Arts+Sciences will bring artists into the research process through an artist in residence program.

Art offers a pathway for CDCM to engage new audiences with the beauty, excitement, and impact of materials science and technologies. The artistic perspective not only communicates fundamental concepts in science to the public, it can also transform how scientists and engineers think about materials and stimulate new and creative approaches to CDCM research.

The artist residency enables artists to work with CDCM faculty to create contemporary art installations that demonstrate emerging science and technology, bringing fundamental concepts in science to the public in very tangible, engaging ways.

Our inaugural resident artist, Mr. Siebren Versteeg, created a dynamic video work incorporating themes related to materials, technology, and digital communication, now prominently on display at UT Austin. 

Our second, Ms. Virginia Lee Montgomery, will complete her residency in 2023.

Video Description:
Quantum Dots & Luna Moths: A Video Collage (Virginia L. Montgomery, 2024) is a surreal, experimental art-film created onsite at Korgel Labs, a material research division at the University of Texas at Austin, that explores the potential of quantum dots. This art-film depicts the new, pristine Korgel Labs populated by the artist and a native Texas luna moth who has emerged inside the lab. The presence of the luna moth inside the lab symbolizes hope and discovery. The film features repeating circle-shaped imagery, like spheres and circles, shared between the moth and the lab. Imagery of quantum dots, equipment holes, and luna moth eye-spots interplay as a surrealist dreamworld emerges through art and science. The film's lush soundscape of foley sounds, Texas nature recordings, and ambient humms from Korgel Lab flows cocoons the film in thoughtful ambience. Quantum Dots & Luna Moths: A Video Collage was created by the artist Virginia L. Montgomery with support from MRSEC's art residency program and Korgel Labs. 

Artist Bio

Virginia L. Montgomery (VLM) is a multimedia artist and naturalist working in video, sound, sculpture, and entomology. VLM received her MFA at Yale University and her BFA at The University of Texas at Austin. Her surrealist artworks conjure dreamscapes that unite elements from mysticism, science and her own lived experience as a neurodivergent individual. Her artistic efforts are characterized by material experimentation, somatic sensitivities, and her unusual studio practice of hand-raising the luna moths and butterflies seen in her videos. Her artwork symbolically explores the uncanny presence of the circle, an omnipresent form that appears in nature everywhere from quantum dots to the eye-spots on luna moth wings. VLM has had solo presentations of her artwork with The Tate Modern (United Kingdom), New Museum (NY), Times Square Arts (NY), Museum Folkwang (Germany), Wright Lab at Yale University (CT), Women & Their Work (TX), The Lawndale Art Center (TX), False Flag (NY), and Hesse Flatow (NY). She has exhibited in group exhibitions at institutions including SculptureCenter (NY), La Panacée-MoCo (France), The Hessel Museum (NY), The Banff Centre (Canada), Socrates Sculpture Park (NY), The Blanton Museum (TX), The Contemporary Austin (TX) and Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Denmark), among others.

Artist in Residence Siebren Versteeg presents his pitch to students and faculty.

In the Arts+Sciences collaborative depicted to the left, Daniel Bozhkov, with the help of fellow artists Marie Lorenz and Jeff Williams, built a loft and lived in the ‘unused’ top six feet of space in Dr. Brian Korgel’s office on the sixth floor of the Norman Hackerman Building, the location for Korgel Group Nanomaterials Lab, at UT.  For the duration of the project, the artist and the scientist conducted a number of 30-minute sessions at which the scientist explained one advanced nanotechnology concept per session.  The artist listened carefully, tried to understand to the best of his abilities, then rested, and responded at the level of his understanding, by interacting with different objects and spaces inside the building.  The project includes household items used during Daniel Bozhkov’s inhabitation, as well as drawings and a video of these interactions.