Heaton, Kelly
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Digital access to this material is pending artist's approval. Materials may be viewed onsite at the Goldsen Archive, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Kroch Library, Cornell University.
I am a multi-media artist who has worked with a mixture of electronics, sculpture, documentation and installation for the past six years. My educational background is diverse, including studies in traditional art, philosophy, veterinary medicine and ecology. In 1998 I started graduate studies at MIT to incorporate technology into my practice. During this time, I was fascinated with the apparent overlap between biology and electronics. My interest became a three-year exploration of children's toys containing embedded computers. I was curious to see whether the addition of a computer made the toys more "alive" than the inert teddy bears of my childhood. In this complete body of work, entitled Bibiota , I took a biologist's approach, dissecting and experimenting my subjects in an effort to understand their fundamental nature. The results include numerous artworks linked together by extensive process documentation. More information about Bibiota is contained in my work sample.