers and weaving. On a personal level programming and textile techniques both appeal to my affinity for mathematical and process-oriented thinking. Another entry point was my interest in the perceptions of non-human animals and our relationships with them. Over the last decades I have been investigating human/animal relationships with my students in a class I call Interspecies Collaboration. This interest brought me to sheep and my fiber of choice – wool. (I have since become a sheep shearer and wool classer, and I take herding lessons with my mini aussie).

My projects muddle accepted epistemologies with alternative ways of knowing. I see the natural plant dye project I currently work on, "Interlopings ¬- Invasive Species / Endemic Breeds" as a data mapping of invasive species, investigating color and plants on chemical, cultural and spiritual levels. My projects often have a scientific component, which in this project gets juxtaposed with alchemy and witchcraft, as the plants involved have a rich history of magical and medicinal use.

My work has been exhibited internationally in venues such as The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), The New Museum (New York), The Swedish National Public Art Council, Centro Colombo Americano (Bogota, Colombia), Somerset House (London, UK), Miniart Textile - International Fibre Art Exhibition (Como, Italy) and in the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York). It is discussed in numerous books, for example "Internet Art" by Rachel Greene, "Digital Art" by Christiane Paul and “Art + Science Now” by Stephen Wilson. I have also published texts about issues related to my practice, for example “Inquiries in Infomics”, a chapter in the anthology "Network Art - Practices and Positions" ed. Tom Corby (Routledge) and “Interspecies Collaboration, Making Art Together with Nonhuman Animals” in Tierstudien [Animal Studies] Issue 1 (Neofelis Verlag, Berlin, Germany). My animal vision simulation app Zoomorph ¬was created with the support of a Creative Capital grant.

Lisa Jevbratt 2023