Artist Biographies

Pietro Bardini

Pietro is working with researchers Ben Gibbison, Eder Zavala, Jamie Walker, Gianni Angelini, Stafford Lightman and Daniel Galvis on the ‘Uncovering the links between stress hormones and inflammatory mediators during and after cardiac surgery’ project.

Pietro is a composer and multimedia artist working with sounds, installations and performances. He is an alumna of Barbican Young Visual Arts Group (2018) and Barbican Design Yourself (2019). Pietro is an award nominated composer (MCPS Production Awards ‘18) and he has worked with leading music production libraries such as FELT Music, String and Tins, Narrative Mind and Goldestein and shown work at Barbican Gallery, Guest Projects and MK Gallery. Pietro also hosts Breakfast On The Grass, a monthly radio show about Italian library music on Soho Radio.

In his practice Pietro explores the relationship between machines and the creative process, how computer generated sequences can aid and affect the compositional outcome. Pietro relies on algorithms to arrange sound sequences that are rich in textures and dynamic in form, he is interested in exploring how sound affects the awareness and understanding of space and favours multi-channel setups that allow for sounds to fully inhabit the space while gaining nearly sculptural qualities.

Pietro was drawn to the study as it delves into an interaction model that is dynamic and rhythmic, that oscillates and regulates itself. The nature of these regulatory mechanisms offers an ideal blue print for a computer-generated composition that is dynamic in shape while leaving room for a degree of irregularity and unpredictability.

Pietro’s website | Instagram: @pietrobardini

Mellissa Fisher

Mellissa is working with researchers Susan Mollan and Wessel Woldman on the ‘Predicting, with Optical Coherence Tomography, Papilloedema – the POP study group’ project.

My current artistic practice explores the brain and invisible illnesses, specifically in relation to a rare brain condition called Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension which I was diagnosed with in 2017 and is now well managed. My aim is to create a series of sensory artworks based on the symptoms of various brain conditions to engage audiences and raise awareness of new scientific developments and communicate their impact for health and wellbeing.

I completed an MA in Art and Science at Central St Martins in 2016 and I regularly work collaboratively with scientists to explore the wonders of nature and the human body, including multimedia projects involving using PillCam technology, sculpture (often using living materials), photography and timelapse film.

Significant past artworks have involved using casts of the face and body grown with the bacteria that live on it to visualise the skin microbiome. This led to major commissions including Eden Project’s permanent exhibition “Invisible You: The Human Microbiome in 2015, and a BBC4 commission to create a life-size full-body sculpture of TV presenter Michael Mosely for the documentary ‘Michael Mosely verses the Superbugs’ exploring the effects of antibiotic resistance, this was aired in May 2017 and has been broadcast internationally.

Melissa’s website | Instagram: @mellissafisherartist | Twitter: @MellEJFisher

Carol Breen

Carol is working with researchers Kyle Wedgwood & David Hodson on the ‘Beta cell heterogeneity: the benefits of a diverse workforce’ project.

I am an Irish artist based in the West Midlands fascinated by the impact digital technology is having on human agency and vision. Through practice I explore the idea of images as ecologies. I am currently undergoing a PhD Studentship at C-DaRE The Centre for Dance Research. I was drawn to the project Beta cell heterogeneity: the benefits of a diverse workforce because at the heart of this complex scientific research is a simple story, the importance of difference. Contrary to previous thought, beta cells are non-identical.

My current Doctoral Research Project is concerned with the simple idea that data have no necessary visual form. In my artistic practice I return to a specific set of data files to think about the potentiality contained within, highlighting the notion of ‘raw data’ as an oxymoron. To do this I work with an array of digital image-making digital tools. I look forward to responding to this research project. / Portrait photo credit: Taskin Capar.

Carol’s website | Insta: @carol_breen

Vicky Roden

Vicky is working with researchers David Smith, Zaki Hassan-Smith, Neil Gittoes and Meurig Gallagher on the ‘Precision Antithyroid Therapy’ project.

I’m incredibly excited to have been chosen as the artist working with the Research Incubator team examining Precision in Antithyroid Therapy. As a former Hyperthyroid patient I’m particularly looking forward to contributing to research that would have had a significant effect on my own condition, and gives me a real opportunity to give something back to the University and Hospital which eventually resolved my condition.

As a multi-disciplinary artist my practice encompasses a variety of media including textiles, embroidery, taxidermy and Live Art. Primarily focussing on the sinister and archaic much of my work explores death, ritual, and points where women have historically found personal power and agency.

I find the development of folklore and mythology to be a peculiarly satisfying aspect to explore, using local tales and odd snippets of information as the basis to create legendary objects and stories. The use of embroidery, both literally and figuratively, is central to my practice with embellishment being one of the most fundamentally human characteristics. Much of my work has a very definite historical element, mostly in relation to social history and everyday objects such as coins, photographs, books and ephemera.

Much of my work relates to the dualities of the human condition and where those dualities become apparent, mostly in relation to social history and everyday objects such as coins and photographs whose value has evaporated over the passage of time.

Vicky’s website | Cantess | Facebook | Instagram: @vicky.roden | Twitter: @VickyRoden

All images reproduced here with the permission of the artists