Craig Dietrich and Vanessa Vobis have been announced as 2008-2009 Still Water Research Fellows. Artist-researcher Craig Dietrich engineers interfaces for creative and scholarly examinations of transnational culture using tools as varied as streaming video, database-driven Flash interfaces, cell-phone texting, and Dashboard widgets.
Dietrich’s collaborations in the intersection between digital media and transnational culture include the tag-based publication system ThoughtMesh and the innovative Mukurtu Archive of Aboriginal media, recently featured on the BBC. In the coming year he will be working with fellow Still Water Research Fellow John Bell on the Forging the Future toolset for preserving works endangered by technological obsolescence.
German-born Vanessa Vobis is an installation and multimedia artist whose research focuses on the underside of biological and cultural systems. Her custom-built ecosystems such as Plot, Body Beasts, and The Crystal World suggest natural history dioramas that are both otherworldly and familiar, repellent and compelling. Recently exhibited in Sweden, Estonia, and the Netherlands, Vobis’ videos have won a Silver Eddy at the Cedar Rapids Film Festival.