Artist Biographies
Agi Haines
Agi Haines is an internationally exhibiting practitioner, researcher and lecturer whose research looks at the propensity for design to reevaluate the nature of the material of the body in the face of nascent biomedical and healthcare technologies. Her inspiration comes from the weird and wonderful things that exist inside us. Questioning how our morbid curiosity for the viscera of life might affect the future of design, not only for the environment but also for us as sentient sacks of flesh within it?
She specialises in creating physical works using a mixture of traditional sculptural techniques and novel technologies. She successfully defended her PhD from Plymouth University with CogNovo (Marie Curie ITN) and Transtechnology Research after graduating from a masters in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art. She has taught as Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at Rhode Island School of Design and Course leader of Object Mediated Interactions on Product Design at Royal College of Art as well as being Visiting Practitioner on the Material Futures course at Central Saint Martins. She exhibits and lectures on design futures and scientific imaginaries. Some significant exhibitions include Stedelijk Amsterdam, Art Science Museum Singapore, MOCA Shanghai, and MOD Australia.
Agi will be working with collaborators Dr Lisa Hill, Dr James Andrews, Dr Marie-Christine Jones and Dr Paul Roberts on ‘Improving ocular drug delivery using mathematical modelling of the eye’. More information on the project can be read online here.
Twitter: @agihaines
Instagram: @agihaines
Website: www.agihaines.com
Charlotte Dunn
In Charlotte’s practice she aims to question and transform traditions that form the way we analyse and comprehend our environment. She looks at manipulating scientific and natural history artefacts and locations, transforming their context through methods of presentation.
The power that tools of presentation have to alter the context of a subject inspires her to transform objects, so that they have the effect of deceiving the viewer, looking at individual perception and what knowledge we gather from informative presentation.
Drawing is an essential medium within her practice, often mixed with the use of light and the use of transparent surfaces. Methods of scientific illustration create a foundation for her to distort, commenting upon their purpose to educate an audience. The illustrative quality that underlies her work, takes references from formal methods used within scientific illustration, adopting highly accurate techniques of drawing. Meticulously intricate studies have always been her focus and she is constantly intrigued by microscopic studies, as well as the ‘patterns’ created by medical imagery and the meanings these can have to the patient.
Charlotte will be working with collaborators Dr Onaedo Ilozumba, Sopna Choudhury, Professor Iain Styles and Dr Alexander Zhigalov on ‘Using Artificial Intelligence Based Application to Support Leprosy Ulcer Care and Treatment by Community Health Workers’. More information on the project can be read online here.
Instagram: @charlartslive
Website: https://charlottedunn.co.uk/
Tom Ellis
Tom is a Midlands based artist who runs a creative company Curious Oddities. He’s a maker of fantastical creatures and magical artefacts. Inspired by fantasy, myths and storytelling, alongside a huge hoard of foraged and found materials, from Victoriana to Vegetation. From these he’s created a menagerie of wondrous beasts and objects to scare and delight, all with a unique story to tell.
Tom is passionate about collaborating with a wide range of individuals and groups, working with a variety of inspiring materials. Ultimately he aims to create really rewarding, ambitious and imaginative projects. This includes Workshops, Puppeteering, Prop Making, Creature Design and Practical Film Effects. Tom joins the research team (Sara Jabbari, Jessica Blair and Daniel Galvis) who are working on “Switching off Efflux: a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding and overcoming antimicrobial resistance”.
More information on the project can be found on our Seed Corn Projects page.